Nice piece in yesterday’s NY Times on traffic reporters in the New York area. On one hand, the likes of Joe Nolan, Trish Yodice and Pete Tauriello (funny how the names are often burned into our memories, even if we have no idea what they look like), are threatened with irrelevance by your GPS and your Blackberry.

On the other hand, cellphones allow traffic victims to call in with updates (everyone’s a reporter!), and the piece’s author, Dave Caldwell, also gets into how changes in commuting patterns mean greater need for traffic reporters. For one, people are schlepping in to work at all times, not just during your father’s rush hour.

“Almost any time of day is someone’s drive time,” said Tauriello.

Furthermore, while more people ride the rails, more and more are commuting from one ‘burb to the other.

Concludes Tauriello, “Same roads, only more congestion. Unfortunately in New York, they’re not building any bridges or tunnels in my lifetime.”