{"id":947,"date":"2006-07-03T14:07:15","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T18:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=947"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:57:03","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:57:03","slug":"billboards-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/03\/billboards-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Billboards in the city"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Today’s Globe and Mail<\/em> has an article about video billboards and the effect they have on drivers. From Dr. Gridlock’s column<\/a> today:<\/p>\n

…City transportation officials plan to ask council for cash to help fund future studies of the dangers of video billboards, perhaps in co-operation with other cities.<\/p>\n

Toronto already asks the operators of video billboards along the expressways under its control to voluntarily tone down their brightness in response to complaints from motorists and from people who live nearby. But the number of these signs is clearly growing on Toronto streets and along its expressways, even though the province has simply banned them along its highways.<\/p>\n

And there seems to be little question that driving while distracted, whatever the cause, is a major factor in accidents. The Canadian Automobile Association recently launched a safety campaign warning drivers to keep their eyes on the road, instead of on stereo controls, iPod display screens, text messages, cellphone conversations and the rest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spacing managing editor Dale Duncan wrote in the current edition of Eye Weekly<\/em><\/a> about the work of the Billboard Battilion.<\/p>\n

If there’s one thing that members of the Billboard Battalion have learned, it’s that good, old-fashioned letter-writing can make a difference. Since the Billboard Battalion — a campaign of the Toronto Public Space Committee that’s attracted over 100 members — sprang to aCI-Billboards2-0629ction a year ago, the group has grown to play a large role in the decisions made about billboards at city hall. While some go to meetings to state their opposition to specific proposed billboards at community councils once a month, most in the Battalion take action from the comfort of their own home.<\/p>\n

“I’ve learned that a two-line email can work,” says fellow BBer Stewart Russell, a wind-farm developer from Scarborough who describes himself as “your average armchair inactivist.”<\/p>\n

Councillors have taken note. “We don’t have a notification process or a circulation process [for billboard applications], and so the Public Space Committee is taking it upon itself to review all these applications,” explains councillor Joe Mihevc. “Funny enough, the ones that they oppose, certainly in the downtown area — about 90 per cent of them get rejected.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And while we’re talking about advertising on our streets, Christopher Hume ruminates<\/a> on the street furniture harmonization contract.<\/p>\n

What we’re talking about here is bus shelters, benches, bike racks, newspaper boxes, trash bins and so on, the stuff that makes up so much of the urban fabric. It’s one step down from architecture, but still all about design — and the city.<\/p>\n

For Toronto, it provides an opportunity to return the sidewalks to pedestrians. Though this is a car city of the most flagrant kind, even drivers must sometimes use their legs for something other than pushing pedals.Though little can be done about widening Toronto’s too narrow sidewalks, we can get rid of the clutter that threatens to make them impassable. The most recent example was the battle over the giant garbage bins that come with billboards attached. These were initially approved by the city’s public works committee, which didn’t have a clue that maybe these contraptions were inappropriate and offensive….<\/p>\n

The objective shouldn’t be to beautify the city so much as to provide order and accessibility. In the best-case scenario, it becomes almost invisible, part of the landscape but not obtrusive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Globe and Mail has an article about video billboards and the effect they have on drivers. From Dr. Gridlock’s column today: …City transportation officials plan to ask council for cash to help fund future studies of the dangers of video billboards, perhaps in co-operation with other cities. Toronto already asks the operators of videoContinue reading “Billboards in the city”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,9,6],"tags":[11,2740,2737,2484,2364,2736,340,408,331,423,313,2735,581,552,421,89,2739,19,435,2738],"class_list":["post-947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-traffic","category-walking","tag-ad-creep","tag-bber-stewart-russell","tag-billboard-applications","tag-billboard-battalion","tag-canadian-automobile-association","tag-car-city","tag-christopher-hume","tag-councillor","tag-dale-duncan","tag-eye-weekly","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-gridlock","tag-ipod","tag-joe-mihevc","tag-managing-editor","tag-scarborough","tag-the-battalion","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-public-space-committee","tag-wind-farm-developer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBillboards in the city - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/07\/03\/billboards-in-the-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Billboards in the city - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today’s Globe and Mail has an article about video billboards and the effect they have on drivers. 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