I have long thought that radio traffic reports were a good way to find out why the jam you are in occurred. And now proof.
M1 southbound 12:16 today about 5 miles from M25 junction. Two car smack outside lane opposite carriageway. Cars in outside land and people milling about in the central reservation. Two inside lanes and hard shoulder looks clear. Had a recently happened look about it. No police on site but a tailback to the M25 junction of stationary traffic had built up so say 30 minutes old?
12:21 Three Counties Radio traffic report. M1 clear. Two further traffic reports before parking up and switching off engine at 12:50. M1 clear...
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A-ha, Three Counties... I have long held the suspicion their announcer checks the traffic on teletext when they arrive at the office at 7am, and repeats that same information at 15-minute intervals throughout the day. More than once they have either spent hours warning drivers off a long-since cleared queue, or reported a clear road when it was anything but.
It's also quite clear that the girl reading the reports out doesn't drive, or know anything whatsoever of the area she's describing, judging by the obvious errors peppering their traffic bulletins.
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I passed this one too, luckily southbound wasn't too backed up. Trafficmaster didn't know about it either.
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I have long thought that radio traffic reports were a good way to find out why the jam you are in occurred. And now proof. M1 southbound 12:16 today about 5 miles from M25 junction. Two car smack outside lane opposite carriageway. Cars in outside land and people milling about in the central reservation. Two inside lanes and hard shoulder looks clear. Had a recently happened look about it. No police on site but a tailback to the M25 junction of stationary traffic had built up so say 30 minutes old? 12:21 Three Counties Radio traffic report. M1 clear. Two further traffic reports before parking up and switching off engine at 12:50. M1 clear...
Do they have a facility where you can phone in and inform them of a recently ocurred accident?
Sorry to climb back onto a slightly worn hobby horse of mine but, LBC 97.3 FM and 1152 AM have regular updates, quite accurate - but not infallible, of course and they invite you to phone in with reports. only thing I can't stand is that the girl (normally a girl) often reads the report with exaggerated spacing between words.
LBC (I am not an employee or shareholder) operates inside the M25 - roughly speaking.
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Radio traffic 'reports' - the ones that tell you around rush hour that rush hour traffic is busy, that there are the usual queues near Heathrow, that it's nose to tail on the Aston Expressway etc - are of course nothing of the sort on local commercial radio. Someone earlir in the thread suggested it might be parroting information on teletext. Not so far from the truth in many cases. It's just the same when they take you over to the Fab FM 'newscentre' - one bloke on the other side of the region reading what's running on the Press Association feed and using some 'lame' funny from a commercially-driven survey to wrap up. Dismal.
BBC local radio can be a bit bitter (although they are often prone to stating the obvious at rush hour) because they often take their elad from traffic cameras.
Best seems to be Radio 2 and Five Live, largely because they are the most listened to stations on the move and can't afford to get it wrong.
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I'd agree with Morris Ox, on the Motorways and trunk roads Five Live sets the standard.
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