While driving along familiar American highways the past few days something struck me: you never see billboards in Ireland. Oh, occasionally you'll see an ad for some local establishment painted onto the side of an unused truck or semi-trailer (the back end of an "articulated lorry"), but you never see the huge billboards set hundreds of yards off the road that you see here. I'm sure a lot of people would consider that a blessing, but I like the big billboards.
Why do I like them? Well, because they have practical use - let you know where you can get food, etc. - and they often provide a bit of local flavor. Now, I'm not thrilled by an endless stream of McDonald's billboards, but I suppose even those can be useful if you're starving and the choice is severely limited. When you come across a billboard for Mabel's diner or an orchard or the Pinegrove Dude Ranch (or some such place) offering the "best family resort" in the Catskills or whatever. I love those kind of signs.
Another thing you don't see in Ireland are service areas along the highway. What makes this omission particularly odd is that Ireland was pretty late to the highway game and obviously missed the class on people needing gas or occasional cup of coffee along the road. Combine the lack of service areas with the lack of billboards and you have a traveler's nightmare for anyone who doesn't have a good grasp of the geography of the country before they embark on their journey.
UPDATE: I tried to get a few pictures of billboards as recommended by Kelly below, but none of them came out. I had hoped to snap a few on Saturday heading down the NY State Thruway, but last minute decision to take the Taconic Parkway meant no billboards.
This is the best picture and it's not the size, location or setting I was talking about. (This one is too small, too near the roadway and has no massive clearing in front of it.)
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