Roadside Distractions

The Alabama Department of Transportation has started removing roadside memorials constructed by relatives of accident victims. The Department is leaving it up to the regional District Engineers to decide if they'll do the same in other parts of the state. That action will be one of the topics we discuss on this week's For The Record at 8:00pm Friday on APT. Though they can be distracting, the real distractions along the state's roads are billboards. "Litter on a stick" is the name detractors gave to them years ago. As Associated Press story about Vermont today reports "Alaska, Hawaii and Maine are the only other states that ban billboards. Vermont's ban took effect in 1968, prohibiting new billboards and giving the owners of existing ones five years to remove them." I've never been a fan of the huge signs, and challenge you to take a photo of a roadway in your neighborhood, PhotoShop out the billboards, and ask yourself which looks better. Hands down, the new view wins. I've always felt the same way about power lines. Take a photo of almost any intersection and see how much more friendly the view is when the lines are removed. If it's a bad idea, why do they bury the lines in new subdivisions? Back to the boards: you can try the opposite too...take a nice woods view and add a few billboards. Last yearABC 33/40 in Birmingham did a story about your tax dollars paying for 76 billboards featuring a big photo of the Governor...and don't get me started about the electronic boards that change messages every few seconds. Distracting? Come on. By design they are trying to get drivers to look away from the road. If they're OK for a commercial purpose, what's so wrong with the little memorials?