New Billboards On Interstates Increase Crash Counts Over No and Existing Billboard Base
Topics:
Keywords: transportation, safety, highway safety, billboards, distracted driving
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract
Authors:
Douglas Tharp, University of Utah
Marco Allain, University of Utah
Jasmine Han, University of Utah
Morrison Donovan, University of Utah
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Abstract
Billboards are meant to draw drivers’ attention from traffic toward an advertising message. Previous research has shown through simulation studies that this distraction can be serious. We take Utah Department of Transportation data on crashes and billboard inventories along the interstate highway system to investigate whether the placement of new billboards leads, on average, to an increase in accidents. Our approach is to take 10 km segments of rural highway that either begin with a billboard, to have new billboards or contain no billboards to perform a difference in differences analysis comparing segments that never had a billboard to both those with new billboards and segments that always had billboards. The inventories examined compare crash count increases in percentage terms in the two years prior to the 2017 inventory to the two years following the 2017 inventory. As we examine entire multiyear periods, the difference in difference approach provides its own internal controls for weather, etc. As traffic in Utah has grown along with the population, it is reasonable to expect increases in crash counts everywhere. However, we find a statistically and operationally meaningful increase in crash counts over the no billboard base following the placement of a new billboard.
New Billboards On Interstates Increase Crash Counts Over No and Existing Billboard Base
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Paper Abstract