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<br /> <br />government tailors their regulations to their own situation. One approach adopted by cities is to <br />prohibit electronic outdoor advertising devices in residential zoning districts, and for a certain <br />distance away from residential zoning districts, similar to the zoning limitations placed on <br />illuminated signs, Some ordinances require that electronic signs be situated such that the sign <br />face is not visible from nearby residences. <br /> <br />4,2.2 Size Limitations on Electronic Signs <br /> <br />Another way of regulating electronic signs is to limit their size. Again, there is no set standard <br />for this. One ordinance reviewed for the purpose of this study limits the electronic portion of a <br />sign to no more than 50 percent of the sign face with the overall size determined by whatever the <br />sign ordinance allows for a particular zoning district. Other examples of electronic sign size <br />limitations include five square feet, 1,000 square inches, 20 square feet, and so forth. In other <br />ordinances, there is no differentiation made between the size of electronic signs and other signs. <br /> <br />According to input from representatives of the sign industry, the smaller the size of the electronic <br />sign, the more desirable it is for businesses to use frequent message changes, or sequenced <br />messages, where more than one screen of text is used to convey an entire message. <br /> <br />4,2.3 Rate-of-Change Limitations on Electronic Signs <br /> <br />Many communities that allow electronic signs also regulate the rate at which the messages on the <br />sigus can be changed. Research on sign codes has shown this to range from as little as four <br />seconds to as long as 24 hours. <br /> <br />The Interstate 394 sign between Ridgedale Drive and Plymouth Road is visible for <br />approximately 45 seconds at free flow traffic speeds. Depending on text size, the message may <br />not be readable by drivers during this entire duration, but the message changes can attract <br />attention from long distances, Depending on how often the message changes occur and the <br />speed of traffic, drivers on this segment could see a varying number of discrete messages. Table <br />7 provides the number of message changes a driver would see at different change durations and <br />traffic speeds. <br /> <br />~23 <br />