Caltrans looks at turning Amber Alert signs into advertising billboards

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle, 10-24-08:

California's network of electronic message boards - commonly used to display Amber Alerts, travel times or traffic information - could become flashy digital billboards hawking fast food, cell phones and new cars if federal officials approve a Caltrans request.

Caltrans Director Will Kempton has asked Transportation Secretary Mary Peters to waive federal laws all but banning commercial advertising on highway rights-of way to allow partnerships with private businesses "as a way of leveraging increasingly scarce transportation funding."

The state, Kempton wrote in an Aug. 27 letter, wants permission to enter into deals with businesses. In addition to the message boards, Caltrans is interested in permitting commercial logos to be created with flowers and landscaping along highways and allowing businesses to operate in, or construct and run additional, state-owned rest areas.

<snip>

Converting the state's 692 message boards to "state-of-the-art technology" displaying commercial advertising, as Kempton wrote in his letter, would be the most profitable of the proposals - but it's already becoming the most controversial. Some digital billboards, including one near the eastern end of the (San Francisco) Bay Bridge, are despised by many drivers.

LINK: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/24/BAVJ13N9K6.DTL&hw=CalTrans&sn=001&sc=1000

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I'm in the ad business, but even I think this is going too far.

[cboy4]

1. All it will take is for one distracted driver to drift off into

the median a wipe out a family of four changing a tire before they dismantle the program.

They just banned talking on cell phones to reduce distractions, and now there's talk of adding a distractions.

But I guess these distractions are okay because they make money. :wtf:

[bama2008]

2. is it this bad we need to resort to this?