Why do commuters ring radio stations with traffic reports?

Factual Questions
1

On my drive to work I notice that several radio stations rely on their listeners for traffic information as part of their traffic bulletins - as in, “Thanks to Phil who’s stuck on the M25 clockwise before Junction 3”.

Why would someone ring a radio station to share this news? It’s possible I have an unnecessarily dim view of my fellow man, but I can’t imagine the circumstances under which I would ring a radio station to advise other people to avoid a traffic jam I have found myself stuck in. The only incentive I can think of is that you get to hear your name on the radio. Is it as simple as this?

In fact I have often wondered how eay it would be for someone to “scam” a station by ringing in bogus traffic reports along their commute in order to clear their own way.

2

IMHO it would be that they feel they are doing a service for their fellow commuters in the expectation that someone later would provide infomation that would benefit them.

Could you scam a fast trip? You’d have to phone every station and a lot of people still need to go that way anyway, so they likely won’t have much chance to vary their route.

3

Possibility confirmed :wink: . I don’t drive, but if I get to the tube after work and find it’s knackered then I ring work to tell anyone leaving after me to head to a different station - ditto the trains at Paddington, but I think I’m the only person dumb enough to use those…

4

This is pretty common in cities with horrible traffic. In D.C., for example, we have a ring road (“The Beltway”) that ties together all of the radial roads leading in and out of the city. There are always predictable backups at certain exits, but occasionally a tractor-trailer will flip over and explode, or some other horrendous accident will close every lane in the (e.g.) clockwise direction creating worse-than-expected delays.

Someone in the office is sure to be listening to the radio or checking traffic reports before they head out; when they hear the bad news they’ll e-mail everyone in the office. Occasionally the supervisors will authorize an early day off to “beat the rush,” because leaving as soon as you hear about it can mean the difference between a one-hour commute home and three-hour commute home.

5

Radio 2 in the UK has a regular cast of callers who ring in with traffic updates. If I remember rightly from what their traffic reporter has said in the past, a large proportion of the regular callers are long distance lorry drivers who are indeed treating other drivers as they would want to be treated.

6

I have called my local radio station on several occasions to report traffic jams.

Why do I do it? Because I know that I would appreciate it if someone else did it for me. That’s why I listen to the traffic reports, so that if I know there is trouble ahead I can choose a different route.

The people at the station, and even in the airplane can’t be everywhere at once, and if I can help them (and my fellow commuters) out, so much the better.

7

I haven’t, yet, but I have recently programmed the numbers of two radio stations into my cellphone. Why? The smaller station does a good job covering where I drive, but has no traffic copters or anything, so depends on police reports and listeners. The bigger station ignores where I drive, and I’d call them just to get airtime for my problems.

When I was about 9, I listened to WMCA in New York. In those days before traffic services, their traffic reports came from Bob from Brooklyn Vacuum, who I suppose cruised around making calls and calling the station on his carphone - quite high tech in 1960. So listeners calling in is nothing new.