When the city of Los Angeles cracked down on trailer-mounted billboards parked on streets, signs started popping up on bikes, scooters and even a baby stroller. Now a new law promises to finish wiping out the parked billboards.
A state law authored by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, D-Van Nuys, gave local cities authority to regulate advertising on nonmotorized vehicles beginning last January. (State authority was required because the state controls the vehicle code.) The city of Los Angeles immediately enacted new rules and hundreds of the signs disappeared from streets.
But advertisers quickly figured out how to comply with the law and still keep their signs in the public eye.
Because the rules focused on wheeled vehicles, advertisers turned their signs into sleds with runners. The law excluded bikes from the definition of “vehicle,” so companies attached billboards to bicycles, tricycles and motor scooters. Sometimes the signs were moved a few inches periodically to get around the definition of “parked.”
“Once, just to stick their finger in the eye of the police, they mounted a billboard to a baby carriage,” Blumenfield told the Business Journal. “One of these blight merchants even put a sign in front of my house and left it for six months.”
To close the loopholes, the Assembly has passed a new law authored by Blumenfield, set to take effect Jan. 1. The law gives local governments authority to ban advertising on any vehicle – including bikes, sleds, trailers or other contraptions – left on a public street unless the signage is permanently affixed or doesn’t extend more than an inch from the contours of the vehicle. It also allows localities to establish a minimum distance a parked sign must be moved within a set time period to avoid violations.
Blumenfield said the law is intended to ban vehicles with the primary purpose of advertising.
“This wasn’t intended to impact Joe Handyman’s sign on the side of his pickup,” Blumenfield said. “A handyman’s truck is transportation.”
Bruce Boyer, general manager of Lone Star Security & Video in San Fernando, who places signs for his own business, said four cities in Southern California, including Los Angeles, have passed regulations under the new state authority that will take effect Jan. 1. He has sued all four municipalities on constitutional grounds.
“This is about one issue: free speech,” Boyer said. “Under the new law, you can legally register a (billboard) vehicle in Los Angeles, but you can’t park it on a public street. I don’t think that’s going to stand up in court.”
Earlier this year, Boyer turned his wheeled signs into sleds to comply with the law. He said that about 75 of his signs were illegally towed this year, so he no longer parks signs in the city of Los Angeles. Instead, he has moved them to such cities as Santa Clarita, Calabasas and Agoura Hills. He also redeployed large parts of his fleet to Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, where regulations are more lax.
Boyer reports that sign trailers continue to be a great way to drum up business for advertisers.
“It’s enormously effective and cost effective,” he said. “I do it because it works.”
Blumenfield said opponents to the signs include small-business owners, who say the signs take up valuable parking space in front of stores. And visually, he considers the signs a form of graffiti that distract motorists from driving and business signage.
“Most people who see a business advertising in this medium are not positively impressed if the sign is taking their parking spot or they have to swerve to miss the sign,” he said. “There are legitimate ways to advertise and businesses should take advantage of those.”
Blumenfield said the new law does not violate free speech because it is content neutral.
But Boyer warned that strict enforcement could intrude on the right of many businesses to publicize their goods or services.
“Any vehicle with any signage on it, including a bumper sticker, a magnetic sign or lettering on the exterior that’s not permanent – whatever that means – can be towed and ticketed,” Boyer said.
Complaints down
Dennis Zine, an L.A. councilman who represents the western San Fernando Valley and has sponsored the billboard laws at the city level, said complaints to his office have dropped to nearly zero since the crackdown in January, but he still wants to wipe out the remaining parked billboards in his district.
“Hopefully, we have now plugged every possible loophole,” he said. “I encourage the public to continue to report them to the L.A. Department of Transportation so we can eradicate them from the streets once and for all.”
Boyer expects his lawsuits will be heard by a federal judge in late January or February.
While Blumenfield acknowledged that sign owners have the right to present their case in court, he’s confident the new law will hold up and end the debate.
“It’s been fully vetted through the legislative and hearing process,” he said. “I can’t imagine the courts will side with the blight merchants on this one.”
