This one really gets me: commuting by car is such an inefficient way of getting around that every major radio station feels obliged to constantly update their listeners about how gridlocked the roads are.
Not one mention is given to alternative transport options that might actually help reduce traffic. They just treat it like a weather forecast. Nothing can be done to prevent it. It’s worth saying that radio is still really popular where I live, so it’s a daily reminder for me of how deeply fucking carbrained my culture has become.
There’s an old top gear segment where they host a local radio show, and Clarkson tries to direct the traffic around to reduce it. It doesn’t work, obviously, but if the message was “get on the train”, it might.
Google maps is now popular enough that it’s affecting traffic patterns. At the moment it does a lot of directing cars down quiet streets where they shouldn’t be, making the problem worse. If it was corrupted for good that could improve things.