Video billboards spur concerns about driving safety
The digital roadside advertisements are springing up around the US, raising safety concerns.
from the March 6, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Billboards' appeal
In communities, digital billboards have advantages compared with static ones, says Heidi Kershaw, communications manager for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) in Washington.
•In the Twin Cities, a test of an Amber Alert system on digital billboards last week netted the arrest of an estranged father who had kidnapped his daughter.
•Albuquerque, N.M., is employing digital ads to flash a series of public service messages that include urging water conservation.
•In Cleveland, the new technology served as a peace offering between the city and advertisers. The industry has promised to use a fewer number of digital billboards in return for taking down numerous smaller signs that officials said were eyesores.
But critics say the very reason the signs appeal to advertisers is the reason they pose a danger on the roadways: The billboards are designed to distract. A study on driver behavior released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last April showed that distractions in which a driver spent more than two seconds looking elsewhere than the road contributed to 22 percent of overall accidents.
"People need to know these enormous TV sets are going to pop up along highways.... It's going to be a significant safety issue for the country," says Kevin Fry, president of Scenic America, a group in Washington that lobbies to keep highways clear of clutter.
For its part, the OAAA cites a 2004 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, indicating that driver behavior doesn't change measurably in the presence of attention-getting billboards.
Many experts, too, doubt whether the new billboards will stand out.
"These electronic billboards create no more of a traffic safety hazard than a vinyl-wrap board with a stationary image," says Alan Weinstein, a land-use expert at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland.
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