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 3 of 3
Local battles over signs
So far, the battle over such billboards is playing out at the local level. Dozens of municipalities – including the Twin Cities, Concord, N.H., and Atlanta – have imposed moratoriums to study them further. Billboard companies have filed several lawsuits in the hope of weakening or nullifying local ordinances by citing the First Amendment right to free speech.
"If a city wants to decide that they want to be like Times Square, that's one thing, but [outdoor advertisers] are by no means trying to limit the location of their signs to those communities," says John Baker, a land-use attorney in Minneapolis.
More digital billboards likely to come
The study on the safety of electronic billboards – which may not be completed until 2009 – will help states and municipalities deal with the kinds of new technologies not foreseen by Congress in the Federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965, the FHWA says.
Today, some 450,000 vinyl-clad billboards are located over US roadways, and some analysts have predicted that perhaps 70,000 of those could be retrofitted to digital in the next five to 10 years.
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