On Friday, the Los Angeles City Council approved a plan to install 71 digital billboards across the city, despite fierce opposition from community groups and four dissenting votes from Council members.
Where will they be?
A Metro spokesperson said the plans include both double-sided and single-sided billboards, adding up to 52 screens facing freeways and 19 screens facing roads. Many of them will replace billboards that are already standing.
“We started by looking at all of Metro’s property throughout the city of Los Angeles, and then eliminating any locations that would be within residential neighborhoods or park-sensitive neighborhoods, and then looking at those locations that did have viewership where we could communicate with commuters, whether on major arterials or on highways,” said Holly Rockwell, the Metro executive in charge of the program.
As part of the program, Metro will take down at least 120 static billboards currently on their property.
When will they be active?
While the freeway-facing signs will be operational from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m., those installed nearer to residential communities would run from 5 a.m. to midnight. Those require a permit before they can be built.
What will they look like?
The billboards that aren’t facing freeways will take up 300 square feet, while those that do will be over twice as large. The largest billboard, at 1,200 square feet, will be by Union Station, which faces the 101.
These billboards are not just for ads
The billboards would cycle through eight static slides, and not include any moving images. One of them would be reserved for real-time messaging, communicating accidents or events that may slow down traffic.
“We might have one on the 101 that says it’ll take you 45 minutes by car or 20 minutes by train. We might be able to say, ‘this park and ride has 20 spots left, this park and ride has two spots left,’ to help people make better decisions,” said Rockwell.
She also said the billboards will help direct traffic and advertise alternative transportation for special events, like major concerts or the 2028 Olympics.
Why digital billboards?
Rockwell says Metro opted for digital billboards for two reasons. “One is that the static billboards are very hard to maintain, and they’re very hard to change out,” she said. “It takes generally 30 days to change out a message on a billboard, so it’s not particularly timely messaging, particularly when we’re talking about transportation patterns.”
The other reason, she said, is that there’s more interest in advertising on digital billboards — meaning they would bring in more revenue. “Conservatively, over the next 20 years, we're anticipating $500 million,” Rockwell said.
What do the critics say?
The primary concerns from the community have to do with driving safety, given the billboards will cycle through images, and how they’ll look on the streets of Los Angeles.
Councilmembers Traci Park, Nithya Raman, Katy Yaroslavsky, and Eunisses Hernandez voted no on Friday, and Councilmember Raman’s office provided the following statement which reads, in part, "The size and hours of operation of the digital billboards, the potential conflict with locations for building housing, and the lack of what I would deem consequential research on the effects of digital advertising on street safety all led me to vote 'no.'"
After the ordinance was approved, Barbara Broide for Coalition for Beautiful Los Angeles asked the Council to reconsider during public comment.
“There is language that is inconsistent, math that doesn’t add up, and there’s no language in the ordinance to protect the city’s long term interests, public health, safety, welfare. And you have a fiduciary responsibility to serve the city’s long-term best financial interests. This doesn’t do it,” she said.
What are the next steps?
Now that the ordinance is approved, Metro will start negotiating with the advertising companies that currently have billboards on Metro property to take down those signs.
Rockwell said construction could start as soon as next summer.
“Once the construction starts, it’s very quick. It’s like a couple of weeks,” Rockwell said. “It’s a very quick turnaround.”
