Highway safety signs may be the new billboards

Penn DOT is proposing a new use for highway traffic and safety signs – to give drivers a sales pitch.

Pennsylvania has requested to use mobile messaging signs for advertisements in addition to their current use to give traffic messages, according to Erin Waters, a Penn DOT spokesperson.  She says the idea is just starting to germinate as a way to raise money for transportation.

“Now this would have to be approved federally,” she says. “It would have to be approved through the state legislature, and then at that point we’re proposing to do a pilot of 50 signs on some of our active interstates and highways across the state, just to measure whether it has any safety impact.”

Waters says if the plan were implemented it could mean 150 million dollars a year in revenue for Pennsylvania.  The test would see if drivers would pay attention to the signs and if they would have the same or better impact than conventional billboards.