Public space, safety and the real problems

Mobile advertising can cause real problems. Our case is that each one has a specific answer, and none of them requires banning the medium.

What the evidence says about safety

The largest review of research on roadside advertising, covering 90 studies, found that adverts draw drivers' eyes but did not establish a direct link to crashes (Oviedo-Trespalacios et al., 2019).
Swedish eye-tracking research found that digital billboards hold drivers' gaze longer than conventional ones (Dukic et al., via ScienceDaily).
The research we reviewed found no study of the safety effect of advertising vehicles, bicycles or sign-holders specifically. That gap cuts both ways. Nobody has shown these formats are safe, and nobody has shown they are dangerous. When the Supreme Court upheld Madrid's ban in 2012, it cited only a "possible" increase in congestion.

The problems, and what deals with them

Problem	What deals with it	Our model ordinance
Pavements blocked by people or boards	A minimum clear width; no boards on the ground	1.8 m kept clear; nothing propped on the ground or street furniture (art. 5 bis)
Access for blind and partially sighted people, wheelchair users	The same clear-width rule, applied strictly	Art. 5 bis
Bicycles on pavements	Bikes in the road or bike lane only	Art. 5
Vehicles parked as billboards	Treat them as billboards, with a simple time test	Parked over a set number of hours, or a trailer unhitched (art. 6)
Crawling vehicles and convoys	Normal traffic speed; no convoys	Art. 4
Distraction from screens	No lit or moving-image displays on the move	Art. 7
Noise	No loudspeakers on the move	Art. 7
Aggressive promotion	No following, blocking or pestering passers-by	Art. 5 bis
Leaflet litter	Hand to hand only; nothing on cars or the ground; the advertiser shares responsibility	Art. 5 bis
Sensitive places	Zones and hours chosen locally: historic centres, school gates, residential streets at night	Art. 8
Nobody knows what's happening	A simple notice, and an annual public report	Arts. 4 and 10

Several Spanish councils already use these tools. Sevilla and Torremolinos ban vehicles parked to advertise while leaving moving ones alone. Alicante requires 1.8 m of clear pavement at promotion points. Calvià licenses promoters with zones, hours and vests. Sitges targets leaflet litter rather than leaflets.