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Traffic Reports in Southern CT?

B

BRNout

I have a question (following the story) for the CT folks here:

At about 2 pm, on the Friday before Memorial Day, I found myself decelerating from 70 mph to zero on the Merritt Parkway near m.p. 8 in Stamford. After 90 minutes of stop-and-go traffic, we finally broke free in Stratford - about 27 miles up the road. The same sort of thing has happened to me on I-84 between Danbury and Waterbury and on I-95 between New Haven and the NY border.

How does this relate to radio, you may ask. Because I scan the radio every time I have been jammed up in southern CT and cannot find ANY, not ONE traffic report that covers SW Connecticut. The New York stations do a great job in and around the NY Metro area and sometimes discuss I-95 up to about Bridgeport. Rarely is the Merritt mentioned (usually in 880) and I-84 never is. The Hartford stations do pretty well with rush-hour (only) traffic reports that go only as far as Waterbury and Meriden - maybe downtown New Haven too.

The point is, there are only 3 main routes between most of New England and the rest of the USA (forgetting I-90) and they all run through Connecticut. All are too narrow and all get jammed up for mile after mile. After navigating successfully through New Jersey and New York, aided by excellent traffic reports, it is a bummer to spend hours stuck in places like Norwalk, New Canaan and Newtown - with nothing said about it on the radio. Not on WTIC, WDRC, WCBS, WINS, the TIS stations (useless), or any other major station.

So....my question is: Where do you turn to get a traffic report in these areas? Secondly, why are such reports so few and far between? I was stuck on I-84 between the NY Border and Cheshire for 2 hours last month - on an average Thursday afternoon! Couldn't find out anything about it. What gives?

Based on my travels, it would seem to be a necessity along all 3 routes. For example, if you live in Danbury, how do you find out about I-84? I'm asking because I have never seen a place with worse traffic issues that are seemingly ignored. Even having XM in the rental car doesn't seem to help.
 
Star 99.9 WEZN Bridgeport
107.9 WEBE Westport

Both of these stations have Fairfield County traffic pretty well sewn up as far as I can tell. They used to do traffic every 10-minutes in the morning and evening.

Does WICC do traffic too?
 
96.7 the swamp (coast) has traffic reports I think.
880 does do I-84 if people call it in. I can attest to that.
&*%#! yankees games really piss me off tho when I get stuck in traffic in CT or if I am through the northern NYC metro area
Is there any news station that does what 880 does for CT?

kms575 said:
Star 99.9 WEZN Bridgeport
107.9 WEBE Westport

Both of these stations have Fairfield County traffic pretty well sewn up as far as I can tell. They used to do traffic every 10-minutes in the morning and evening.

Does WICC do traffic too?
Click to expand...
 
RogerAnthony said:
95.1 WRKI always updates the Danbury area. On WCCC in the mornings I hear if there's a major tie-up in the Bridgeport area.
Click to expand...

WCCC (106.9 FM) or WICC (600 AM)? Are there any WCCC listeners up at that time of morning? :) *just kidding*
 
WCCC 106.9 barely reaches the Bridgeport-Stamford area... WICC 600 is usually good with traffic and weather during the drive times. WEBE 107.9 and Star 99.9 seem to cover southwestern Connecticut traffic pretty well.

X
 
the farthest audible (in normal weather conditions) I have gotten CCC is the I-95 and and route 7 interchange. from there 106.7 and 107.1 kill it after that...
Imagine if neither of those side stations existed maybe I could get them in greenwich again like I did in the ny blackout :p ???

ThExMaNCT said:
WCCC 106.9 barely reaches the Bridgeport-Stamford area... WICC 600 is usually good with traffic and weather during the drive times. WEBE 107.9 and Star 99.9 seem to cover southwestern Connecticut traffic pretty well.

X
Click to expand...
 
Well, back to the topic at hand, your best bets would be:

WEZN 99.9 FM
WEBE 107.9 FM
WICC 600 AM

If it were really bad, you would hear about in on WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS out of New York.
 
kms575 said:
Well, back to the topic at hand, your best bets would be:

WEZN 99.9 FM
WEBE 107.9 FM
WICC 600 AM

If it were really bad, you would hear about in on WCBS 880 and 1010 WINS out of New York.
Click to expand...

Thanks guys! I guess I am spoiled by doing a lot of business in places where traffic reports are given every 10 minutes (like clockwork) on N/T stations, so I never gave a thought to WEBE or WEZN. And, I was under the impression that WICC featured bird feed - so its good to know that they may actually have a warm body in the studio giving reports. I will keep all in mind.

Unfortunately, my traffic trouble occurred at around 2:30 pm - a time when you may not get anything on the FM signals. Not sure how much of the (female-skewing) AC fare of WEZN and WEBE that I want to listen to, but may have to next time. I've had two pretty bad experiences in the past month. And each time, to add insult to injury, the ConnDOT message boards only flashed a "Click It or Ticket" message repeatedly. Not one iota of info about the 25 mile snarl! Useless.

One thing still seems clear to me, which is that Fairfield County still needs more real-time traffic info. Traffic there is often worse than I encounter in New Jersey and/or the NY burbs.
 
Where do you turn to get a traffic report in these areas? Secondly, why are such reports so few and far between?
Click to expand...

800 WLAD (pray to god they aren't automated and bird-fed at the time you are seeking information... and 95.1 WRKI (during commute hours only).

Both are hit and miss. To the O.P., You have a good point here.

I usually just hit the local amateur radio repeater and ask. Usually, someone will have an answer. Either way, knowing what is going on doesn't get you where you are going any faster, but it does satisfy our curiousity :)

-A
 
FWIW: The state operates TIS stations on both ends of the AM dial (530 and 1610) and they are somewhat helpful since they generate their updates from what they see on their cameras. While this may be of benefit to I95 commuters it does no use on the Merrit/Wilbur Cross and I have no idea if they run this on any of the more inland routes like I84
 
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