With the growth of outdoor digital signage along the roadsides in many cities, concern has grown about the potential dangers posed by LED, LCD and plasma displays when used as digital billboards.
From New York’s Time Square to London’s Piccadilly Circus, digital signage is popping up everywhere, and if the U.S. influence goes its normal path, digital billboards will soon appear along the roads and highways of all the world.
However, already in the US these new digital billboards are causing controversy with some activists suggesting that these outdoor digital billboards are a dangerous distraction for drivers and some hardline safety activists suggest they should be prohibited.
The problem with the debate about the potential distraction for drivers that digital advertising can bring is that to date no research has been done on the effects of LED billboards, LCD screens and other digital advertising on motorists.
However, for critics, digital billboards are as great a distraction as mobile phones and, activists claim, unlike mobile phones, digital advertising on the roads cannot be turned off.
However, the outdoor digital signage industry maintains that roadside digital billboards are no more dangerous than standard highway advertising and that any example of accidents caused by digital signage is only anecdotal.
And for every example of a traffic collision caused by a driver distracted by digital roadside advertising, outdoor digital signage can cite a similar incident with static billboards (an infamous static bra ad is alleged to have caused dozens of accidents in the United Kingdom).
The digital signage industry also argues that to date, despite little legislation outlining what content can be displayed, the industry, by convention, does not use moving images in digital roadside advertising.
And their self-regulatory moves like this can avoid restrictive legislation governing digital advertising and billboards on the highways, although it will only take one serious incident or irresponsible implementation for the entire industry to fall under restrictive rules governing use. of outdoor digital signage.
