• by Erik Sass , October 3, 2007

In a major victory for outdoor advertisers, the Federal Highway Administration issued a memorandum last week giving the go-ahead for the installation of digital signage along the nation's Interstate highways and other federally subsidized roadways.

Coming amid vociferous objections from some municipal governments, which claim electronic billboards are a safety hazard, the FHWA decision buoys the hopes of outdoor advertisers that are betting big on digital signage to drive revenue growth.

The key part of the memorandum from the FHWA, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, says that states are entitled to allow installation of signs that "do not violate a prohibition against 'intermittent' or 'flashing' or 'moving' lights." Federal law distinguishes between these prohibited types of signage, and changeable signage where messages are displayed for a certain fixed period of time--lessening the likelihood that drivers will be distracted. Based on a survey of existing state and federal laws, the FHWA suggests that: "Duration of each display is generally between 4 and 10 seconds--8 seconds is recommended."

While the FHWA decision clears the way for digital signage along federally funded roadways, it also reinforces the need for close coordination between state and federal transportation authorities concerning the creation of new electronic signage.

For one thing, "a State DOT is required to obtain FHWA Division approval of any changes to its laws, regulations and procedures to implement the requirements of its outdoor advertising control program." The FHWA memorandum notes that "most of these agreements between the States and the Secretary that determined the size, lighting and spacing of conforming signs were signed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s."

By the same token, "This Guidance does not prohibit States from adopting more restrictive requirements for permitting... to the extent those requirements are not inconsistent with" existing regulations.

In recent months, outdoor advertisers have been lobbying Congress and the media in favor of digital signage. One of their first tasks is allaying fears that the movement will distract drivers, leading to accidents. Here they cite a study from Tantala Associates, released in July, which surveyed accident frequencies over three years and compared this data with the positions of seven digital billboards in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, centered in Cleveland.

According to the lead author: "The analysis and statistics in Cuyahoga County demonstrate that digital billboards have no statistically significant relationship with the occurrence of accidents. Accidents are no more likely to occur near digital billboards than on highway sections without them."