Lahore: There is a fear of increase in accidents with digital billboards on the busiest highways of the provincial capital.
“Digital roller billboards” installed to advertise commercial products in the green belt area of busy city roads can distract drivers and cause traffic accidents while the fast-changing scenes on the screen, extremely bright lights. And due to the written and pictorial content, the drivers’ attention is likely to increase towards the in-board, increasing the accident rate.
In the developed countries of the world, there are rules and regulations for digital boards to ensure the safety of drives, but in Pakistan, no technical rules have been formulated at the official level in this regard. This is the reason why Gulberg in Lahore. , DHA, Allama Iqbal Town, Model Town, the most important and traffic-rushed roads of many areas including hundreds of digital boards have been installed in the green belt area.
Digital billboards usually installed on top of buildings or on roadsides are static and large in size, so they don’t require much time and attention to see, but “digital roller bars” placed in the middle of the road. In this sense, they are more dangerous for drivers because the scenery on these boards changes every few seconds.
The luminance level of these boards is very high and especially when one scene is followed by another, a powerful flash of light causes the driver to divert his attention from driving. In order to carefully read the scenes or text displayed on these boards, the driver has to focus his eyes more towards the board.
Speaking to “Express”, a retired professor, Khalid Majeed, said that the roads in Lahore are shrinking while the number of vehicles is increasing. At that time, the rush of vehicles on every road is so high that “bumper to bumper” vehicles are running, in such a situation, the dynamic digital billboards attract the attention of the driver and make him unaware that the vehicle is running. Hits the car.
He said that this accident has happened to me many times that the driver who focused his eyes on the board hit my car from behind.
Bushra Shahid, a woman who runs a driving school, said that the basic requirement of driving is that the driver should be fully focused on the control of his vehicle and on the road. Digital billboards attract driver’s attention, especially when advertising about clothing or make-up on these boards, the attention of female drivers is diverted towards them, leading to the risk of collision.
A man named Ehtesham Sadiq said that his vision is weak, he has a contact lens in one eye, when I drive at night, the very bright light of these digital boards disturbs me and it becomes difficult for me to concentrate on driving.
Sharjeel Ahmed (pseudonym), a businessman from an advertising agency, said that there has been an extraordinary increase in the trend of advertising products through digital boards for some time. Giving more importance to “Digital Roller Bar”.
It is generally believed that the use of sophisticated graphics and lighting draws people’s attention towards them, if you ask us these boards are made to grab people’s attention. It is true that right now there are no rules and regulations on scientific and medical basis regarding digital board in our country as many countries have legislated in this regard.
The digital roller bar should set the level of light while also timing the transition from one scene to another so that rapidly changing scenes do not cause any accidents to the driver.
Director Marketing PHA Lahore Muhammad Usman said that PHA has outsourced various highways of Lahore into sections for 3 and 5 years for digital advertising. The Outdoor Advertising Association is responsible for the maintenance and technical aspects of these boards.
He said that the PHA has not set any technical rules and regulations specifically for these boards, but in 2014, when these digital boards were to be allowed, the research of many countries was studied and all of them digital. The boards have been declared safe.
The Outdoor Advertising Association sets technical standards for international standards. Udayan Sadiq, chairman of Outdoor Advertisers Association, said that we are working according to the rules set globally for digital advertising, not more than 8 ads are allowed in a loop and an ad is 15 seconds. These boards are closed for one hour every four hours.
He said that these devices are imported and the brightness is automatically controlled. Digital boards are being used globally as it is a modern way of promoting products. For the driver, it is not the board but the screen of the infotainment system installed inside the vehicle and using the mobile phone while driving is more dangerous.
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