Sally Boazman - aka Radio 2's Sally Traffic – on when not to travel, her favourite service station and why she would live on the M40 if she could.
If you’ve been a Radio 2 listener for a while, then chances are you would have taken travel advice from Sally Boazman, who is better known as Sally Traffic. From road closures and busy junctions to live traffic updates from listeners, Sally has it all.
Since joining in 1998, Sally has worked with a host of radio legends, including the late Johnnie Walker and Steve Wright, and now – after slowly cutting down her hours – gives traffic updates on Saturday on shows with Dermot O’Leary, Rylan Clark and Romesh Ranganathan.
We spoke to Sally, 67, ahead of Radio 2 in the Park – which takes place in Hylands Park, Chelmsford, from 5-7 September – to get her ultimate travel advice, discover which service station is the best and learn why she’s taking slow retirement.
Although it may sound obvious, Sally says people continue to make the mistake of travelling on a Friday afternoon after 3pm.
“I can’t emphasise this enough, but never travel on a Friday afternoon,” she explains. “I had a visitor recently who came to see me on a Friday afternoon and it took about five hours and I just said: ‘Why are you travelling at that time?!’
“Friday after 3pm is the worst possible time to go anywhere so if you can avoid it, do. Go later that evening if it’s a shorter journey, or first thing Saturday morning because the roads are always much clearer then. And on the flipside, Monday morning is a good time to travel, despite what people may think.”
As well as checking traffic before you head off, and making sure you put the right postcode into the sat nav - “It happens more than you think!” - Sally advises trying to stay away from the main motorways.
“All those big motorways can be awful but my least favourite is the M6 as it’s such a busy road as it goes all the way through the country,” she says. “And as for the M25, don’t get me started! The thing is, like with traffic everywhere, it’s all very finely balanced and it only needs a little thing like a breakdown to throw everything off and your journey will become a misery.
“But I’ll never hear a bad word said against the M40, I just love that road. I don’t know why but it’s lovely and goes through such beautiful countryside.
"It’s always been my favourite and I’d live on there if I could!’
In recent years, there’s always been a big debate about which is the best service station in the UK – according to Sally, though, Tebay Services in Cumbria deserves its reputation.
Although the services are on the dreaded M6 – between junctions 38 and 39 – they are in open countryside, surrounded by trees, have panoramic views, small lakes and even a duck pond. Instead of typical motorway service food outlets, they have award-winning farm shops, which sell local produce including meats and cheese.
Sally says, “It may be on the M6, but Tebay Services can’t be beaten, in my humble opinion. It’s further up so it gets less busy and when they were building it, they wanted to go through this farmer’s land and he only gave permission on the basis that the food sold there would have to come from the farm.
“So, it’s just beautiful and has the best and freshest food. They’ve got a hotel, lovely shops, lovely restaurants – you could go on holiday there.”
Sally is also, unsurprisingly, a fan of Oxford Services on the M40 but her tip is to try and avoid getting petrol from a motorway station.
“It can be much more expensive, so fill up before if you can. You can also use apps that tell you how much petrol costs at each service station so you can plan ahead.”
When she started on Radio 2, she did the travel five days a week, before slowly reducing her days. Now just working on a Saturday, Sally – who has a grown-up son, Harry – believes it is helping to keep her young.
“I’ve been really lucky as my bosses have let me reduce my hours gradually so now I just do a Saturday and I’ve got a really good work life balance,” she says. “I don’t want to just stop working as I like a bit of structure and I work with younger people so it helps keep me young.
“There’s me, Tony Blackburn and Bob Harris who are all still there and we joke about who will leave first. I’m slowly retiring! But think it’s silly to think, ‘Well because I’m a certain age I’ve got to stop doing that.’ I’ve still got the knowledge and energy to keep going.”
Sally refuses to say who is her favourite person among those she has worked with, but she will always be grateful to Johnnie Walker.
“Johnnie took a chance on me when he got offered the Drive Time show on Radio 2 and he needed somebody to do the traffic so it all started from there. We worked together for seven years and were a great team.
“He brought me into the into the family, and so I owe him a huge debt of gratitude because I’ve just had the best time. But I’ve loved everyone I’ve worked with, it’s such a great team.”
Sally will be at Radio 2 In The Park on Saturday and will be appearing with Dermot O’Leary on the DJ stage as well as watching some of the artists, who include Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, Belinda Carlisle and Ronan Keating.
And she says going to festivals isn’t just for young people. As well as being a great way to have fun, it’s also fantastic exercise.
“This is the perfect festival for anyone who is a bit nervous of going to one,” she says. “Don’t be nervous, festivals are perfect for us oldies and you have so much fun. There’s so much to do. I’ve been to Glastonbury a few times and something like this is a lot less daunting.
“Nobody is judging you, just go and have fun and dance. Remember a waterproof, in case it rains, and wear sensible and comfortable shoes as you will be walking a lot – it’s great exercise.”
While the team don’t get together that often, Sally says when they go out they ensure they have a good time. However, one party at Rylan Clark’s house, Sally admits, could’ve ended with her getting arrested.
“I went to party at his house for his mum Linda’s birthday,” she says. “And there was lots of drink flowing and he’d ordered a McDonald’s van as food. I’m a vegetarian so the only thing I could have was chips. I asked for two portions but they wouldn’t let me and I was so hungry and needed to soak up the booze.
“He’s got this place at the end of his garden where his gym is, which I happened to see and went in and found some protein bars on the side and took a couple as I was so hungry.
“But little did I know that he had CCTV in there and I was caught red-handed stealing them. He posted the picture and told me he could have me arrested. But in my defence, I was just so hungry.”
Watch the Radio 2 in the Park channel live on BBC iPlayer, from 12.15pm on Saturday 6 September.
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