Digital Billboards Pose Driving Distractions

We’ve all heard about the dangers of driving while distracted – especially when it comes to the use of mobile devices such as cell phones and smartphones. But for some, there’s a new safety concern brewing – digital billboards.

 

The high-tech billboards, which can swap images every six to eight seconds, are alarming safety advocates, who say the signs are more dangerous than cell phones.

 

Abby Dart, executive director of Scenic Michigan, a nonprofit group trying to block construction of new digital billboards in the state, calls the signs “weapons of mass distraction.”  She said digital signs are yet another harmful distraction for drivers.

 

“You can turn off your phone,” Dart told The New York Times. “The billboard gets your attention whether you want to give it or not.”

 

The billboard industry maintains no research exists that shows that the digital signs cause crashes, according to the Times. Industry officials further said that the signs don’t use video or animation.

 

Last week, Michigan lawmakers held hearings on legislation that would impose a two-year moratorium on the construction of new billboards, the Times reported. Similar hearings are scheduled this month in Minnesota, the report said.

 

And as more and more digital billboards appear, state and federal officials are beginning to question the need to regulate the technology, the report said.

 

The Federal Highway Administration reportedly plans to release a study this summer to track whether drivers look at digital billboards and how long they are doing it.

 

About 2,000 of the nation’s 450,000 billboards are digitized, the Times reported. But industry experts predict that there will soon be tens of thousands of them across the nation.