More About Signs

This op-ed in the Post-Dispatch praises billboards and decries billboard bans. While I’m not sure I agree that billboards “are a part of Missouri’s heritage,” at least not on the level of Daniel Boone or Lewis and Clark, billboards do perform a valuable service: They give drivers information. I can see how billboards, even ones that carry ads rather than safety announcements, might reduce traffic accidents. Glancing at a billboard for a second or two is less distracting than trying to locate a tourist attraction through a phone call.

A previous op-ed complained about billboards, in part because it’s annoying to drive through a scenic area and see lots of signs advertising services that can’t be discussed on a family blog. And it is annoying — but would you prefer that people looking for those kinds of places instead wander lost throughout Missouri, searching in every town and asking the rest of us for directions? Better just to give them the information on a billboard.