Originally Posted by
golfmad
Perhaps localised reports might be useful. I was referring to - for example - Radio 5 in the UK where the reports cover the whole country. It seems like a very large waste of time for virtually all listeners.
Radio in the US is a totally local enterprise, so contemporaneous traffic reports are actually useful. In nations with national radio service, I agree that traffic reports are a useless vestige of the past. They can't really cover all the traffic issues in the country, and while knowing about a 6 km tailback entering Leeds may be interesting, it's useless ( and maybe just irritating) if I'm stuck in a construction jam near Coventry that's never been mentioned.