Karried
10-03-2006, 08:01 AM
I get news from TulsaNow and this caught my eye: This is exactly what we need along our main roads ..
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: www.scenic.org (http://javascript<b></b>:ol('http://www.scenic.org');)
Scenic America is an organization that cares about beauty. Or, as they say, “Change is inevitable. Ugliness is not.”
If you talk about the relative merits of beauty versus ugliness, it’s easy to come across as hoity-toity. Scenic America takes a different approach, applying research to validate their claims that our surroundings matter. Here’s an example:
“In many places, main commuter roads are cluttered with strip malls, billboards and garish signs. A recent Texas A&M University study has determined that this type of sprawl contributes to commuter stress. After being subjected to stressful situations, the subjects took simulated commutes along either of two kinds of roads: blighted by billboards, sprawl, and strip development, or unspoiled and rural in character. Stress levels declined quickly for those driving rural roads, but remained high for those exposed to strip developments. Stressed drivers experienced higher blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, and increased eye movements and facial muscle activity.”
What are Scenic America’s goals?
~ Reduce billboard blight in America
~ Promote good community planning and design guidelines
~ Keep America's highways and byways scenic
~ Promote scenic easements for open space and scenic resource conservation
~ Ensure mitigation of the visual impact of telecommunication towers
~ Promote context sensitive highway solutions
~ Promote tree conservation
~ Promote burying of overhead utility wires
According to Scenic America, “our most cherished scenic resources and hometown assets are being obscured by a blizzard of billboards, badly sited telecommunications towers, a tangle of overhead lines, and a hodgepodge of visual clutter. Open space is being lost. Our natural and cultural heritage is being buried under unconstrained development and poorly designed transportation systems. America's beauty and community character are being obliterated by a steel curtain of visual spam.”
Learn more! Scenic America :: Programs Overview (http://www.scenic.org/programs/overview) (http://javascript<b></b>:ol('http://www.scenic.org/about_us');)
WEBSITE OF THE WEEK: www.scenic.org (http://javascript<b></b>:ol('http://www.scenic.org');)
Scenic America is an organization that cares about beauty. Or, as they say, “Change is inevitable. Ugliness is not.”
If you talk about the relative merits of beauty versus ugliness, it’s easy to come across as hoity-toity. Scenic America takes a different approach, applying research to validate their claims that our surroundings matter. Here’s an example:
“In many places, main commuter roads are cluttered with strip malls, billboards and garish signs. A recent Texas A&M University study has determined that this type of sprawl contributes to commuter stress. After being subjected to stressful situations, the subjects took simulated commutes along either of two kinds of roads: blighted by billboards, sprawl, and strip development, or unspoiled and rural in character. Stress levels declined quickly for those driving rural roads, but remained high for those exposed to strip developments. Stressed drivers experienced higher blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, and increased eye movements and facial muscle activity.”
What are Scenic America’s goals?
~ Reduce billboard blight in America
~ Promote good community planning and design guidelines
~ Keep America's highways and byways scenic
~ Promote scenic easements for open space and scenic resource conservation
~ Ensure mitigation of the visual impact of telecommunication towers
~ Promote context sensitive highway solutions
~ Promote tree conservation
~ Promote burying of overhead utility wires
According to Scenic America, “our most cherished scenic resources and hometown assets are being obscured by a blizzard of billboards, badly sited telecommunications towers, a tangle of overhead lines, and a hodgepodge of visual clutter. Open space is being lost. Our natural and cultural heritage is being buried under unconstrained development and poorly designed transportation systems. America's beauty and community character are being obliterated by a steel curtain of visual spam.”
Learn more! Scenic America :: Programs Overview (http://www.scenic.org/programs/overview) (http://javascript<b></b>:ol('http://www.scenic.org/about_us');)