Traffic news on the wireless....why?

[Sam Vimes]

Something I've wondered about for a long while and as I sit here waiting to leave our present site I thought I'd ask.

At home when inside and when in the caravan we have the wireless on ClassicFM. Every so often they report the traffic news and I've wondered how many people actually get any value from this. In all my years of driving and listening to the radio never has it reported anything useful to me. Just once it reported a jam on the M25 which I was actually sitting in so not much news there.

A few times when I've been stuck for a long while... nothing.

So why bother with a nationwide report when most people will be no where near the problem or even tuned in.

Ah...the sun has come out. The coffee is on and soon we'll be on the road again....barring hold ups😉

 

[otherclive]

I parallel your thoughts. If I need up to date traffic News I use dedicated sites.

 

[SeaDog]

I completely agree with you. Also when the reporting the traffic news they speak so quickly that you can’t always understand.

 

[Woodentop]

RDS/EON/TP is a wonderous thing on FM, and most such radios still monitor TP even if you are on DAB at the time. This, of course, always assumes the radio receives TP!
We have had six VAG vehicles (4x VW, 1x Seat, and 1x Skoda.) All of them got TP rock solid. We are in Harrogate and all of them would receive Tees, Humberside, York, Leeds, and Sheffield if on a BBC station.
We now have a Karoq with an 'Infotainment' system and its rubbish. If we drive to Bath to see our daughter and family via A1(M), M1, M69, A46, A429 and A4 we will usually get Greatest Hits N Yorks around here, then nothing until BBC Wilts, then BBC Bristol, On the return journey we once got C&W as well. The station info is supplied by an outside outfit who have screen icons for such as Grestest Hits which took over our local Stray FM about four years or so ago and it has icons for both, but not for Classic FM which has been in business since the early 90's. The icon file on the Skoda has about 670 icons and is dated 2022, but that on the VW's had something like 739 and was dated 2018.

I give up.

 

[Tobes]

It's an interesting thing how perspectives change. Some years ago (it must have been 10 or 15 or more) there was talk of turning off FM service in favour of DAB. There was an uproar as many older vehicles would be left with no usable radio. At the time I was worried because the RDS TMC (Radio data system, Traffic message channel) that sends the traffic info to the navigation unit was all sent over FM, and both my cars had navigation with "live" TMC traffic data.

Wind the clock forward to today. My car still has a radio (FM and DAB) and can still get the traffic (TP) alerts, and break into the playing audio (which is usually Spotify streaming direct to the app built into the car). But traffic info? The car runs Android Automotive natively. The navigation is Google maps natively (though I can also run Waze, or ABRP as a native apps, or Apple Maps via car play). The traffic info is in real time from all the sources that provided info to TMC, plus real time traffic speeds, plus other road users observations, and its all fed direct to the routing algorithm which processes it in real time and provides constant updated guidance.

We are a world away from the local traffic update being a part of realtime driving...

 

[JTQ]

I have found it useful.
We live in a country lane abutting another that the super savvy can use as a get round [rat run] when there is a delay or block on the local arterial roads. These lanes soon themselves get saturated in traffic, the more so those with limited passing places.

Being aware of a snarl up before even attempting to venture out, or trying to get back has been decidedly valuable.

I have an aversion to getting locked solid in traffic when I could have avoided it.
I suspect if I had patched in using the sat nav for a journey I would have got a warning, but nearly all local travelling I don't use the sat nav as I know these routes, probably way better than it does.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Surely you remember "Sally Traffic" in between Janet and John on Radio 2? Her traffic reports were massive 10 or fifteen significant incidents to be reported every report., Now we just get one or two..

Times have changes as have the methods by which we get reports of delays of incidents. I do agree national broadcasters probably shouldn't attempt to justify travel reports these days.

 

[Mr Plodd]

Just because traffic news isn't relevant to you doesn't mean it's not relevant for many other people. The issue is that with a notional, rather than regional, station they have to cover the whole country so much of tge information is not relevant to most of the listeners.
If you dont like/want it, then turn the function off!

 

[Buckman]

We have found it helpful on many occasions and combined with the TomTom saves you a lot of stress. However it is annoying when a road closure for road works i.e. between two towns is not mentioned This morning twice we had to use diversion as road was closed adding an additional 12 miles onto our journey. The diversion was back roads.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Just because traffic news isn't relevant to you doesn't mean it's not relevant for many other people. The issue is that with a notional, rather than regional, station they have to cover the whole country so much of tge information is not relevant to most of the listeners.
If you dont like/want it, then turn the function off!

My question in a roundabout way was asking how many people is it really relevant to and as you go onto say because it's national probably not a lot.

If you can tell me how I turn the function of them I'd be grateful.

 

[Buckman]

My question in a roundabout way was asking how many people is it really relevant to and as you go onto say because it's national probably not a lot.

If you can tell me how I turn the function of them I'd be grateful.

Use the on off switch?

 

[Tobes]

My question in a roundabout way was asking how many people is it really relevant to and as you go onto say because it's national probably not a lot.

If you can tell me how I turn the function of them I'd be grateful.

It's only possible to turn off the announcements that interrupt your current program. It's a function on the radio called "TA" (traffic announcements). There will be a button or setting somewhere to disable this. Of course, you cant turn off the announcements that are embedded in the program you are listening to (as in Radio 2 or Classic FM traffic updates)
.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Use the on off switch?

And that will stop the news presenters reading out the traffic reports but still allow the music😉

 

[Sam Vimes]

Not surprising that a lot a people thought about Traffic Alerts through the car radio when all I mentioned was when I sit at home or in the caravan.

 

[Tobes]

Not surprising that a lot a people thought about Traffic Alerts through the car radio when all I mentioned was when I sit at home or in the caravan.

Certainly I had you pictured in your caravan. If it's anything like ours it uses a car head unit as the radio, and has the traffic announcement capability embedded...

 

[Mr Plodd]

Sam.
The very first line of your original post says........

"Something I've wondered about for a long while and as I sit here waiting to leave our present site I thought I'd ask"

So I think it was a reasonable assumption by most people, including me, that ypu were referring to traffic information whilst on the road.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I do have a car radio in the caravan but don't really use it. I prefer our portable FM/DAB+ radio.

At home it's a dedicated internet radio.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Sam.
The very first line of your original post says........

"Something I've wondered about for a long while and as I sit here waiting to leave our present site I thought I'd ask"

So I think it was a reasonable assumption by most people, including me, that ypu were referring to traffic information whilst on the road.

And the second paragraph states clearly at home inside and in the caravan.

 

[GUMPY]

That's the problem, you listen to Classic FM 🫣
If we do require traffic we always use local radio stations, far more accurate.
However Google maps provides us with up to date traffic news and I always check just before I leave on a journey.