The king of the country's roads will be listening to Elgar on his MP3 player as much as he can over Christmas, but the beep of his blackberry and mobile phone may well add their bit to the Enigma Variations.
Both will be on round the clock as the Highways Agency's director of road traffic operations, Derek Turner, stays ready to deal with any crisis during one of his busiest weeks of the year.
Living in Shropshire and based in Birmingham, a city looped by complex motorways, he heads 2,500 staff who hope to keep the country's favourite form of travel on the move. He has studied the ways of traffic since passing his driving test in 1960, and admits: "I'm a customer of the Highways Agency myself. It is not uncommon for me to ring our information line to ask about hold-ups."
Getting other travellers to do the same is part of Turner's strategy for easing flow, just as flood prevention staff now stress how much advice is available and urge people to access it. He says: "There's a lot of information out there for drivers. Over 2,500 electronic message signs give them information about road conditions, some adding how long it will take to get to the next motorway junction. Real-time traffic data is available via our website (highways.gov.uk). Information also goes out all the time on radio travel bulletins and the agency's own Traffic Radio, available on DAB digital radio and at trafficradio.org.uk."
Turner's career has kept him in step with technology's ever-growing role in helping traffic flow, since he graduated in civil and structural engineering from Sheffield University in 1974.
One of the key points on his CV is his time heading street management for Transport for London from 2000 to 2003, which included delivering the capital's successful congestion charge scheme and its less-publicised traffic control centre.
He hopes to do his own bit of Christmas family travel, getting back to London to see his daughter, but that may not necessarily be by road.
Turner said: "I have a very busy job and am very much on the move travelling round the country - but not always by car. I'm a frequent user of our national public transport networks."
