You Say No to Roadside Animated Signs
Monday, April 1, 2013 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Animated roadside signs have sparked a nerve with some in Prince George.
City Council recently approved a variance permit for the overheight sign at the corner of 10th and Highway 97, but only because the sign was already in place and some councillors felt making the owners remove and downsize the sign would be too costly a penalty.
The Burger King sign is not the only animated sign in Prince George.
There is one at the corner of Highway97 north and East Austin Road, there is another at the corner of Victoria and 15th. City Hall has rejected applications for two others, citing potential for driver distraction
The Ministry of Transportation has gone on record expressing some concern about brightly lit animated signage, but is said to have the power to order the owners to reduce the brightness.
We wanted to know what you thought about animated signs. We posed the question “Should the City allow animated signs along major thoroughfares?”
48.9% (8659) said Yes, the City should allow animated signs along major thoroughfares.
51.1% (9047) said No.
Comments
GEEZ!!!!
You missed the biggest offender in town! City Hall.
If there is ever a roadside animated sign which catches the attention of drivers it is the one at CN Centre that displays the coming events.
I suspect many people are interested in more info when they thought they saw the name of their favourite group or event flashing by and they missed it.
Then we had the one at the Playhouse.
I think it is time that the Casino started getting some perforamances and special events in. I mean, it is not a real casino without a huge animated sign selling its latest entertainment. And they have access to both major highways going through our community.
Wednesday and Thursday special features at Burger King is peanuts (pun intended) compared to the other potentials.
Then we must not forget the one at PGSS â¦. And the temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit at the Brewery â¦â¦ and time alsoâ¦. I forget.
And then there are the people dressed up as clowns, and god knows what, waving hands, etc. trying to sell flowers, pizzas, and whatever else they might fancy. That is a 4 dimensional, randomly animated “sign”.
If potential for distracting drivers is the criterium, then they all need to be removed.
Remember, they are most effective where there is lots of traffic, not back roads. So, they will all have a high frequency probability of distracting drivers.
BUT, has anyone proven definitively that such signs cause accidents?
Oh ….. there are more and more animated signs being built along major highways, such as the ones in the lower mainland providing road conditions, sharing the road with motorcyclists, stuff like that.
And, of course, the waits at the border, ferry crossings with current capacity.
Try reading those for 4 border crossings while doing the speed limit let alone the 120kph for the predominate speed of traffic. And then have a huge transport truck obstruct your view of important information.
It does not matter what the purpose of the sign is – inform travellers of a Motel with Internet access, or of road conditions, thaey are all animated signs and they all have the potential to distract.
The more important it is to the traveller, the higher the potential to distract and the more dangerous that part of the road/highway will be.
Is the source suspect?
You be the judge.
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/animated-billboards-do-not-cause-more-accidents-studies-say-493569
great point Gus. Council should have had that fact shoved in their face. As for entertainment at the casino, what a joke. Apparently our casino doesn’t feel the need to bring in entertainers because their machines are at full use anyway. That place makes me sick as I think about all the lives it has ruined.
The entertainment is the zombies plopping money in the machines.
Those same 51% will be seen texting or talking on their phone while driving! What about billboards? No they aren’t animated but they are there to grab your attention.
Another thing you can do is not look at them just like any other advertising.
It’s nice to have thease opinion poll’s, but they should have it where you can only register one vote per person. This one on 250 you can just click on the yes or no button as many times as you want.
The thing about these kinds of signs is that they’re distracting… at first. If you drive by them every day, you stop looking at them.
Whenever anyone leaves the casino with empty pockets they can always say to themselves, “Gee! At least I was entertained”.
ballsy wrote: “Council should have had that fact shoved in their face”
I agree, they should have.
Even more so, they should have recalled that they had the largest and most attracting such sign in town and they should have addressed that in their decision making. In unison, they should have acknowledged that they set the precedent and they should have been prepared by having the accident statistics on the approaches to that sign in front of them, including the impact of the sign on the cause of any of the crashes which may have occurred there.
There is an interesting letter to the editor for a municipal region north of Toronto
http://www.yorkregion.com/opinion-story/2516319-informed-full-time-councillors-needed
The letter reads in part:
We have been involved with reviewing town policies and in particular, the new official plan and various developer applications for residential development.
After attending a number of town and council meetings, we have concluded the elected representatives are not sufficiently knowledgeable to handle the issues that come before council.
The councillors generally arrive at meetings uninformed and try to ad lib responses and pontificate without coming to grips will real answers to problems and issues.
The decisions taken (or not taken) are having significant impact on residents.
We should demand better.
Harbinger wrote: “Whenever anyone leaves the casino with empty pockets they can always say to themselves, “Gee! At least I was entertained”.”
hmmmmm.
I thought one entertained themselves and, if they lost money, they paid someone to have the pleasure of entertaining oneself. ;-)
Wasn’t part of the sales job for the new larger casino the fact that they were going to bring in all sorts of entertainment as part of the development?
Maybe it’s time city council started ignoring the promises that local developers make. I’m not sure if any of them have come through. Perhaps they are just too incompetent to deliver.
Odd, I don’t even notice the sign at the CN Centre, yet the Burger King sign and the one at the car wash on Victoria St. annoy me. Maybe someday I won’t notice them either.
51.1% against.. What a land slide. Time to separate lol
NMG wrote: “Wasn’t part of the sales job for the new larger casino the fact that they were going to bring in all sorts of entertainment as part of the development?”
You are bang on NMG. I wish more people had the ability to recollect little facts like that so that they could exclude such sales pitches in the future for other applications and simply stick with the facts and elements one can do something about.
The current case which falls into the same category is the Haldi Rd. recovery centre. Why they are talking about how it will operate is beyond me. It is nothing that is enforceable and should not be given any consideration.
As far as the casino goes, I recall several Councillors of the day telling me that there is a private proponent who will be building a PAC here. I was wondering what they were talking about.
Eventually I discovered they were talking about the Casino. I tried to explain to one or two that a Casino cabaret is not a PAC. They did not get it.
Some in LV certainly are great theatres, but that is not what the local Casion had in mind for obvious reasons of lack of population. It was initially supposed to have a second level. That was cut from the final facility.
So, to reiterate what some in Richmond Hill feel about Councillors:
“After attending a number of town and council meetings, we have concluded the elected representatives are not sufficiently knowledgeable to handle the issues that come before council.”
gus: “Some in LV certainly are great theatres, but that is not what the local Casino had in mind for obvious reasons of lack of population. “
So based on that, why do some still think we need and can support a multi-million dollar PAC?
I happen to like that Burger King sign.
If it seems too bright for you just wait another six months and the road grime will dingee it up just like everything else around
They are no more distracting than 10 billboards on the highway in a nice row. What a crock! How to stifle business for the sign companies as well as the businesses who want an electronic sign.
I wonder what Reno and Vegas are experiencing with flashing signs?? There’s so damn many you don’t want to read any of them.
Image of corner of Yonge and Dundas, downtown Toronto. Both are streets with considerable traffic.
Most of the signs are animated
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Dundus_Square.jpg
If one had a house close to the road with a huge picture window, and you had yer huge flatscreen TV facing the window on at night, hypothetically could one expect a visit by a by-law officer telling you to shut yer drapes?
Don’t bother telling me by-law officers don’t work at night. I already know. Where to go when you need one? Tims.
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