LED technology is producing pulsating, glowing lights in the night landscape that advertisers love; others believe they a distraction to drivers and a safety hazard. Last year, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration reported a study on driver distractions and found that anything distracting a driver for more than two seconds is significant. Some talk about light pollution; others find them aesthetically unappealing; and some people find them informative or even entertaining.

Pittsburg municipal officials are working to rewrite decades-old ordinances to control them.

In nearby Monroeville, Pa., municipal leaders are facing litigation from national billboard manufacturer, Lamar Advertising, after the Monroeville Zoning Board rejected a plan to convert 17 traditional billboards to animated, digital signs.

In Connellsville, Pa. a half-century-old sign ordinance was rewritten to ban digital signs on Route 119.

Reading, Pa. has banned digital billboards that are brighter than traffic lights.

Several towns in Minnesota have moratoriums on the signs. The Rhode Island DOT has barred signs with moving or flashing lights.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America estimates the number of digital/LED billboards will grow tenfold in the next decade and comprise a $2 billion market by 2010. The signs are becoming quite sophisticated. For instance, BMW, the maker of the new MINI (formerly known as the Mini Cooper), are looking at ways to have digital billboards announce when a MINI passes by. The signs would read the chip in the passing car?EUR??,,????'???s key chain!

Some city officials see blinking signs and billboards as detracting from the historic look of some areas, which is the reason why Greensburg, Pa.?EUR??,,????'???s new Historic and Architecture Review Board will beef up old ordinances to deal control their use.

Over the past 27 years, billboards were prohibited in Bethel Park, Pa., but Lamar Advertising Co. challenged the law, citing a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that prohibiting billboards violated free speech.

Bethel decided not to fight a court battle, but to rewrite its ordinance. It does not allow colored or flashing lights. Yellow or white lights are, however, allowed on electronic message board signs, but the wording can only change every 12 hours.