Each year, more than 200 communities seek tighter billboard control -- the surest sign that citizens are fed up with billboard blight. Though the industry claims billboards are essential providers of important information, polls reveal that they most people see them as ugly, intrusive, and uninformative.

Between 1957 and 1977, at least eight polls found 70% or more of respondents to be anti-billboard. In the 1990s, people in Florida, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Texas, Michigan, and Missouri all agree that billboards are litter on a stick. In fact, virtually every credible poll that's been done reveals one fact: Americans do not like billboards.

Billboards Degrade Scenic Beauty, Communities

Where do people want to live, work, and visit? Places of great natural beauty and distinctive community character. And most people agree billboards degrade natural beauty and community character.

• By a 10 to 1 margin, Floridians prefer reducing the number of billboards over further increases.   
• 64% of the citizens in New Hampshire oppose to billboard advertising on highways, with 53% of total respondents strongly opposing billboards.    
  
• 62% of Rhode Islanders state that billboards make state roads less attractive, as opposed to 31% who simply felt it made no difference.
• 96% of Houstonians believe it important to make major improvements in beautification of the city, and
  
• 79% of Houstonians support maintaining or strengthening the city's ordinance removing ALL billboards by 2013.  
  
• 69% of Missourians believe that fewer billboards would make their state more attractive to tourists, while just 26% disagreed.
  

We Need Fewer Billboards, Not More

Public patience with new billboard construction is wearing thin across the country. In fact, although the number of billboards along our roads increases by thousands annually, most Americans believe we already have either too many billboards or the right number. Almost no one supports the rapid rate of billboard growth we're currently experiencing.

• Michigan residents favor a ban on new billboard construction by a 60%-32% margin; moreover, more than 90% of Michigan residents believe the state has too many billboards or the right amount of billboards (versus just 2% who want more).   

• The Rhode Island public opinion survey discovered two-to-one support for a ban on new billboards.
•   81% of residents of Houston, TX, favor their existing ordinance banning new billboard construction.  
  
•   New Hampshire residents favor a ban on new billboards by a 56% to 29% margin. 
•   In Missouri, the margin of opposition to new billboard construction is 78% to 15%.

Tree-Cutting for Billboard Visibility Outrages Americans

There are many things taxpayers are willing to pay for. Cutting trees along public rights-of-way to improve billboard visibility is not one of these things.

• A 1994 survey of Missouri found that a whopping 80% oppose the state law allowing the cutting of trees on public rights-of-way in front of billboards.   
• 80% oppose tree cutting to improve visibility of existing billboards in New Hampshire.   
• 75% of Floridians oppose tree cutting to allow billboards to be seen. Michigan residents oppose tree cutting by a 63%-33% margin.
  

Americans Get Very Little Information From Billboards

Though billboard operators like to portray billboards as providing essential information, in fact, most people get little or no useful information from billboards. 72% of those surveyed in a Rhode Island study responded that they received either very little or no useful information about products and services from billboards.   

In Florida, the margin of those who derived more information from official information (LOGO) signs more than billboards for useful information about restaurants, gas stations and other roadside services was 63% to 16%.

In Missouri, the margins were 68% to 18% in favor of LOGO signs.

Conclusion: It's Time to Take Aim at Billboard Blight

The hundreds of communities that fight billboards each year clearly reflect the will of the people. In virtually every reputable poll, significant majorities of Americans oppose billboard blight. The support for billboard control spans education levels, race, and gender; and it knows no geographic   boundaries. People, in other words, are tired of watching their scenic roadsides transformed into oversized Yellow Pages.

NOTE:

Polls were: EPIC MRA September, 1997 Survey, questions commissioned by Michigan United Conservation Clubs; "An Analysis of Attitudes Concerning Billboards in the State of Rhode Island for Scenic Rhode Island," by Fleming and Associates, February, 1990; "Survey on Outdoor Advertising," for Florida House of Representatives, Transportation Committee, by Institute for Public Opinion Research, Florida International University, October, 1995; "Public Attitudes Toward Billboards in New Hampshire," for New Hampshire Dept. Of Transportation, by University of New Hampshire, July, 1994; "Statewide Public Opinion Poll on Billboards," for Scenic Missouri, by E. Terrance Jones November,   1994; "Assessing Public Opinion Regarding Billboards in the Houston Area," for Scenic Houston, by Telesurveys Research Associates, August, 1996.