Traffic updates - RANT!

yeppydeppy

Is it just me or are traffic updates the biggest waste of air time there is? They are, more often than not, inaccurate or too late and of no use to anyone who's driving. Anywhere you drive in this country, especially mornings and evenings, the traffic is going to be busy or at a standstill. To top it off, they tend to be presented by people with that faux D4 accent who don't know their arse from their elbow once they've gone past the M50 or North of the Liffey.
Please, during the upcoming election, ask your local politician to promise a constitutional ban on these odious, vain attempts at information.

ThisRegard

AA Roadwatch - bad, Livedrive - Excellent. Don't even dare think about saying anything bad about it.

Cole

yeppydeppy wrote: »

They are, more often than not, inaccurate or too late and of no use to anyone who's driving.....they tend to be presented by people with that faux D4 accent who don't know their arse from their elbow once they've gone past the M50 or North of the Liffey.

I would agree with that. I find a lot of the AA Roadwatch reports either inaccurate or not up to date........and don't get me started on the presenter's accents and the regular clueless mispronunciation of places around the country.

However, as already mentioned, Live Drive on Dublin City FM is excellent. I tend to listen in the evening and for anyone trying to navigate around Dublin traffic, it's essential. It's up to date and you sense that John Neary actually knows the roads/routes that he's reporting on.

GSF

ThisRegard wrote: »

Livedrive - Excellent.

A bit sad reporting how long it takes you to drive the same road every day? No?
8 minutes, 9 minutes, 6.5 minutes, 540 seconds....

ThisRegard

You've obviously never listened to it nor have you had the joy of traversing Dublin City on a daily basis, it's like Russian roulette except instead of bullets the gun is loaded with crashes, road works and delays.

yeppydeppy

Thanks for the replys - I don't live in Dublin (at the moment) but will give live drive a go next time I'm up.

telecaster

AA Roadwatch should start their own trafficnews channel and get the hell out of my way on all other channels

fabbydabby

I live up in the sticks but I do drive a lot (and I used to live in the city) and I listen to the radio a lot and I have never found a traffic report useful.

AND i have often ruminated on their usefulness (or lack of) while they're on.

McDave

yeppydeppy wrote: »

Is it just me or are traffic updates the biggest waste of air time there is? They are, more often than not, inaccurate or too late and of no use to anyone who's driving. Anywhere you drive in this country, especially mornings and evenings, the traffic is going to be busy or at a standstill. To top it off, they tend to be presented by people with that faux D4 accent who don't know their arse from their elbow once they've gone past the M50 or North of the Liffey.

AA Roadwatch is a vanity project. It's basically so much intrusive free advertising for an organisation that should be providing information for the relevant people in another manner. I remember that if you tuned in to certain channels on German roads, the radio was interrupted with specific real-time announcements, not a pointless list of "blackspots" delivered after the event after each "drive time" news bulletin.

Tabnabs

Livedrive also have twitter updates which is great for a quick scan before you leave the house/office.

By far the best service on the airwaves. They were epic during the snow chaos.