Monday, January 5, 2009

LED Signs "BANNED"

LED Signs BANNED

This blog entry is just a rant about sign ordinances that ban LED Signs. Why do people have to make major decisions that impact other peoples lives on a 'knee-jerk-reaction'? Many times over the last few years I have been informed by clients and prospects that their city is having a 'meeting' to ban LED Signs. I have been personally been in involved in a few of these meetings and I am always shocked by what I see and hear.



It seems as though the uproar about LED Signs and 'all that flashing' is always spearheaded by some senior citizen with nothing better to do that complain about anything new or different in 'their community'. Here are the most common reasons I have heard they should be banned:



  • "We don't want our city looking like Las Vegas!"

  • "If drivers are reading signs they aren't paying attention to the road!"

  • "That blinking and flashing is distracting!"
I will now rant about the senselessness of these statements:

"We don't want our city looking like Las Vegas!"

Rest assured... your city won't look like Las Vegas! The average LED Sign in Las Vegas cost MILLIONS of dollars, an investment everyone in your town probably can't afford to make. A few smaller scale LED Signs up and down the street will hardly give your town a 'vegas-like' appearance.

"If drivers are reading signs they aren't paying attention to the road!"

On this note we would have top remove all outdoor signs regardless of what type they are because the majority of outdoor signs have one purpose and that is to be read by passing motorists.
The reality is that taking your eyes off the road for a second or two to look at a sign is not a major cause of traffic accidents. We take our eyes off the road to read signs all the time... not just business signs but directional signs as well.

"That blinking and flashing is distracting!"

The only difference beetween LED Signs and any other sign on the street is that LED Signs are more attractive due to the motion and intensity of the LED Lighting. All signs provide information, LED Signs just provide more of it than other types of signs.
Motorists in general aren't going to crane their necks for five seconds, not looking at the raod to read a sign, LED or otherwise. None of us want to wreck our cars and therefore glance at things, not stare. Do you stare in the rearview mirror or sideview mirrors? Do you stare at anything or do you glance? LED Signs are no different. People glance at them.
What you need to realize is that many traffic accidents especially 'fender benders' are caused by people 'spacing out' (referred to as Highway Hypnosis). Regular signs that lack motion or blinking or flashing won't typically break this spell of 'spacing out' while LED Signs do.

It is my position that people that are considering banning LED Signs really need to take a look at all of the information and consider the fact that they may be all together wrong about LED Signs.

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