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Electronic signs not welcome in Fayetteville Sunday, Jun 10, 2007 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A new state regulation allows advertisers to place electronic billboards with changing messages along state highways, but advertisers can expect hefty fines if they place any of the signs in Fayetteville. The city has an ordinance prohibiting any sign that "flashes, blinks or is animated." Electronic signs that change their message more than once every three hours are prohibited, unless the information they display is limited to the time and temperature. The new state regulation, which goes into effect June 30, permits billboards that change their message as often as every eight seconds. In places where local governments impose stricter limits, however, advertisers will have to abide by those limits, according to Scott Bennett, assistant chief engineer for the state Highway and Transportation Department. "They have to comply first with all of the city ordinances, and we have to have the OK from the city if it's in city limits," Bennett said. At a May 31 meeting of the legislative Administrative Rules and Regulations Committee, lawmakers asked Bennett whether electronic billboards could distract drivers. Bennett said other states that have chosen to allow the signs have not seen an increase in accidents. Fayetteville accountant John La Tour found that statement interesting, since distraction of drivers was one of the reasons the city of Fayetteville gave for forcing him to stop displaying changing messages on a digital sign in 2000. "I guess Fayetteville drivers are more easily distracted than other drivers," La Tour said in an interview last week. After he was fined about $1,000 - the maximum fine is $250 per day, but the city did not impose the maximum in La Tour's case - La Tour filed a federal lawsuit, claiming his First Amendment right of free speech had been violated. The messages La Tour displayed on his sign included religious and anti-abortion statements such as, "Every baby is a life. When you have a choice, choose life." He alleged in his lawsuit that city officials objected to his sign, while allowing electronic time-and-temperature signs, because they objected to the views he expressed. "I think their real motive was to silence me. ... They didn't like what I was saying," La Tour said. La Tour lost in U.S. District Court and appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, which ruled 2-1 in favor of the city. Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams said the courts correctly rejected La Tour's claim that he was targeted because of his viewpoint. "It had nothing to do with viewpoint at all," Williams said. "It was totally on the form and function of that sign, and the fact that it was flashing and changing." Williams said the city makes an exception for time-and-temperature signs because those signs have to change as the time and the temperature change. "You could not have a clock sign if the clock never changed, if it was always 10:15," he said. Williams said the city prohibits other changing signs for two reasons - esthetics and traffic safety. He said a driver can glance quickly at a sign to learn the time and temperature, but other electronic signs can be more distracting. Asked if he was aware of any studies showing a danger to drivers from electronic signs, Williams said he was not. Charles R. Taylor, a marketing professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., who has studied outdoor advertising for the past 20 years, said there is no evidence that electronic signs pose a safety hazard. Taylor said state transportation departments track traffic accident causes, "and in every state I have seen the data from, billboards are not listed as a cause." "Moreover, insurance companies, who probably have the biggest direct stake, also do not believe that billboards are a significant factor in traffic safety," Taylor said. Williams said Fayetteville's sign ordinance is probably the most restrictive in the state, including restrictions on size and placement that have made advertisers unhappy and resulted in several lawsuits over the years. The city is not apologetic about the ordinance, though. "I think there's a lot of appreciation of the fact that if you drive around Fayetteville, it's just a much nicer place without billboards and giant signs blocking the views and cluttering up the cityscape," Williams said. |
