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Pols take dim view of flashy billboards
Are flashy billboards a distraction to drivers?Date published: 2/3/2008 BY CHELYEN DAVIS RICHMOND-- You've probably seen them, the relatively new electronic, or LED, billboards. You can't miss them.They're bright--brighter than the sun in the daytime--they flash a new advertisement every few seconds and they look like Times Square uprooted and set beside the highway. And if two bills in the General Assembly pass, the ones you see will be all that are ever allowed in Virginia. Sen. Patsy Ticer, D-Alexandria, and Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg, have introduced legislation to impose a moratorium on building the LED billboards. The bills would not ban the ones already in existence. Ticer says she put in her bill at the behest of Scenic Virginia, an organization that lobbies for beautification of the state's roadways. Ticer and Scenic Virginia's position is that the LED billboards may be dangerously distracting to drivers. They want the state to hold off on allowing more of the flashy signs until two new studies into their effect on drivers can be completed. "They're dangerous, the ones that are flashing so many messages," Ticer said. "They take your attention off the road." But outdoor advertising groups say there's no proof that the signs are dangerous; that in fact, two studies already completed show they're no more dangerous than any other distraction to drivers. "There have been numerous studies, in particular Virginia Tech has done a study, and their conclusion was that it was accident-neutral," said lobbyist Tom Pappalardo, who represents the Virginia Outdoor Advertising Association. "Most studies that we find show that there is no direct link to the new digital boards. Unfortunately there are people who just don't like billboards, and they try to stop the progress and stop them from doing business." Scenic Virginia, and its parent group Scenic America, are definitely anti-billboard. It's one of the top issues on Scenic America's Web site. But Scenic Virginia's Leighton Powell says the LED billboards pose a problem with safety, not just aesthetics. Powell says those studies Pappalardo cites were commissioned by the billboard industry itself, and that peer reviews by other groups have found the studies suffered from "bad science, faulty methodology." She cited reviews by the Maryland State Highway Administration, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences.
Date published: 2/3/2008
Stupid polititions.....
(posted by
kowalskiOA5599
, Feb. 3, 2008 11:07 am)
Why don't they take on some of the tough issues like fixing the roads in Virginia. Who cares about flashing billboards. These people have got to have something more important to work on.
A distraction?
(posted by
dr428
, Feb. 3, 2008 9:21 am)
The new billboards are a distraction? But not the cell phones, make-up, GPS systems, cigarettes, food, newspapers, and everything else people are doing behind the wheel? Sounds to me like some tree-huggers need some attention so they've found a new issue to bother us with!
I'm calloing my insurance agent
(posted by
Tamerlane
, Feb. 3, 2008 8:09 am)
and telling him if I see his mug on the sign again, I'm moving my policy.
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