“If you dislike / Big traffic fines / Slow down / Till you / Can read these signs / Burma-Shave”
– A 1939 Burma-Shave road sign
Anyone who has driven in the United States will be familiar with the six – usually red-and-white – advertising signs advertising Burma-Shave. The sixth sign in the series was always an advertisement for Burma-Shave, an American shaving cream product.
The sign clutter on American highways and byways may be somewhat amusing, but it is also very distracting and mars the scenery along the way. Unfortunately, this is another American tradition that seems to be creeping into Alberta culture.
Under previous town planning legislation, there was a restriction on any development within a thousand feet of the centreline of major highways. Highway 2, now renamed the Queen Elizabeth Highway between Calgary and Edmonton, appears to have fallen victim to the Burma-Shave phenomena.
The drive between our two major cities is becoming an eyesore with billboards and semi-trailers parked just off the roadway advertising any number of products. Some are professionally done, but some are obviously done on the cheap. Either way they are very distracting and are a blot on the otherwise serene landscape of central Alberta.
Unlike the Burma-Shave jingle, drivers don’t slow down to read the signs but rather zip on by, with the further distraction of their cellphones or other electronic devices. We have had a major crackdown on distracted driving in the past several years, but we continue to ignore the visual pollution along our major highways, not to speak of our urban arterials which are equally as offensive.
In addition to this proliferation of signage, we seem to be allowing major commercial developments at virtually every overpass near towns along the QE like Ponoka, Lacombe and Olds. These developments are bound to restrict a future highway widening or sometime in the future a high-speed railway between our two metropolitan centres. A good example of this lack of planning is obvious both at Gasoline Alley in Red Deer and North Red Deer as well as the city of Airdrie.
We have been much less restrictive in some of our planning regulations in recent years for no apparent reason, or perhaps it’s a lack of appreciation for the unintended consequences.
There is probably nothing we can do about the major developments along our highways, but surely we can clean up the proliferation of unwanted advertising signage.
A number of years ago when I was on city council, I was criticized by this newspaper for taking offence with commercial signage on St. Albert Trail. I note in recent years that the Gazette, the Chamber of Commerce and city council have all come out in favour of cleaning up our commercial signage. Hopefully, the province will do likewise and clean up the proliferation of the distracting highway signage.
Ken Allred is a former St. Albert alderman and MLA.
