A Lack of Action Despite Evidence of Safety Risks Posed by Digital Billboards

Jerry Wachtel shares the findings of "an extensive review [pdf] of research showing that digital billboards are more distracting than traditional signs…" Furthermore, the review finds "that driver attention is particularly captured by changes between advertisements, which typically occur every six or eight seconds."

After citing a few examples of research finding evidence of the distractions caused by digital billboards, Wachtel goes on to note the flip side of the scientific inquiry: a lack of attention paid to the safety risks posed by such signs. On exception to that lack of attention, at least, is a forthcoming series of Research Needs Statements, to be released by the Digital Billboards Subcommittee of the Transportation Research Board. Those Research Needs Statements will "address some of the most egregious aspects of digital billboards." In the meantime, Wachtel writes, "the U.S. Department of Transportation and state agencies should not wait to begin to work with advocates and constituency organizations on new guidance regarding the time, place, and manner of such displays."