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Comment by logjammin | Hacker News Reader

I spent a lot of time in Vermont many years ago. I'd been there a little while, blissfully unaware, before someone told me "yeah, they banned billboards here in the sixties - you didn't notice?" I hadn't consciously noticed, no, but I'd spent my time there until that comment driving around stunned at how beautiful the place was. Now I knew the reason for that (well, partial reason - billboards or not, it's a pretty part of the world, especially in summer and fall).

I've thought a lot about that billboard ban ever since, and I'm convinced it enabled a measure of calm in me.

I'm not sure how much I buy the study talked about in the OP's article - spurious correlation strikes me as a possibility - but the intuition about advertising is spot-on, I think. It'd cool if our societies had more ad-free spaces.

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I've never understood how billboards are acceptable. A giant sign that screams "Look at me, not the road!" seems like a bad idea.

Particularly when areas have laws about cellphone use while driving.

especially ironic when the billboard is an advert about not texting while driving.

This is why I take 280 instead of 101 when traveling to and from SF to South Bay even though it's slightly longer.

I've always preferred taking 280 over 101, because of the view and perception of being in nature. I never thought about the billboards, but now that you mention it that must also be part of the reason it's more enjoyable.

Driving 280 in 1983 was one of the most significant events in getting me to want to move here from Chicago.

I don't think it was the lack of billboards. But if there were billboards, it sure would feel different.

I've always considered it the "rich man's freeway". No semis allowed, no billboards, lots of either open-space preserves or mansions in the scenery.

The distance is a few miles longer but the average speed is higher so it ends up being the same time, just much more pleasant because of the lack of billboards and wider lanes.

Whoa, I never realized that. I live north of the border and drive through Vermont every so often to visit family. Now that you mention it, there are zero billboards on the highways.

Hell yeah! Cool to be able to share that eureka moment with others who know the area. Spread the word.

You've made me want to visit Vermont.

Banned in most of Orange County, California as well. It's an immediate, drastic change driving south on The 5 from LA.

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