Opinion: Flashy billboards, unsafe? What do you think?

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Now that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that nobody’s free speech is violated by Los Angeles’ billboard ban, legislators are getting bold, or creative, or both, in ways to head ‘em off at the pass (or the freeway, or the side street).

Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), a former city councilman, has cleverly proposed a two-year statewide moratorium on those flashy, flashing, ever-changing electronic billboards -- on the grounds of safety.

The Federal Highway Administration already has a study in the works about how distracting the billboards are to drivers, measuring eye movement to see how long we take our eyes off the roads to take in the glittering panoply of advertising.

Next month, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program should be releasing its compilation review of a lot of existing studies on digital billboard safety.

The billboard industry is as relentless as kudzu. When LA enacted a three-month billboard moratorium at the end of last year, residents reported that crews were out there within a day or two, putting up yet more illegal signs.

Go ahead and harrumph about the nanny state, but remember -- this is the billboard industry we’re talking about. It lost its free-speech court gambit; if the safety argument can stop a few of these monstrosities, so be it.

Think they’re not so distracting as to be unsafe? Drive down a busy street with those billboards flashing, and then tell me what you think. Maybe you don’t take your eyes off the road -- but you know there’s always some jerk in front of you and another one behind you who don’t have your driving skills, discipline, self-control and complete lack of interest in capitalistic exhibitionism. Take the poll:

Los Angeles Times photo.