The only thing standing in the way of these industry game changers was the HBA stipulation against intermittent, flashing, or moving lights. LEDs had historically been understood to fall into that category.
In September 2007, however, something surprising happened: The Federal Highway Administration decided that signs flashing a new image as often as every four seconds are not “intermittent” after all, and promptly issued a memorandum reversing the government’s position. The new dictum asserted that “changeable electronic variable message signs . . . do not violate a prohibition against ‘intermittent’ or ‘flashing’ or ‘moving’ lights.”
There were about 500 digital billboards along the nation’s highways in 2006; there are more than 4,000 now. And this is only the beginning. Like every other print industry, outdoor advertising sees its future as digital.
There have been objections—from NIMBYs (home values have been proven to drop when an LED comes to the neighborhood), dark-sky advocates, conservationists worried about the amount of energy it takes to make these signs visible in daylight, and people concerned about highway safety.