Stats show digital LED advertising does not cause road accidents

A further study into the impact of using LED boards to advertise on roadside hoardings has concluded that there is no greater risk to motorists caused by the placement of such displays on routes which they use.

This research was carried out in the US, where there are already more than 2000 digital LED boards erected next to roads. The report was commissioned on behalf of a group of firms who provide outdoor advertising, but was independently conducted using data acquired from local authorities relating to areas where nearly 70 large scale LED displays are in operation at locations around the US.

Analysis of road accident statistics in these areas and on stretches of road which have similar traffic levels but no digital signage, found that there is no relationship between the presence of the electronic boards and the number of accidents which occur on the roads.

The biggest batch of information was gathered in Richmond, Virginia, where, for the past seven years, there has been ongoing work which hopes to uncover whether safety concerns about LED signage used for roadside advertising are borne out by the statistics.

In Richmond alone, a total of ten different billboards were included in the study and by examining the accident stats provided by local transport police, it was possible for researchers at Tantala Associates LLC to discover that, regardless of time of day or driver age, the presence of digital advertising had no impact upon accident levels.

This industry-sponsored study is clearly going to have its critics, but the results of another report from a federal agency are also due to arrive in the near future. Rather than basing results on accident levels this will, instead, look at data showing how frequently drivers glance at LED displays when driving to indicate how safe they might be.