Federal law makes it hard for states to capitalize on one of their biggest assets: their highway systems. But that hasn’t stopped state officials from trying
By Daniel C. Vock | Governing
Highways may be some of states’ greatest assets, but increasingly it seems state officials see them as underutilized. The result has been a flurry of ideas in recent years — some successful, some not — to put the large swaths of land to better use.
The most recent example comes from California, where lawmakers are considering a pilot program to allow advertising on 25 of its 900 digital message boards.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has pushed the idea, arguing that a pilot program could raise $8.5 million to $10.2 million a year, which would be more than enough to cover the $5 million it takes to operate the message boards statewide. It would also improve the quality of the 25 signs from monitors with yellow text to more modern LED screens that can display crisp pictures.
Not everyone is on board with the idea. In fact, the California Association of Counties, the League of California Cities, half a dozen individual municipalities and several outdoor advertising agencies oppose the measure. “Auctioning public traffic signs is not a building block to leadership. On the contrary, allowing ads on highway signs would up-end the well-established policy that official signs are for traffic control and management, not advertising,” Jim Moravec of Stott Outdoor Advertising, a California firm that opposes the legislation, wrote in a recent op-ed.
