I will point out immediately that I am a Radio Two fan (it's my age) So the following criticisms are not aimed directly at the lovely Sally Traffic, it is not a slight directed solely at Radio Two or indeed Sally, it's just that theirs are the traffic reports I hear. Almost without exception every radio station and many TV stations are guilty of the same.
They all imply that the traffic problems are my fault. How do I conclude this?
Well, they usually say "If you're travelling on the M1 there's an incident at junction 4 closing two lanes ...." that sort of thing. They imply therefore, that if I am not travelling on the M1 the closure will not occur. Which makes me feel guilty if I am, because quite simply, if I had driven a different route the incident would not have happened. I don't see how it can be attributed to me though if I am at junction 38. I am an advanced driver, I drive reasonably carefully and with due consideration for others. If they crash at junction 4 it is nothing to do with me - I'm not even in the same county.
Another annoyment is the way the refer to Police Incidents. I appreciate that sometimes they might not know exactly what is going on, and the police might not want to say it's a crash because they haven't told the next of kin, or it's a bomb because people panic, or that they've had to shoot a terrorist because well, that;s not the way we British do things. So, I'm quite happy for it to be a mysterious "incident" I just don't see why it belongs to the police. The police didn't create it, they are just dealing with it. In the majority of cases it's a motorists incident - they cause it, let them take ownership.
It's the careless throwaway use of words that annoys. Let's encourage more thought before adding unnecessary and misleading words into our conversations.
Friday, 23 April 2010
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