Board of State Advisors Advice: ban roadside billboards

Large advertising displays in the Dutch landscape are popping up in all shapes and sizes across the country. An undesirable trend, says the Board of State Advisors (CRa). Therefore, it recommends in an advisory report to ban advertising masts and signs along the highway. The digitization of existing advertising media must also stop.

In the report "Wat doet dat daar - geen reclame in het landschap", the CRa describes the trend going on along Dutch highways. From roadside trailers to masts tens of meters high: advertising is gaining an increasingly prominent position in the road user's field of vision. In addition, analog masts are often converted to digital transmission masts with rapidly changing messages.

This combination of developments is very worrisome, the researchers conclude. That is why the CRa recommends that the Ministers of Internal Affairs and of Infrastructure and the Environment ban new advertising carriers along freeways. The digitization of existing advertising carriers should also be banned. “Precisely because we spend more and more time zooming, texting and Netflixing, the tranquility, beauty and comfort that landscapes offer deserve every protection,” concludes Berno Strootman, State Advisor for the Physical Living Environment.