A big screen debate

So I gather that two big video screens will be affixed to the U.S. Cellular Center's concrete posterior, facing Interstate 380 as it curves through downtown Cedar Rapids.

Each screen will be 21 by 42 feet. That's 882 square feet apiece, or roughly the same-size footprint as a one-bedroom vacation villa at Vistana Villages in Bella, Fla., according to a 0.17-second Google investigation. The screens are part of a $2.7 million package of video screens and audio systems inside and outside the arena and adjoining Convention Complex.

Already, the screens are causing local angst. The plan has drawn complaints from those who argue that the big screens will distract 380 S-curve drivers and cause accidents. Speed cameras made the stretch safer, and now video screens will make it more dangerous. Good points, although some of these folks making them are not exactly big fans of the downtown project, with or without video boards.

These screens are comparable to digital billboards, and little did I know it, but digital billboards have been the subject of a national debate in recent years. Billboard companies love them because one ever-changing, flashing billboard can serve multiple paying clients. Critics say they distract drivers from driving, or maybe texting, or eating, or shaving.

Billboard companies have bankrolled studies that say, surprise, it's not a problem. Critics strongly dispute that data. All sides has been waiting years for a high-stakes Federal Highway Administration study on the issue. But it's been mired in delays and controversy. So the definitive word on digital distraction is stalled.

John Frew, who is managing the Convention Complex and arena rehab project, says the big screens at issue here won't “scroll, fluctuate or change” as rapidly as most digital billboards do. He said they will be used mostly to advertise upcoming complex and arena events, with some commercial messages mixed in from U.S. Cellular and other firms directly involved in the facility itself. And the messages will switch about once per minute. "We won't be showing 'Finding Nemo,'" he said.

“This isn't Vegas. We play by different rules,” said Frew, conceding that driver distraction is a real concern. He said the signs won't show general advertising that isn't connected to the facility. For instance, if Pepsi is sold at the arena, Pepsi may show up on the screens.

So it doesn't sound like a major safety threat, at least not any more than any other distraction drivers face.

Still, I do worry. If the screens must come, at least we can try to use them to help drivers.

Perhaps some giant, sobering images of awful car wrecks might jolt the inattentive. Or, during heavy commutes, the screens could switch to a solid, soothing pink, like the visitors' locker room at Kinnick.

Maybe poetry, or better yet, some brief, educational highway haiku:

S-curve is coming.

A big screen beckons to me.

I rear-end a Toyota.

Yeah, I have bad ideas. I bet yours are better. I'd love to see them.