Traffic
Posted in News/Info, Rants/Raves on 04/19/2006 06:55 am by enjanerdYou can tell I’m a little back-logged on my entries because this is like 3-week old news now. But anyway, I usually listen to WAMU every morning. Their traffic report used to be done by NBC4’s Jerry Edwards. As of March, they partnered with Traffic.com. This is when their traffic reports started to suck.
The reports were very mechanical, as though the reporter had no idea where things were around here or what they were actually called. There were back-ups starting from “Lee Jackson Memorial Highway.” You mean 50? “The George Washington Parkway” and “The Little River Turnpike.”
The worst was last Monday, when I looked out my window before leaving to see that the main highway we overlook was completely clear. It had less traffic than a typical Saturday afternoon, which was bizarre. But Ian and I got into the car to find out that the same road I just looked at had bumper to bumper traffic starting from just before our exit. Ok, if you say so… And yet, as we drove on a side road parallel to the highway, it remained completely clear. So, we got on it, heard a second traffic report about our bumper to bumper traffic, and got to work in 15 minutes.
It’s one thing if they want to re-play the same traffic report everyday, “Backups on 66 East starting from Manassas; Inner-loop delays from Pennsylvania Ave to the Woodrow Willson Bridge; Outer-loop, slow from BW Pkwy to I-270 Spur.” I’m ok with that. But to just start saying something new that isn’t even true? That’s just wrong. I don’t know where this Art Andrews fellow came from, but his traffic reports were sub-par.
Ayway, like I said, this is old news now. They have since replaced that guy with someone new and I haven’t even learned her name yet. So far, her traffic reports have been reliable around my commute. I will give her a chance.