VERY interesting article on Traffic Reporting's Slow Demise

[The Interpreter]

So much to read here, it deserves a full reading:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34174478/ns ... _business/

[cgarison]

With PennDOT installing about 100 new displays along highways in southeastern PA, I don't need any traffic reports any more. I can get a warning of an accident as many as 10 miles away and then jump off an exit and pick up an alternate route. And usually about I see the alert from PennDOT way before the traffic talker even adds the information to the report for the next half hour.

KYW and the CBS family of stations are the only ones that I know that report up to date traffic info at regular intervals that can be trusted. The rest of the traffic reports are like the virtual reports in the article and they are really bad. I get more timely info texted to my cell phone from Yahoo than from the traffic reports on the CHR or Hot AC stations in the region.

[AmpedNow]

Anyone in the DC area remember "Andy Parks, WMAL AM 63 Airwatch 1" with the faint sound of helicopter blades in the background?

I remember sitting in a jam on the beltway while watching him fly over and reporting it on the radio.

I was a kid, but I still remember that.

In the mid-90's, Metro Traffic began putting up traffic cameras along the freeways and known trouble spots. Traffic reporting seemed more up to date and accurate, as it took several minutes for Andy to loop around the Beltway from the air. Traffic can change in a moment, and it doesn't take much to slow it down.

Now, there's GPS and sites like Trafficland where I can go and view multiple traffic cams in real time --for Northern VA or many other cities.

I don't think human traffic reporting is going away anytime soon, but it's definitely becoming less relevant.