Radio station traffic updates

[Frankie23]

My car radio's traffic update service is enabled and automatically switches to the radio station providing traffic updates when broadcast (I'm in Gauteng and my station is 947), but since about a month ago I'm no longer automatically tuned to these updates.

I'm trying to figure out if the issue lies with my car radio, or if there's a problem with 947's traffic updates.

Has anyone else experienced something similar lately?

 

[PhireSide]

Take a look through your manual for the TA service. It could be that it is disabled or not activated.

Which car do you drive and is it the OEM radio? Hopefully someone else from up there can chime in and report back if the station still broadcasts the TA signal

 

[zizo911]

My car radio's traffic update service is enabled and automatically switches to the radio station providing traffic updates when broadcast (I'm in Gauteng and my station is 947), but since about a month ago I'm no longer automatically tuned to these updates.

I'm trying to figure out if the issue lies with my car radio, or if there's a problem with 947's traffic updates.

Has anyone else experienced something similar lately?

What!!! Please tell me more about this traffic thing.

 

[dunkyd]

Does it not have a TA button you might of pressed by mistake ?

 

[AchmatK]

I haven't seen any radio station in Cape Town using TA. Most can't even get RDS right to display station name and track info. KFM is one of the few that gets it. Not sure why they don't use it as it's been around for a while.

 

[Frankie23]

Take a look through your manual for the TA service. It could be that it is disabled or not activated.

Which car do you drive and is it the OEM radio? Hopefully someone else from up there can chime in and report back if the station still broadcasts the TA signal

The TA service is enabled. I drive a Renault Megane (dont judge me please ) and it has the OEM radio fitted.

Weird thing is that it worked perfectly before the December holidays, and come beginning Jan when I needed the TA service driving to work and back, it simply doesn't switch to the traffic updates like it used to.

For laughs I turned off the TA service for a day or two and turned it back on again to see the effect but no go.

 

[Frankie23]

What!!! Please tell me more about this traffic thing.

If your car radio has the TA function enabled, it will switch to whichever radio station in your area broadcast traffic updates, regardless if you're listening to another station at the time, a cd, Bluetooth streaming off your phone or whatever other source you have playing at the time.

 

[j4ck455]

My car radio's traffic update service is enabled and automatically switches to the radio station providing traffic updates when broadcast (I'm in Gauteng and my station is 947), but since about a month ago I'm no longer automatically tuned to these updates.

I'm trying to figure out if the issue lies with my car radio, or if there's a problem with 947's traffic updates.

Has anyone else experienced something similar lately?

I stopped using TA on my car's radio due to several radio stations abusing TA.

I don't know what 94.7 is like these days for traffic reports: I frequently got pissed off with 94.7 due to a traffic report about a traffic jam on the highway only being reported (or more usually not reported at all) after I was already stuck in the traffic jam, I switched years ago to 94.2 for this reason although 94.2's traffic reports aren't much better (sometimes vague / ambiguous or completely inaccurate).

 

[Foxhound5366]

Sheesh guys, it's the year 2017, what are y'all doing relying on a radio station for traffic updates? Buy a GPS with built-in traffic services and you'll never get stuck again (I've lost count of the number of jams my TomTom GO 5000 has steered me around in three years).

 

[Frankie23]

My car's satnav has Tomtom LIVE enabled but sometimes I enjoy having both options available in case the guys at TT haven't updated the traffic conditions immediately as something comes up. Not a proven fact, just me covering all bases

 

[Foxhound5366]

My car's satnav has Tomtom LIVE enabled but sometimes I enjoy having both options available in case the guys at TT haven't updated the traffic conditions immediately as something comes up. Not a proven fact, just me covering all bases

The TT Live system is updated automatically: as soon as some people with connected devices get stuck in a jam, the TT system will include this in the next update (which is pushed out every couple minutes) and everybody else will get routed around the incident. The system works well assuming you aren't the first person behind a big accident, and nothing could save you then.

 

[maumau]

I stopped using TA on my car's radio due to several radio stations abusing TA.

I don't know what 94.7 is like these days for traffic reports: I frequently got pissed off with 94.7 due to a traffic report about a traffic jam on the highway only being reported (or more usually not reported at all) after I was already stuck in the traffic jam, I switched years ago to 94.2 for this reason although 94.2's traffic reports aren't much better (sometimes vague / ambiguous or completely inaccurate).

94.7 is more than useless. N1 highway was closed off for an hour last saturday, instead of telling listeners to avoid the highway and use alternate routes they were reporting "heavy traffic".

 

[j4ck455]

94.7 is more than useless. N1 highway was closed off for an hour last saturday, instead of telling listeners to avoid the highway and use alternate routes they were reporting "heavy traffic".

That's the way I remember 94.7's traffic reports.

Sheesh guys, it's the year 2017, what are y'all doing relying on a radio station for traffic updates? Buy a GPS with built-in traffic services and you'll never get stuck again (I've lost count of the number of jams my TomTom GO 5000 has steered me around in three years).

I spent good money on a TomTom with "LIVE" traffic updates back in 2011 (it supposedly transmitted the users' traffic conditions over a cellular network, probably GPRS), that thing was useless for traffic reports before about 07:30, I was forced to conclude that the "LIVE" system was waiting for some poor schmuck to catch a wake up and click on some obscure "automated" button before it would send through updates.

Why do you use a TomTom Go 5000 when you already pay your etrolling fees to SCAMRAL for "world class roads" equipped with a handful of "i-traffic" boards that hardly ever have any useful info about traffic jams?

 

[Foxhound5366]

Jfck455, you could just Google how the system works you know. It is fully automated. It'd have to be: the system is receiving hundreds of millions of probes globally, do you really think somebody is looking at a screen?

Best guess is that if you were struggling with it in the early morning it might have been due to a lack of reliable probes on the road at that time. Or it just might be that the system was working and you're impatient lol.

For what it's worth, I heard that TomTom has greatly increased its number of connected probes in South Africa in recent years, so your experience should be a lot better now.

As for your point about SANRAL, those boards can help with general advice, but a live traffic system connected with your actual route will give you personalised advice.

 

[Inviter]

In natal lotus fm seems to be abusing the system as it only picks up lotus fm.. And NOT the traffic updates.

 

[Hemi300c]

Waze

 

[j4ck455]

Jfck455, you could just Google how the system works you know. It is fully automated. It'd have to be: the system is receiving hundreds of millions of probes globally, do you really think somebody is looking at a screen?

Best guess is that if you were struggling with it in the early morning it might have been due to a lack of reliable probes on the road at that time. Or it just might be that the system was working and you're impatient lol.

For what it's worth, I heard that TomTom has greatly increased its number of connected probes in South Africa in recent years, so your experience should be a lot better now.

There were many other things that pissed me off about that retarded TomTom thing, I expected a lot better for a device that was quite pricey at the time.

One of the most irritating things was "popup confirm this and that and the other thing" boxes, it was as if the person that coded the GUI had worked for Microsoft or an XXX site and popups is all that the person knew how to do.

After about three months it started rebooting itself for no apparent reason (for example in the middle of navigating), this problem was not solved by any of the updates.

I also got pissed off with TomTom's idea that people should pay for updates after the first year.

I managed to sell the thing for a fraction of what I originally paid and I still pity the guy that bought it.

As for your point about SANRAL, those boards can help with general advice, but a live traffic system connected with your actual route will give you personalised advice.

There's not a lot of general advice on those i-traffic boards, and it doesn't help when they put an alert on a board that is only relevant to traffic travelling in the opposite direction (spectator factor aside).

Waze

I occasionally use Waze in the afternoons.

 

[Frankie23]

The TomTom satnav in my car does a pretty decent job on updating traffic info on my route, I'm just annoyed that I have to fork out €60 for the LIVE subscription every 12 months.

 

[Ockie]

Sheesh guys, it's the year 2017, what are y'all doing relying on a radio station for traffic updates? Buy a GPS with built-in traffic services and you'll never get stuck again (I've lost count of the number of jams my TomTom GO 5000 has steered me around in three years).

Or just use Waze?

 

[Foxhound5366]

The TomTom satnav in my car does a pretty decent job on updating traffic info on my route, I'm just annoyed that I have to fork out €60 for the LIVE subscription every 12 months.

Yeah, it's weird how the car OEMs haven't started updating their licensing. TomTom standalone satnav have come with lifetime free traffic and map updates for years.

My recommendation would be to just buy a standalone GPS, rather than renewing the old in-car license. You get to benefit from a bigger screen and faster technology.

The 2017 TomToms that will be coming onto the market have a much faster processor in them, and additional functionality (like WhatsApp and SMS message reading integration).