California isn’t the only state that thinks digital out-of-home media could solve budget problems. Fresh on the heels of news that California was aiming to launch a digital license plate advertising network, the State of Pennsylvania announced its plans to bring advertisements to electronic highway signs.
Pennsylvnia has joined California and Florida in asking the federal government to waive regulations that prohibit advertisements on overhead and roadside messaging signs. In contrast to the ill-conceived digital license plate plan championed by California state Senator Curren Price, bringing advertisements to state-operated highway signs is both practical and feasible. The project could be activated in a short period of time, thus offering each state a clear path to profit. The advertisements are projected to bring in $150 million annually for each state.
In addition to the legal hurdles that each state faces, having to earn concessions from the Federal Highway Administration and state legislative bodies, anti-billboard activists are trying to thwart the proposal.
“They can be distracting,” said Fairley Mahlum, a spokeswoman for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Most of the current concern centers around some of the new technology that is being used for signs, especially the ones that are big that use very bright LED lights that often change. Something like that could be very distracting.”
Mary Tracy, president of the nonprofit Scenic America, which aims to preserve roadside scenery, said electronic message boards should be identified as a distraction like cell phones.
“There is a growing and sound body of scientific evidence that has confirmed the intuitive notion that a digital billboard, essentially a giant TV on a stick … poses an unnecessary safety risk to drivers,” Tracy wrote last fall.
The states’ application, however, cites a 2007 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study saying the typical glance at a digital sign is about one second and the effects on driver performance are similar to glances at signs on the premises of businesses.
To ensure that the signs are safe, a pilot program using 50 electronic signs would be established before the project became statewide, PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said.
“Safety … is the paramount issue that must be addressed before this initiative can move forward,” Kirkpatrick said. (via Lebanon Daily News)