On Friday, we posted on how Tampa Bay neighborhood groups are strongly opposed to a plan to allow digital billboards. But the good folks at Scenic Pinellas informed us that the fight against digital billboards is ripe throughout the Tampa-St. Pete metro area.
FOX 13 provides an excellent news piece on the situation in Saint Petersburg, where the out-going mayor supports a proposal by Big Billboard to erect 10 digital billboards in exchange for the removal of static billboards elsewhere in the city. But City Council and neighborhood groups are wary of the proposed deal, noting that the results of the long-awaited FHWA safety study on digitals are just months away.
(FOX 13: myfoxtampabay.com)
And that's not all. Last month,
Pinellas County enacted a moratorium on new digital billboards after learning that the industry seeks a larger digital roll out in the county. County engineers also have found evidence of an increase in distraction-related accidents near the location of an existing digital billboard. Undeterred, billboard companies propose that the county lower the 60 second duration between ad copy changes to every six to eight seconds.
For more, visit Scenic Florida affiliates
Scenic Pinellas and
Scenic St. Petersburg.
Perhaps you would care to share those reports from the county engineers with the public? As far as the rate of change for the billboards, six seconds is much less distracting than 60. Having less time to read the message creates shorter messages with more impact.
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