In US while driving, if you are listening to radio you are accustomed to getting regular traffic reports. US has intricate network of traffic sensors, video cameras and traffic helicopters that constantly feed radio stations with data that then can be broadcast to listeners. Numerous times, I have benefited from such traffic reports in time to avoid traffic jams of I5 and 520 bridge.
Pune (or india) has no such elaborate technology to get traffic volume updates. So what do they do? Pune has a very famous radio station, "radio mirchi" (mirchi==chilli) What they do is they rely on people calling the radio station to give them traffic updates from various intersections. They then relay this information on the radio. Incentive for people to call in and report traffic is that their name gets mentioned on the radio and ratio mirchi gets the information that they need. This is a great example of social collaboration enabled by technology. Kind of similar to www.wikipedia.com.
Whether or not anyone actually benefits from radio mirchi traffic reports is a whole different story because it's not like you have multiple options if one of the intersection is blocked! But the idea of getting the information out to people is simply brilliant!
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