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Comment by oinksoft | Hacker News Reader

If like many Washingtonians you never leave NW, sure. But there are plenty of billboards in NE and SE. There are definitely billboards when you get a little ways out on 66, also on 50E towards Annapolis. 95 in VA is non-stop billboards, I forget if 395 has them. The one I'm not certain about is the beltway ... but pretty sure I've seen billboards on the beltway in parts of MD. There are (were?) also what amount to billboards along H St in NW. So I have to disagree, and encourage you to explore the area more.

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Never had visited DC I googled "billboards in DC" and got plenty of results. A billboard in support of Chelsea Manning, companies selling billboard space and companies selling mobile billboard space as well. Nothing to indicate there was a lack of billboards there.

Yeah I am mainly in NW and Northern VA. Billboards are not illegal, but they are just regulated better. I was mainly comparing with Pensilvania, Ohio and a few Midwest states I drive through sometimes.

Agreed, there are very few billboards in northern Virginia; I think Fairfax and Arlington Counties have stringent requirements for them, if not outright bans.

When I lived in Sacramento, on the Cap City Freeway there was a highly visible, gaudy billboard advertising liposuction, fat belly and all. I always wondered about that one ... there's no way the funds from renting that space justified the terrible light it cast on Sacramento for visitors passing through, and there must be other bidders. Also it's not as though this is the norm, I can't think of any similarly awful billboards in the Sacramento area, and the Cap City Freeway itself has few billboards.

the bad ones are the super bright LED ones that, when suddenly changing to the next advertisement, make me think there's a cop behind me when it's humid [always] at night [half the time]

If like many Washingtonians you never leave NW

At 7th and H NW there are three giant electronic billboards that play sound, not to mention the array of billboards plastered all over the Verizon center.

I mentioned those, but you're right that they're inconsistent with what I said about people not leaving NW. 2006-ish I think there was a big debate on if they'd be allowed ... they've always seemed like a special case, being part of the arena itself. In any case, billboards are few and far between in NW.

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