Light Pollution from Digital/Video Billboards

This has been one of my pet peeves for a while, and my kids can already point out the things I’m going to whine about as we drive along the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) coming home from Queens.  There are several of these video billboards along the road.  I have always found it ironic that there are laws dealing with "distracted driving" when the driver does something to distract himself, but nothing about allowing third-parties to deliberately try to distract the driver.  I mean, what else does any billboard do but try to draw attention to itself. 

The problem with digital video billboards is that they take this to a new level.  They are usually very bright: the ones along the BQE cast shadows that can be seen in spite of the roadway lighting.  And they are video, moving images.  It’s pretty much hard-wired into the human brain to notice things that are moving.  Something moving beside the road is normally something you want to look at. If that was a person or vehicle moving in your peripheral vision you would definitely want to look.

I stumbled across a well-done video on YouTube about digital billboards in San Antonio. Some of the issues they raise are specific to them (such as the effect on historic scenary important for tourism), but the underlying issue (what an eyesore!) is the same.  Additionally, the bigger issue of safety due to brightness and distraction are the same everywhere.

If digital video billboards are to be allowed, they need to be of limited brightness and restricted "video" rate.  Brightness should be comparable to what you get from traditional lighting.  Actually, I would argue that "traditional" lighting is already too bright in most cases.  Throw in that the video billboards are projecting light while traditional billboards are reflecting light and I suspect that video billboards need to be dimmer anyway.  As for the video rate, there are already billboards with images which change periodically, but they just flip between multiple still images every few minutes.

The point is that moving video is designed to pull your attention to the billboard for an extended period of time.  Texting while driving is now illegal in New York.  Why is it legal to allow an advertizer to use a video billboard to distract you for a comparable length of time?