Karl, it's interesting that you say that. This site, which has updated traffic-flow patterns in Houston, shows clear sailing as of 11:20 on all freeways until you get to FM 1960 on the north side of town. The speed reports at the same site show much the same.
BTTT
XM Traffic
http://www.xmradio.com/programming/neighborhood.jsp?hood=traffic
It runs a minute traffic breakdown, short ad, a minute weather breakdown, another short ad....and repeats. Updated when conditions warrant.
XM also has an Emergency Channel 247 for Breaking Events, and just added a Red Cross Channel 248.
I have a friend who still freaks out when I tell her Seattle traffic from my car in Los Angeles....I repeats every two minutes, so I can get an update before the local station in Seattle repeats their traffic report.