10-26-2005 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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fig 040.pmd visibility conditions, and. not least of all, demographics of the audience. As the profile on the street changes, the content of the message displayed also can change. When message content on an electronic message center is unduly limited by sequencing restrictions, it interferes with the sign user's ability to effectively communicate with the identifiable demographic on the street at a particula '.° - of day In 1980, following the 1978 amendment, the Federal Highway Administration commissioned researchers Ross Netherton and Jerry Wachtel to undertake one more study of variable electronic messaging. The researchers set out to prove electronic variable message signs were unsafe. They concluded, however, that no credible statistical evidence existed to support the assumption that electronic or variable message centers negatively impacted road safety. Their report also said that roadside signs provided a stimulus that helped maintain driver alertness, and increased safety by combating "highway hypnosis." During the subsequent 22 years, no research has emerged at contradicts the 1980 finding. 612111111M111 I Several states have conducted studies on the safety of roadside signs, including EMCs, and none have found an increase in traffic accidents — and in some cases have found a significant decrease in accidents — related to the signs. Furthermore, nine leading insurance companies were surveyed, and all indicated that they had never received an accident claim involving an advertising sign. Richard Schwab, former Federal Highway Administration program manager for research on highway visibility and night driving safety and Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America, conducted an extensive study that concluded EMCs could not be linked to traffic accidents or to any reduction in traffic safety. 1996, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down a state statute that prohibited signs near highways if they contained or included "flashing, moving or intermittent lights except those displaying time, date, temperature or weather ...." See Flying J. Travel Plaza v. Commomvealth, 928 SW 2d 344 (Ky.1996). The court said the state had failed to demonstrate that a legitimate government interest was advanced by the prohibitior, Businesses o en select t eir advertising medium, and messages, based upon the cost per thousand exposures of their message to the public. On this basis, no other form of advertising comes close to matching the efficiency and cost- effectiveness, dollar for dollar, of an electronic message display. Compare the figures below: • Newspaper advertising - the cost on average is about $7.39 for 1000 exposures within a 10 -mile radius of the business location. • Television advertising - The cost on average is approximately $6.26 per 1000 exposures. • Radio advertising - The cost is about $5.47 per 1000 exposures. • New LED electronic message center display - The cost is less than $0.15 per 1000 exposures. How? Assume, for example, that you spend $30,000.00 on this type of system, and that its useful life is about ten years. The amortized daily cost of the message center would equal about $8.22. Add to this the daily cost of electricity for this new LED unit ( approximately $0.20), thus giving your business a daily message center expense total of $8.42. With a daily traffic count of 20,000 vehicles passing your business, you would have a cost of less than $0.43 per thousand exposures (counting drivers only)! Best of all, with a changeable copy sign, a business does not have to worry about missing its target audience, becoming "yesterday's news," or facing expensive production costs for changing its message, as happens frequently with the other forms of advertising mentioned. With a changeable copy sign: • The business owns the form of advertising. • The advertising works for the business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with minimal cost. • The sign acts as the "salesman on the sheet attracting customers into the business. • The advertising speaks directly to the potential customers as they drive past the business location. • The EMC can display information pertaining specifically to products available on the premises. • The EMC makes the business a landmark in its community. • The business can select its own market and direct its message to that market at any given time. 3/13/2003, 12'45 PM 7