You can watch the shine flash at upcoming drivers on video at Carter Rubin’S Twitter/X.
In December of 2022, the Santa Monica City Council approved a contract with Big Outdoors to bring multimedia kiosks to Santa Monica’s street. The proposal from BIG Outdoors promised to be far more lucrative for the city, with the city adding between $6 and $12 million to its coffers every year; but advocates worried that while Big Outdoors has plenty of experience with large electronic billboards, they have less with on-the-ground wayfaring signs.
Now that the signs are on the ground, let’s see how the signs are doing.
Santa Monica Next laid out concerns from safe streets advocates at the time: Misplaced signs could limit visibility at intersections for drivers increasing the likelihood of a crash. Worse, there is no size limit on the signs in the contract.
First, the sign placement leaves a lot to be desired.
“I’m pretty shocked they’re flashing moving ads at drivers right before an intersection, while simultaneously blocking line of sight of pedestrians. This is bad,” wrote Cater Rubin, a transportation policy expert and former member of the city’s Planning Commission, on Twitter/X.
The sign placement isn’t just being questioned at the Ocean Avenue spot.
This image posted by Mike Terranova shows how the sign actually blocks the view from the car of the parallel crosswalk; reducing the visibility for pedestrians.
And this one by Caro Vilain shows how a kiosk eclipses a bus stop for both pedestrians and drivers.
Clearly the sign placement needs some work.
The signs are also pretty big, but they could have been larger. Someone walking up to one of the kiosks might be taken aback by their size, they are well over my height, and I’m 6’2. However, the renderings provided by Big Outdoors in 2022 showed signs that were well over ten feet tall.
The kiosks are still pretty new to Santa Monica, so there’s an opportunity for the city and Big Outdoor to improve the Kiosk placement. But for now, the kiosks are creating more safety issues than anything else.
