Loren Faulkner

Coming To A Freeway Near You (maybe)…

There are 600-plus electronic billboards that line California’s freeways to bring us the occasional Amber Alert or warn of traffic accidents ahead. This is a good, public safety thing. But now, Gov. Schwarzenegger is seriously looking into allowing private advertisers to tout everything from MacDonald’s to Starbucks on those same billboards. This could be an apparent revenue source of $millions each year.

Not that we couldn’t use the spare change as our State is currently in a fiscal budget free-fall. The Governor has called for a special legislative meeting to figure out how Californians will fill-in the $billions we are already short this year.

But the question is: Is having electronic billboards flashing advertising in your face while driving a good idea?  I’m thinking that this kind of distraction is not a good idea. If it is now illegal to drive in California while talking on a handheld telephone—because of increased  accidents—how much more are drivers likely to take their eyes off the road at 65mph (or let’s face it: 70-80 mph) to get the latest eye-catching pitch for Bud Light, or something?

Personally, I would say to the Gov., “Don’t even go there.”  California’s freeways are dangerous enough as it is, why add more potential distractions? Keep to Amber Alerts and dangerous traffic warnings on those billboards.

What are your thoughts? Is the potential advertising $income worth the potential trade-off of more driver distraction?

Posted by Loren Faulkner on November 11, 2008 | Comments (0)