Scrolling displays?

[AdamW]

I recall a discussion we had on here ages ago where some of us wondered about having a programmable display on the rear of the car to award instructions to drivers of a less-than-perfect disposition.

As I recall, it was pointed out that this was illegal and someone pointed to some bit of legislation about distracting signage or such like.

Well, I saw a coach on the M25 yesterday that had such a display! It was only saying "National Express", but the scrolling display was only one character wide and was really quite a distraction for the second or two when you are figuring out what it says!

So, does this mean I can have my big red "Oi w***er" button on the dashboard after all?

 

[breezer]

no

the sign you saw changes, it doesn't scroll, bet thats how they get away with it

 

[andy]

no

the sign you saw changes, it doesn't scroll, bet thats how they get away with it

so if they dont scroll, we can get away with them?

whilst wre on this, i once saw a similar thing - but preprogramed with words like 'thanx' etc. dont think they scrolled tho

 

[Steve]

a lot of buses have the LED arrays on the front of them now instead of ye olde scrolling destination boards.

If your eyes are just scanning across the scene, these signs catch your eye because it refreshes at something like 25Hz and they are very bright, especially at night. Some also have a route number display on the back which flickers just as annoyingly (so you can see which bus you have just missed as it drives off without you!)

Surprised these are allowed if the ones in backs of cars aren't. I seem to recall Argos selling a product for this purpose though, telling drivers what for etc.