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Research Shows Digital Billboards Safe for Drivers

New research from the Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research and Education has indicated that digital billboards are no less safe than their traditional counterparts.

In order to help media companies make the case for digital billboards to local municipalities, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America unveiled the two studies - one that analyzed the correlation between digital boards and traffic accidents and another that examined driver behavior.

The studies come at a time when outdoor companies are building out digital billboards (boards that rotate static images displayed for 6 to 8 seconds). Costing more than $250,000 to erect, companies can sell the same space on digital billboards to multiple advertisers, increasing revenue by several multiples.

Over the last few years, 500 digital billboards have been erected. While that’s still a small percentage (0.1 percent) of the 450,000 billboards in the U.S., the OAAA estimates that media companies will erect several hundred digital displays each year.

Tantala Associates, a consulting engineering firm, found no statistical relationship between digital boards and traffic accidents after examining traffic and accident data near all seven existing digital billboards in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, over a period of 18 months before and after the billboards were converted to digital.

A second study conducted by the Center for Automotive Safety Research at Virginia Tech’s Transportation Institute concluded that digital boards were “safety neutral,” based on a study of eye glance movements of 36 drivers in specially-equipped cars in Cleveland.

Results showed no differences in the overall glance patterns or frequency of glances between digital and traditional boards. Although drivers took longer glances in the direction of digital billboards, the mean glance length time was less than one second, generally considered to be an acceptable amount of time for a glance away from the forward roadway.

So far, 29 states have adopted laws or regulations on the books allowing digital billboards that display multiple static images for 6 to 8 seconds. (Only places such as New York City and Las Vegas have full motion video boards.) Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee approved digital boards just this year. Only a small number of states don’t allow any changeable-message billboards, such as Delaware, whose legislature recently approved legislation to allow digital billboards, a measure now awaiting Governor approval. A few states allow tri-action billboards, but not digital billboards.

“It’s appropriate for the industry to study their product and make sure it’s safe,” said Paul Cook, chairman of FOARE. “Regulations don’t always keep up with technology, leaving the public with questions about driver safety. These studies break new ground about digital billboards and traffic safety,” he added.

In addition to countering safety concerns, the OAAA emphasized the public safety advantage that digital billboards can provide to help find fugitives or lost children.