In recent years, hundreds of cities like Houston, San Diego, and Little Rock have banned the construction of new billboards. This prevents the billboard problem from getting worse, protects new roads from becoming blighted, and helps billboard-free communities stay that way. Though federal law prohibits the use of amortization on Interstate and federal-aid primary highways, Raleigh and Durham, NC, have successfully used amortization to reduce visual pollution on local roads. The billboard industry has challenged these ordinances in the North Carolina and United States Supreme Courts, but both ordinances have been upheld. The city and a local grassroots organization recently reached settlement agreements with 10 separate billboard companies.
Some cities use an exchange ordinance to diminish visual blight.
Exchange provisions require billboard companies to remove one or more existing nonconforming billboards before they erect a new, conforming billboard in another location. Mobile, AL, successfully removed billboards from its historic district with this approach. With alternatives available, billboards are unnecessary. Both supply passers-by with needed tourist and services information without marring the area's visual quality. Logo signs and TODS displays are smaller and less obtrusive than billboards and generally cut advertising costs for roadside businesses.