Digital Disaster

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In the recent gales and storms that hit Karachi and the rest of the country alike there was much damage to public and private property. Partly due to the reason that we were not fully prepared for that heavy downpour and strong winds and partly because our structures of various nature were substandard. This example of substandard work and lack of preparation also surfaced in the shocking earthquake on 8th October, 2005.
This time we saw the wrath of wind and rain. What stood most susceptible and did maximum damage were the mammoth sized hoardings/ billboards. And they were truly cluttered all over Karachi then. They fell, because of their faulty and unplanned erection and placements that were not in synergy with weather proofing the entire structures. Many billboards, blown out and distorted by the onslaught of the winds couldn’t take the pressure and provided a stable platform for imminent disaster.
Electricity wires were cut off, cars were squashed beneath the billboards, pedestrians got electrocuted when the live wires struck the rain water in the streets, trees were destroyed when the billboards fell on them uprooting with them the ground on which stood many small shops and installations of smaller businesses. It was an urban disaster in Karachi, in the true sense of the word. The city government reacted quickly. The relevant authorities came under direct fire from media and other caring institutions. The authorities had to find a solution. They removed as much billboards as they could and the ones that were allowed to stay were much smaller in size and proportion compared to what they used to be. People who matter - the opinion makers, the decision makers - decided that the billboards should be replaced… enters technology to tackle the problem. The days of panaflex and vinyl appeared numbered.
Like the rest of the growing world we are now looking at the digital LED signs. Again The CEO is the main man looking after this ambitious venture. His role as a company is to manufacture or import the relevant digital display solution. “We only make the product and introduce the technology, but the rest is up to a gentleman who actually places the media on these supplied Digisigns” who it seems simply disappeared as soon as we tried to contact him. The CEO on the other hand, was quite forthcoming about their product. When asked, people, think the LED signs are a deviation to the drivers because of the nature of transitions - which comes as a flash of light disturbing the driver of a vehicle - that take place while shifting from one product’s advertisement to another’s he said, “Medical research has proved that it is not a sufficient flash of light to have a blinding effect on a driver.” Agreed, that is the case. Faraz further adds, “This is the beginning of a new generation of display signs. Because the billboards take up a lot of space and are scattered around unplanned they will eventually be replaced. Digisigns are the future.” What He overlooked was the fact that this deviation - that the signs are - do give problems to people who are behind the wheel. The continuous display of promos of television dramas and other consumer products capture the driver’s attention (the target market), which is also the purpose of these strategically placed signs. Target market, at these exact locations travel at reasonably high speed. And when the motorists are not travelling at high speed they are either manoeuvring a turn at the roundabouts or, trying in vain to get to the main road through the clogged roundabouts.
As The CEO says that these are just roundabouts where the traffic slows down and these sorts of displays are all over the world, he fails to consider the fact that internationally they are placed in the areas where the traffic moves at a snail’s pace or there is hardly any traffic in the vicinity as those particular areas are bazaar areas or downtown shopping clusters. There are, however, some placed on main roads too, but then again those main roads are unlike ours. They are, for instance, like the areas of Regal Market in Karachi. The traffic there is slow and the pedestrians safe.
Many local denizens, whom we inquired about these new digisigns like the idea but are apprehensive that this technology poses a threat to cyclists and pedestrians. The whole world is doing it. Why shouldn’t we? would be the answer of those who earn revenue from the venture and the likes of it. It is a matter of livelihood after all. But what has to be kept in mind is the placement of these signs. Why not in bazaars? Why at main roads. So to replace one threat of billboards we come up with another idea which poses a threat in another form. But then, isn’t it business. So the signs stay for good at the Shahrah-e-Faisal, Metropole Chowk and Clifton roundabouts. With this half-baked technology what sort of a disaster are we awaiting now?