Scenic America Blasts California Proposal to Convert Official Highway Signs to Digital Billboards as Reckless and Unconscionable
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Scenic America, the nation’s leading opponent of visual blight, has announced its opposition to a proposal by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to convert the state’s 674 official changeable message signs into digital billboards carrying commercial advertising along with official safety messages. These state-owned signs are located on the right-of-way itself, not on private property, and have never been used for commercial purposes in California or any other state since such a use would be prevented by numerous federal and state laws.
The state also wants to permit so-called “roadside vegetation displays” on its highways. These displays are, in effect, commercial billboards made out of plant material, and are currently illegal under federal and state law and have long been banned in all states. An attempt by a California-based company to waive the laws prohibiting vegetative billboards on the right of way of federal highways failed in Congress in 2007, and the fact that this proposal has surfaced once again under the guise of the Caltrans proposal is a transparent and cynical attempt to circumvent that failure, this time with an official state collaborator.
In order to achieve its goals, California is asking for the federal government to waive the various laws it wants to break under the auspices of a Federal Highway Administration program called SEP-15, which is designed to encourage public-private partnerships in highway construction projects, but which has never been applied to this kind of proposal. In an October 17 letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, Scenic America President Kevin E. Fry called the California plan “reckless and unconscionable” and called for the Department of Transportation to “immediately and unequivocally reject it.”
The California proposal would violate several federal and state laws, including:
The core federal highway statute [23 CFR 1.23(b)], which requires that the right-of-way be “devoted exclusively to public highway purposes … and [be] free of all public and private installations, facilities or encroachments….” Since commercial advertising on digital signs or vegetative billboards is not a valid highway purpose, it is banned, and has been for over 50 years.
The Highway Beautification Act, which governs billboards on federal roads, and which has been interpreted as banning commercial signs on the right-of-way since its inception in 1965.
The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which governs the use and design of signs on all the nation’s highways, and which carries the force of law. The MUTCD specifically states that “Traffic control devices … shall not bear any advertising message or any other message that is not related to traffic control.” It also states, among other similar provisions, that “Changeable message signs shall display pertinent traffic operational and guidance information only, not advertising.”
In the letter to Secretary Peters, Fry denounced the California plan as being a direct threat to the safety of motorists. Fry pointed out that the MUTCD has very strict rules about the use of signs on the roadway precisely because of the inherent dangers of taking drivers’ eyes away from the driving task to read and comprehend messages. “Unlike normal digital billboards on private property adjacent to the road, which are dangerous enough,” he explained, “these signs would be placed directly and unavoidably in the line of sight of every driver on the road.” By mixing high-priority safety messages with commercial advertising the state is inviting confusion, both causing unnecessary, hazardous distraction and potentially diminishing the impact of the official messages drivers need for the safe operation of their cars. Fry concludes that “it would be difficult to imagine a bigger threat to highway safety than the addition of colorful commercial billboards built directly into the right of way,” which is why they have always been banned.
Scenic America has also denounced the use of the SEP-15 program as a way to get around the long-established ban on commercial billboards on highway rights-of-way. SEP-15 was not created to give states an avenue for getting out from under statutory or regulatory requirements they find inconvenient. As Fry explained, “SEP, which is an acronym for Special Experimental Project, is, by definition, designed to encourage experimental approaches to project delivery. There is, however, nothing remotely experimental about California’s proposed digital sign or vegetative logo programs.” The application of SEP-15 to this case would be completely inappropriate, and Scenic America has insisted that “the department [of Transportation] should unequivocally reject this grossly inappropriate and precedent-setting use of the SEP-15 program.”
Fry informed Secretary Peters that because of the clear threat to public safety and the effect this proposal would have on the integrity of the federal highway system and the laws that govern it, the Caltrans proposal “shocks the conscience.” He went on to say, “The federal government cannot and should not subject the citizens of California to a safety experiment that might endanger lives and property just because the state and its corporate partners seek revenue. Although California, like all states, is facing severe budget problems, it is inappropriate to endanger lives and to weaken well-established legal strictures to address revenue shortfalls.”
Scenic America is the only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to preserving and enhancing the visual character of America's communities and countryside. Through national advocacy efforts and technical assistance services, local and national projects, and the support of its state affiliates, Scenic America fights to eliminate billboard blight; mitigate the impact of visual intrusions like cell phone towers and overhead power lines, while promoting scenic easements and other strategies to protect open space; preserve the visual qualities of public lands; protect the scenic character of the nation's highways and byways, and promote context-sensitive highway solutions; and build a national movement to preserve and defend America's irreplaceable scenic resources. For more information, visit www.scenic.org.
