Members of the Display Study Committee are:
Chris Ooten with Schaad Properties; Mike Fleming, formerly with Lamar Outdoor Advertising (Lamar’s Nashville lobbyist was the driving force behind the bill that allowed digital billboards into Tennessee); Kenny Anderson with Anderson Media; Dan Kelly with the Metropolitan Planning Commission; Robert Bedwell with First Commercial Real Estate (bigtime owner of billboards); Alex Harkness and Anita Cash, a codes inspector with the city of Knoxville.

The committee is dominated by billboard guys and their associates.

The "icing on the cake" as Lamar's David Jernigan describes it, is an illusion. Knoxville Police Dept. says they rely on radio and TV for "Amber alerts and fugitive alerts and do not need billboards for that purpose. They have the statewide alert system now as well. The use of digital billboards for "alerts" has its application, but that is not a justification for conversion of traditional billboards to digitals in the City of Knoxville.

talking on the cell phone while driving

Isn't that already illegal?

With your justification, if I-40 drivers already going 70 mph in a 50 mph zone, why not just go 80?

I think it's odd I've never heard the outcry for banning the following in Knoxville; talking on the cell phone while driving, eating while driving, putting on make-up while driving, adjusting the radio while driving, looking at the GPS while driving, dancing to music while driving, disciplining children while driving, etc., etc., etc.

Well, here's an outcry for banning talking on cell phones while driving. It's a terribly dangerous habit.

For you environmentalist

And while we're talking green, just how much energy is it that a digital billboard uses?

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." - John Maynard Keynes

Talking on cell phones while driving should be against the law. Also, will there be two versions of each message on the billboards, one in English and the other in Spanish?

All of those are a problem.

Regarding cell phones the states that prohibit:

(link...)

Using cell phones quadruples risk of crash...

scroll down to "Phoning while driving increases year by year..."

(link...)

another report from feds....

(link...)

"...distractions inside one's own head can be just as disruptive as environmental distractions." So why add to them?

(link...)

Respectfully, Kenny, I find ALL billboards to be distractions from driving.

Those tri-visions are WORSE than the standard billboards, however, because they make your eyes jump back to them due to their motion.

I think digital billboards would be even more distracting.

And though I know you disagree, I and many others can't wait for the day that ALL billboards become illegal and get torn down.

Having personally narrowly avoided a collision due to tri-visions out in Sevier County in stop-and-go traffic, and having lost a roommate not too long ago to a serious car crash in Alcoa, I hope you can understand my viewpoint.

There is absolutely NO REASON to further endanger motorists' lives by placing something even more distracting than what we already have. No reason except for money, which should be viewed as blood money IMHO.

Sincerely,

Pan Walker

Since you are clearly unable to look at this objectively, my suggestion would be that you resign from the committee.

And, on your way out the door, you need to make sure and hire a PR consultant for your media company to make it easier for you to show your face anywhere in the future.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

" think it's odd I've never heard the outcry for banning the following in Knoxville; talking on the cell phone while driving, eating while driving, putting on make-up while driving, adjusting the radio while driving, looking at the GPS while driving, dancing to music while driving, disciplining children while driving, etc., etc., etc."
.............

My first experience for this site was about six months ago. Since that time I have seen several posts about the dangers of cell phones, eating, putting on make-up and other distraction while driving. If you check the Red light camera subjects you can find plenty of remarks about distracted drivers.

According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), seventy percent of people will glance at billboards and sixty percent will read the billboard. Cell phones are sound, they don't require visual. Billboards require drivers to look away from the road to read your sign.
.............

"Before you all continue to discuss something you seem to not know much about, you should drive out to Solway to see the ones that have been operating for months in the county."

..............

I have made several remarks about outdoor LED lighting. My big complaint is the colors used at night. The blue, bright green, and white, are blinding at night. The new LED traffic lights on Hall of Fame Dr. has such a bright green, that when the roads are wet, drivers slow well below the speed limit until pass the green. During the tourist season, you can expect an accident in front of the Visitors Center on hwy 66 in Sevierville, if the road is wet at night.

I know there is a dim for night operations, but your industry disables it in this area. I could except the new signs better if you used more red or amber at night. In fact I would prefer red and amber LED over the current bright white.

I have no problem with new technology, I just want you keep the light on your side of the fence when it's keeps me from enjoying stars on clear night.

Before you all continue to discuss something you seem to not know much about, you should drive out to Solway to see the ones that have been operating for months in the county.

I drive past that detestable eyesore every day. It's a distraction which makes an already dangerous stretch of road even more treacherous. It should be torn down immediately.

When driving at night past that horrid thing, I can actually detect a temporary difference in my ability to see the road in front of me, and I make it a point to avoid looking directly at the billboard.

Of course, we all know that corporate profit and payoffs to politicians always trump the common good, so it won't be long before Knoxville is filled with those hideous things.

~Russ

Have you read the review of your industry's study at (link...)? It appears your industry is spewing various untruths about the facts on digital billboards. Don't take my word for it but read their review and form your own opinion. Oh yea, you're in it for the money, I forgot.

You missed one....I was almost rammed by a man who was shaving in heavy traffic. He was a danger to himself and others but dang....he had a baby smooth face by the time we got to the ramp!

Hey, Kenny--
Way to demonstrate your objectivity.

I would donate to the cause, though my computer skills end at getting the background picture I want on my Myspace page.

If a brighter light is aimed on the billboard to black it out, will the sign company scream light pollution?

Instead of boring tattoos people could offer up their skin for a few hundred bucks and make some extra money. Like maybe a Hertz ad across your chest and a Rodeway Inn sign across your butt? These could be done in bright flourescent colors. People bearing bodyads would have to be banned from jogging on streets though or we'd be back at the same old distraction problem. Heck, I think some people might actually go for it.

maybe Kenny Anderson should use his Solway digital board to convince motorists of the efficacy of his technology. Better than using this blog.

That committee is totally skewed, and doesn't reflect a shred of objectivity. That's how it works. Appoint a bunch of yes men and women, then trash anyone who speaks against it as uninformed luddites who hate technology.

Talk about biasing the outcome. Carrier pigeons. really, Kenny? That the best you got? you should be ashamed of yourself.

Still further, the Outdoor companies employing 100s of thousand of people a year.

Hate to break it to you, but if the electronic billboards go up, those outdoor companies will no longer have a need to employ the people who currently switch out the ads on the billboards we have now.

The core of the argument is that both the study committee and Mark Donaldson started their work from the position that digital billboards WILL BE ALLOWED, and that the only remaining questions are where and how many. As I have pointed out above, the study committee was heavily weighted toward the billboard business, and Donaldson accepted their premise and worked from there.

MPC will probably approve some version of Donaldson's plan, which will allow billboard owners to swap out some number of traditional signs for the digital monsters. Since he is a planner, he also wants to include a re-writing of the city's on-premise sign ordinances along with the digital issue. I don't know how that will go.

MPC member Art Clancey said at the workshop that he thinks digital billboards are "pretty."

I think City Council will take a very hard look at this. The core issue for them, IMO, will be whether the city's billboard ban applies to digital billboards (which Donaldson, for some reason unclear to me has renamed "dynamic displays"). If the answer to that is yes, then all this other arguing is meaningless palaver.

Is there any reason why KnoxViews is the absolute only place I personally have heard anything about these?

You're lucky to hear about it here - you have heard about it only because it is in the city of Knoxville and there is a new billboard ban in the city.

The county passed it without comment and without any advance notice with just a request by the sign companies at BZA.

Sammy, we've written about it repeatedly in the Shopper News, and the Sentinel has covered it also. It's just one of those issues that grinds on for a long time while nobody but the watchdog groups are paying attention.

Check out this link for more info:

(link...)

Presentation from billboard workshop is available on MPC web site.

You can also see the background info. & proposed options by viewing the agenda package (click on item 6):

(link...)

Who appointed Clancy?

I sat through a bunch of MPC meeting back when the south waterfront code and related matters were on the agenda - one of them a 7 hour marathon.

The only good thing I noticed about Clancy was that he stayed awake.

Oh, wait....

Solway update

So in other words, with this new technology they have so much inventory they can't sell it all and have to run PSAs as filler?

Congratulations. Looks like you had some immediate impact. Based on article in todays NS.

Interesting. On our last trip we noticed a few digital billboards. One problem I found was that the ad was gone before you got the necessary information and by the time it came around again we were gone. I wonder how this fits with sales of these types of billboards. Doesn't it cause a problem or no one cares. If no one cares if the message is seen then why have them?