Digital billboards spark safety debate

Web Posted: 04/28/2007 12:00 PM CDT


Meena ThiruvengadamExpress-News Business Writer


Is a digital billboard more distracting than your iPod, cell phone or in-car video entertainment system?
Not according to Paul Meyer, global president of Clear Channel Outdoor, the country's top-selling billboard advertiser. But some municipalities across the country disagree, calling digital signs that change messages every few seconds a potential danger to motorists.
In an era when consumers can fast-forward commercials, switch radio stations and choose not to click on Internet links, digital billboards have become a darling of the advertising industry.
They can't be avoided, especially by drivers battling traffic to get home after a long day of work. Their images can be changed instantaneously, and several ads now can take the place of one, multiplying profits for companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor.
"Digital billboards and billboards in general are a form of advertising that can compete with the Internet," Meyer said.
Of Clear Channel's more than 160,000 billboards in the U.S., 54 are digital.
That's roughly 10 percent of all digital billboards in the U.S.The company, which operates some of the glowing signs that Times Square is famous for, launched its first digital network in Cleveland two years ago. The Phoenix-based business, 90 percent owned by San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications Inc., plans to add 100 new digital billboards in 20 markets this year.
"All of our competing media are struggling to maintain their audience," Meyer said. "Outdoor, by the very nature of our society, is an audience which every single year grows."
Billboards are the second-fastest-growing form of advertising behind the Internet, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.
The more time people spend in their cars, the longer commutes get and the heavier traffic grows, the more time billboard advertisers have with consumers on the road.
Nationwide, about 500 of the country's more than 450,000 billboards are digital, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America reports.
The association projects 1,000 new digital signs could be erected during the next few years.
Some digital conversions, though, are being delayed by city councils and planning commissions.
"Digital billboards represent a significant threat to communities around the country," said Kevin Fry, president of Scenic America, an organization whose mission is to keep America scenic. "These signs, because they are so bright, ratchet the ugliness level up to a point we haven't seen before."
But critics insist opinions on aesthetics come second to safety concerns.
"These signs are potentially very dangerous," Fry said. "Anything that distracts you from looking straight ahead at the road for more than two seconds significantly increases the potential for crashes. No one can reasonably argue you will be looking at those digital signs for fewer than two seconds."
Still, a 2003 report from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation said there is no effective way to evaluate the potential safety effects of electronic billboards.
"Billboards have been around for 100 years," Clear Channel's Meyer said. "There has been absolutely no evidence whatsoever that they in any way contribute to traffic safety concerns."
And outdoor advertising consistently must comply with three distinct sets of regulations — local, state and federal.
"We have a very high regulatory hurdle for any kind of outdoor advertising," said Myron Laible, vice president for state and local regulatory affairs for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. "It's ultimately up to the locality to work out outdoor advertising controls."
In Cleveland, Clear Channel was able to use a years-long battle with the city to strike a deal. In exchange for permission to erect digital billboards along Cleveland highways, the company agreed to tear down older signs within the heart of the city.
The move was seen as a shift in the traditional adversarial relationships between outdoor advertisers and the communities they inhabit, but clearly it hasn't ended the battle over billboards.
Clear Channel's digital billboard network in the Twin Cities of Minnesota is in limbo until city leaders there decide whether signs are a distraction to drivers or a nuisance to neighbors.
"It's one of those things where our ordinance doesn't keep pace with technology," said Kathy Lantry, a St. Paul city councilwoman. St. Paul has placed a moratorium on digital billboard technology so that it can be studied in further detail.
"It's the kind of issue in the industry we face all the time," Meyer said.
Des Moines, Iowa, placed a moratorium on digital billboards in February to study its potential safety ramifications. The city currently has at least one digital billboard operated by Clear Channel.
"The content is beautiful, but my fear is that it is a distraction," said Tom Vlassis, the Des Moines city councilman who proposed the city's moratorium on the technology.
In Wichita, Kan., where Clear Channel recently announced plans for a digital network, city leaders are debating whether to dim the electronic boards' lights.
Other cities are embracing the digital billboards — at least to some extent.
In Albuquerque, police use the signs for recruiting. Across the country, Amber Alert, weather services and America's Most Wanted use them to display warnings and to post photos of fugitives or missing children.
Still, Scenic America's Fry doesn't think that's enough to make adopting the technology worth it.
"It's not appropriate to create one kind of public safety problem to help another," he said.
But no evidence exists to suggest digital billboards are more dangerous than their low-tech predecessors.
"As long as you do not display video, and as long as all you are doing is changing static images, there's no reason to think digitals would be less safe than tri-visions," Meyer said, referring to a type of message-changing billboard that flips images and is allowed in many cities across the country.
meenat@express-news.net
James hendricks/staff -->Hed: Digital technology intensifies billboard battleSummary: In an era where consumers can fast-forward commercials, switch radio stations and choose not to click on Internet links, digital billboards have become a darling of the advertising industry. But some municipalities across the country disagree; calling glitzy digital signs that change messages every several seconds a potential danger to motorists.