Discussion
Electronic billboards primarily for advertising are the ultimate in wasted energy and light pollution. The billboards exist for the purpose of advertising and generating revenue for the owners, but they cause glare and driver distraction, add to visual clutter and eye damage, emit large amounts of light pollution, steal individual liberties, and provide no societal benefit.
Figure 1 – Electronic billboard
Issues
Light Pollution
The artificial light from electronic billboards increases light pollution. Humans and the rest of the biological ecosystem need darkness for their health and basic functioning.
Sensitive Receptors
Many sensitive receptors find the electronic billboards too bright and too distracting, causing emotional anguish. For example, a person with autism may need a calm environment with little distraction. An electronic billboard can cause loss of situational awareness because the autistic person may hyper-focus on the message and become mesmerized by the message or the lights. Or the autistic person may try to fight off the automatic capture of the mind, resulting in anger, agitation, or irrational actions.
Billboard advertisers are well versed in the psychology of their messaging. They know that they are capturing and stealing minds. Billboards can trigger an emotional response. Companies can make strategic choices such as color that directly influence the minds of customers and elicit a specific response, depending on the purpose of the advert and its key messaging.[1]
Driver Distraction
Electronic billboards are designed purposely to capture a person’s attention and thoughts. This is in direct conflict with the goal of safe driving which requires that 100% of the driver’s attention be focused on pedestrians, other vehicles, navigation signs, etc. Already, the number of visual stimuli is overwhelming in urban centers. Adding additional distraction increases the likelihood that a driver will miss an important visual signal that could result in death.
The visually compelling message of electronic billboards changes, which can act to capture the attention of the driver at the expense of other targets in the scene[2]
A study showed of visual behavior data showed that drivers had a significantly longer dwell time, a greater number of fixations and longer maximum fixation duration when driving past an electronic billboard compared to other signs on the same road[3]
Theft of personal liberty
Electronic billboards steal an individual’s right to have free choice of where to look. The research shows that the bright lights and a changing message automatically capture the eyes and mind of a person, making the person an unwilling viewer of the message.
The 14th amendment of the United States Constitution states that, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws[4].
There are obligatory shifts of covert visual attention due to automatic, sensory reactions that take less than 100 milliseconds.[5] An obligatory shift means that the personal liberty of the individual is stolen by the billboard.
Eye Damage
The human eye is damaged by exposure to artificial light. An electronic billboard shines light directly into the eyes of the viewer, possibly causing irreversible cell damage. The effects of the light damage are cumulative, meaning that each view of a billboard adds to the existing damage.
The retinal damage by intermittent light exposure promotes an irreversible damage.[6]
Energy Waste
The energy being used to operate these billboards contributes to climate changing emissions for no positive benefit.
Information Overload
Research has shown that there is a limit to the amount of information that a person can absorb. In fact, most of the information that we receive as input is discarded by the brain. Only the most important information is stored. The light and embedded information from electronic billboards adds to the visual clutter and increases our anxiety levels.
Pressures from Industry
The goal of the electronic billboard industry is to install more signs and sell more messages. These goals or opposite to the societal goals of reducing stress, increasing safety, and increasing darkness to improve human health and the functioning of our ecosystem. However, industry and corporations do not have any rights. Only people have rights and therefore any industry pressures must be ignored.
Existing Regulations
Several states and many cities already have bans in place for billboards in general or electronic billboards specifically.
- Alaska, Vermont, Hawaii, Maine
- Reno, Nevada, Charleston, South Carolina and 700+ other communities
- New York City waterways
Proposed Regulations
We propose that all electronic billboards be prohibited (with the following exceptions listed below) because electronic billboards suffer from these negative effects:
- Eye damage
- Driver distraction
- Unconstitutional taking of personal liberty
- Wasted energy
- Light pollution
- Visual clutter
- Information overload
Below are examples of electronic billboards that would be prohibited by this proposal.
There are a few exceptions to the ban on electronic billboards. Electronic billboards used by the State to communicate road conditions can serve a useful purpose. These billboards shall be monochrome orange with a maximum brightness of 20 nits. The billboard shall always be off unless an important message must be displayed.
Schools, fairs, and convention centers will also be allowed to use electronic billboards with monochrome orange and a maximum brightness of 20 nits. These non-essential billboards shall be turned off between 11pm and 5am.
Below are examples of electronic billboards that would be allowed by this proposal.
Below are examples non-electronic signs that would be allowed by this proposal.
Additional References
- http://www.illinoislighting.org/resources/DigitalBillboardLuminanceRecommendation_ver7.pdf
- https://www.scenic.org/storage/documents/review.pdf
- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/11/can-cities-kick-ads-ban-urban-billboards
- https://movia.media/moving-billboard-blog/why-is-billboard-advertising-not-allowed-in-maine-vermont-hawaii-and-alaska/
- http://blog.nomadcommunications.com/blog/four-states-that-ban-billboards-who-what-does-it-mean
- Vermont billboard ban – https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/10/021/00495
[1] https://75media.co.uk/blog/psychological-billboard-advertising/
[2] https://www.scenic.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/review.pdf
[3] https://www.scenic.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/eebdd.pdf
[4] https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv
[5] https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/motr/are-digital-billboards-dangerously-distracting.html