Informational pollution is inevitable in the industrialized world. Commercials follow us everywhere irrespective of whether we want to see them or not. They are often repetitive and annoying, but they also can be quite nice and useful. Today, people thoroughly protect their informational space trying to cut off spam, online ads, and notifications which contain irrelevant information. But excessive billboards do not give us a rest even when we are driving far from big cities. Perhaps someone will say that this type of advertising is pretty harmless even though unpleasant, but drivers frequently complain that billboards are too distracting and even dangerous.
Currently, advertising through the digital billboards near highways is banned in several states. Herewith, billboards cannot be installed too close to the highways and their frequency is also regulated. But still, commercials continue to distract drivers and disrupt the quiet life of the residential areas all over the country. The U.S. Department of Transportation was sued for not including digital billboards into a federal ban on advertising nearby highways. Despite the 1965 Highway Beautification Act and the exemption of digital billboards approved by the Federal Highway Administration, advertising companies have set more billboards which intrude in the country life and cause more road accidents.
Advocates of the environment complain that advertising companies cut trees which prevent drivers from seeing billboards along the highways. People cannot observe any natural beauty while traveling because it was removed and replaced by digital billboards. Constantly moving pictures usually annoy drivers who become exhausted seeing them all the time. Apparently, American highways must be a safer place than they are now which makes it necessary to provide a strict ban on billboards nearby them.