[sustran] Re: [carfree_network] Re: Re: Re: RE: Pollution in Paris...from Bicycles

[Chris Bradshaw]

This information about billboard-advertising concessions from the City of 
Paris puts this othewise noble project into a different light.  I thought it 
might have had some advertising _on_ the bicycles themselves.  But, no, the 
promoters wanted far more.

There is a real fight by advertisers to get more access to the urban 
visibility "spectrum."  People using transit have long "enjoyed" benches at 
transit stop advertising covering the whole seat-back, or illuminated 
advertising on the oncoming-traffic sides of transit shelters in colder 
climes.

The city must consider the trade-offs.  It is not only about the energy used 
by the lighting of the billboards, but the amount of distraction that they 
cause, the might result in collisions, including the very people using the 
bikes.

Also, the scale of the advertising implies that they are being viewed from 
afar, rather than being down at street level, close to pedestrians who need 
little illumination other than that provided by street lighting (although, 
street "grime" needs to be cleaned off the surface regularly).  Such 
large-scale installations also cut out the visibility of the naturally lit 
sky.

Chris Bradshaw, Ottawa