Audience & Community Updated Aug 02, 2026 2 min read

Live Traffic

Live Traffic puts a travel bulletin on your home page. A listener taps a button and sees the current hold-ups, closures and delays on the roads around your station — nearest first — exactly the kind of thing you'd read out on air.

It's included in your plan at no extra cost, and it's off until you switch it on.

What your listeners see

A Check live traffic button sits on your home page. Nothing loads until someone presses it, so it never slows your site down.

When they press it, they get a short list — up to eight items — showing:

Where the problem is, by road number and street name (for example A214 — Anerley Road)
What it is: stationary traffic, queuing traffic, roadworks or a closure
How bad it is: the delay in minutes, or Closed
How far it is from your station, in miles or kilometres depending on your country

Tapping any item opens a map pinned on that exact spot, with buttons to open it in Google Maps or Waze.

Incidents are listed nearest to your station first, so the roads your listeners actually drive come at the top rather than something on the far side of the region.

Setting it up

There are two steps, both in Settings.

1. Set your station location

Scroll to Live Traffic location and press Set location. Start typing your town or city and pick it from the list.

This is the same location your schedule timezone and weather widget already use, so if you've set it before you're done — and changing it here updates all three.

Without a location the traffic section stays hidden on your site, even with the feature switched on. There's nowhere to measure from.

2. Turn on the feature

In the Features list, switch on Live Traffic. Save, and the section appears on your home page between your blog posts and the rest of your content.

Check your area first

Traffic reporting is strong in and around cities and thinner in small towns and rural areas. Before you announce it on air, press Check my area underneath your location in Settings.

That shows you exactly what your listeners would get, right now, from the live data. If it comes back empty, try again during rush hour before deciding — quiet roads and thin coverage look the same at 11am on a Sunday.

Renaming the section

The section is headed Live Traffic by default. You can rename it to anything that suits your station — On The Roads, Travel News, Drive Time Traffic — using section labels, and it's translated automatically into your site language.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this cost extra?

No. It's included in your plan, and there's nothing for you to sign up to or pay for.

Will it slow my home page down?

No. Nothing is fetched until a listener presses the button. If nobody presses it, nothing loads.

Why does it say no incidents are reported?

Either the roads near you are genuinely clear, or there's no incident coverage in your area. Use Check my area in Settings at a busy time of day to tell the difference.

How fresh is the information?

Results are refreshed at least every hour, and the bulletin tells your listeners how recently it was updated.

Can I choose which roads appear?

Not individually. The bulletin automatically covers roads around your station location and shows the closest problems first. Moving your station location moves the area it covers.

My studio is outside the town centre — does that matter?

A little. Distances are measured from the town or city you pick, so if your studio sits a few miles out, the figures are measured from the town rather than your front door. It doesn't change which incidents are found, only the order and distances slightly.