Billboards Are Ruining Michigan And It’s Time To Ban Them

Growing up in Grand Rapids, we're not strangers to billboards shoved in our faces every couple of feet going along US-131. As of 2023, there are an estimated 450 billboards in Grand Rapids alone.

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Then, the billboards space out and you can appreciate Pure Michigan. But Michigan has an outrageous 23,000 billboards around the state (not including digital billboards), the third most in the entire country. Considering Michigan puts such an emphasis on its nature, it's ridiculous that so much of it is blotted with billboards impeding its beauty.

So, is it time for Michigan to put its foot down and outright ban billboards around the State?

Billboard Ban

Currently, four states in the country- Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont- have complete bans on billboards. These bans were put in place to preserve nature throughout the states, and Michigan would do well to follow in their footsteps.

Already, cities and communities throughout Michigan have placed their own restrictions on building new billboards or capping the number of billboards along highways. Grand Rapids itself has a plan in place to reduce the number of billboards overall in exchange for digital billboards being put up.

Although, it should be noted that the city's decision on how to handle billboards dates all the way back to 1966.

Read More: Cracking The Code Of This MI Billboard Campaign |

Change is Difficult

As an advertising and public relations, I understand the economic value that comes with billboards. They can be a pretty hefty source of income for their owners, which makes it particularly difficult to remove them.

A 2013 case in Minnesota documents the Department of Transportation had to pay $4.3 million in public funds to remove a single digital billboard because the owners of the billboard overvalued the worth of their billboards.

Saying that it would be a challenge to remove even a small number of billboards around the state would be an understatement, especially with Minnesota's case as an example, but one that could long-term benefit the wellness of the State as a whole.