Country Clutter: Visual Pollution and the Rural Roadscape

The landscape of rural America has been profoundly influenced by social, cultural, and economic changes. The rural roadscape is a visible text of these changes, and the transportation palimpsest a cultural text of the American ideal of mobility. This article briefly examines the growth of the presence of the automobile and the automobile's role in changing the face of rural America, with an emphasis on the aesthetics of the roadscape. In the late twentieth century, a concern for the visual environment has become an important part of environmental assessment, and selected aspects of roadside visual pollution, particularly signs, are examined, especially as they relate to federal and state legislation concerning billboards. Lastly, public and private sector efforts to preserve and enhance cultural and historical rural landscapes, through such measures as the designation of scenic roads, is presented as an example of more holistic transportation planning.