Traffic News

I propose that Traffic reports on the radio are renamed Minority reports. Does anyone know who benefits from them? Each morning on the way to work I’m driven crazy; not by the traffic, but by the hushed anxious tones every five minutes telling me how things ‘are moving out there’. This is not news to me as I’m in the car, either moving or not moving. Depending on the time I leave the house, I can anticipate with uncanny accuracy which of these actions I’ll be doing, without a radio presenter telling me. I’ve commuted in Dublin for 6 years now and never recall anyone at work sighing in relief that they caught the traffic news before they left the house as it saved them from a big delay. In Dublin it’s the same streets with the same problems every single day. And can you do anything about it? Can you take a bus or change the way you drive to work or school? The answer is invariably “No, are you having a laugh?” Our public transport system is a mess. There is no underground. The buses run in packs, as they must leave the sparse bus lanes to get clogged down in the same traffic as the rest of us. (Added to which the drivers don’t seem to follow a timetable other than that based on their smoking breaks, but that’s another day’s rant.) The light rail network is great, running frequently and swiftly, however by rush hour they are packed so tightly they resemble 3rd class carriages on a rickety Indian train, rather than state of the art commuter travel in a European capital city. However it’s safe to say that most people are resigned to driving the same route into the city no matter where they start from, because that’s how our poor road system is designed and therefore why there is constant gridlock each day. The rest of the people don’t ever need to use these roads and can avoid them altogether. So to whom exactly is the traffic report of use to? The tiny number of people who may live near their work in a congested area and can chose to walk or drive, depending on the traffic.
As I said, a minority report.