Our area has been blessed with new signs beaming with the new Light Emitting Diode technology lately. Most of these signs have been a great addition to the local landscape. I enjoy reading the scrolling ads or the upcoming classes/events at the local churches, schools and businesses. These signs are great.
But, LEDs are capable of being very, very bright. They can get so bright, in fact, that you can become temporarily blinded. It only takes a quick look at a "tactical flashlight" to understand that LEDs can be used to temporarily blind an aggressor.
In the recent weeks, Hamilton Place has updated their interstate sign next to the Sticky Fingers restaurant, much like many other local businesses have done. It appears that the brightness setting was set to MAX, causing the the background of the sign to wash out the message and blinding nearby interstate travelers going 60mph. I would like to point out that Hamilton Place is not alone, but it was the biggest, brightest sign that I've seen and it is along a high speed thoroughfare. I started looking at why these signs are so bright and what can be done about it.
I found that the Chattanooga Sign Ordinance actually has verbiage to address this very occurrence. The ordinance reads that the signs should be at 90 percent of their brightness during daylight hours and 30 percent during nighttime brightness. This information can be found in Sec. 3-19 and is accompanied by other requirements to specifically prevent distracting drivers.
If your business is considering upgrading, or recently upgraded, please double check that you comply with the ordinance for the benefit of you audience!
See y'all on early on Friday; I'll be shopping under the bright sign.
Tim Giordano