Good people can disagree about whether LED billboards are an exciting innovation in advertising or a community scourge. But how can anybody pass even a small LED sign without finding it distracting? Even several blocks away or via a rearview mirror, such signs’ brightness and strobelike effects can be impossible to ignore. Yet Ron Blue, president of Clear Channel Outdoor in Wichita and Fort Smith, Ark., told The Eagle’s Carrie Rengers that "there’s no evidence that digital signs are a distraction in any form or fashion." Now that Wichitans have some experience living with more than 100 of these signs — including Clear Channel’s 14-by-48-foot mother of them all at Central and Rock — the Wichita City Council needs to scrutinize the company’s plan for six more LED billboards around town.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
16 Comments
Anyone remember Ogden Nash’s”I think that I shall never seeA billboard lovely as a tree.But then, unless the billboards fall,I’ll never see a tree at all!”Maybe we ought to consider remembering it!
Funny Jed!
Of course they are a distraction. They are intended to be. Whether they are a dangerous distraction; probably not as much as your cell phone, makeup or sandwich.
Out,Of course they’re a distraction, but more than that, they are somebody’s attempt to sell us something. Wouldn’t it be nice to just go out in public without all those salesmen panhandling, waving signs and screaming at us to buy their product or service? I might support a blue law to prohibit advertising of any kind on Sunday (or any other day somebody, somewhere considers holy), just to get a little peace and quiet and the opportunity to see the world around me without some lout in a business suit accosting me to spend all my money on his “product.”
I think its the right of business to place them… Signs like the Bank’s time and temp have been around for years… I think there is an even balance that we can achieve.
I think any LED sign should meet a set of requirements. Thigns like that they dim at night, they can not flash (strobe) more than X times per min or 2 min or what ever, they can not be larger than X Sq In, etc… I also think we SHOULD outlaw the big LED digital billboards… Or maybe they should have a local vote to allow it? hum…. that would be interesting, have everyone who lives within .5 miles approve if they can put up a huge LED billboard…
Driving past Via Christi last night their new LED sign was so bright it obscured the headlights of oncoming traffic. It might not be “distracting” but is was certainly very dangerous. Maybe it’s just a way for the hospital to drum up more business.
hence my comment about dimming them at night.
If you dont like light pollution you can always move out here! I can see the Milky Way sitting on my front steps.
Heheeh. And that’s about all I see….
hee hee hee hee Maybe those signs are the reason we need more power plants?
I welcome them.
lol… KFG, it definitely doesn’t help, that’s for sure.
If you remember the old KSB&T building downtown used to have a sign that ran along the top of the building with the date, time and other advertising. It cost the building an estimated 1 – 3 grand a month in electric, and that’s at their really low rates…
I would like to see that sign removed and a new one installed that is LED. The current sign uses flood lights similar to the ones we use on our houses. That sign has been a part of this city for as long as I can remember.
If bright flashing signs were a dangerous distraction Times Square and Las Vegas Blvd would be full of wrecks 24/7.
I find the signs garish and distracting.
I don’t and won’t frequent a business that has one.
There are engineering laws and federal regulations on brightness for headlamps on cars it should apply the same for the signs.Bright lights that over power your view of street signs and traffic control devices are on the books too.All they need to do is enforce those laws.
They need to be dimmed at night, but I like ‘em. I love the irony about signage. On one hand, our city government wants to limit signs as much as they can. On the other hand, KDOT/FHWA keep increasing the size of signs because our society as a whole is aging and they know we need to be able to see ‘em. We need to conserve gas, but we don’t want to help people find their way.
To me it is a matter of ‘where’. For example, at ‘Dugan Center’ west Kellogg I think it fits well. Kallogg/Roch as well. But probably not at Oliver.
It’s like some of the ‘public art’; I don’t think the spaceship landing site fits in well by Riverside Hospital. Instead I would have liked a somewhat more ‘natural’ look.
It all depends on what fits in.
Rhonda’s comments make it seem like the Clear Channel board is some 14×48ft flashing, animated behemoth with ’strobelike effects’.
The truth of the matter is that the only action on that board is the changing ad every 6-8 seconds or so, not unlike the three-sided rotating boards that have been around for years already, and it’s no larger than a standard billboard. In reality, it’s not much different than its print counterparts, with the exception of not requiring external lamps to light it at night.