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Running red lights can get you a ticket. But in Oregon, you can be fined just for talking about it.
Mats Järlström learned this first-hand last year when the state of Oregon fined him $500 for publicly suggesting that yellow lights should last for slightly longer to accommodate cars making right turns.
[...] He did a little Googling and found the formula used to set traffic-light times. The length of time a traffic light stays yellow is based on a relatively straightforward mathematical formula, originally drafted in 1959. Mats realized that the formula is incomplete, because it fails to capture the behavior of drivers making right turns.
[...] Mats's work was generally met with interest and praise, but when Mats e-mailed the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying, things took an abrupt illegal U-turn. The Board told Mats they had no interest in hearing about his ideas. Fair enough. But the Board didn't stop there. They launched a full-blown investigation, alleging that he'd engaged in the unlicensed "practice of engineering."
After a two-year-long investigation, the Board fined him $500. According to the Board, "critiquing" the length of yellow lights and talking about his ideas with "members of the public" made Mats a lawbreaker because he's not an Oregon-licensed professional engineer.
The Board also told Mats that he couldn't refer to himself using the word "engineer" either. Most people would probably agree that "engineer" is a sensible way to describe Mats, given his education, experience, and skills. (He has a degree in electrical engineering from Sweden, and he's worked in a range of technical fields for decades). But in Oregon, none of that matters; the word "engineer" is off-limits to everyone who is not a state-licensed professional engineer.
Source: Institute for Justice
(Score: 4, Informative) by captain_nifty on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:58PM (2 children)
For background I am a licensed professional engineer, but not in Oregon.
He was really contacting the wrong people, The State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying organizations for states exists as regulatory and licensing groups that exists to regulate engineering in the state, they wouldn't care in the slightest about a new idea in engineering, they exist to make sure people are not misrepresenting themselves as professional engineers or land surveyors, and that the actual professional are not acting unethically. They exist to investigate wrongdoing and enact fines. This would be like writing to the AMA about a new medical technique and stating in your email that "I'm a medical doctor", without actually holding a MD degree, big red flags would be raised and they would send a cease and desist letter and issue fines "stop calling yourself a medical doctor", same as happened in this case. It may have been something as simple as him referring to himself as a "professional engineer" somewhere in his email.
Critiquing lights timing would be okay, but saying something like, "I'm an engineer, and have studied this, and here is my professional opinion" would be a big no-no if you are not a professional engineer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @09:20PM (1 child)
I would agree with you except that the reaction of the Board seems completely over the top. I think the proper response would have been something like this:
It seems to me that would be a reasonable course of action, rather than slapping an immediate fine on someone so "impertinent" as to offer his opinion on the timing of yellow lights at traffic intersections.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hawkwind on Friday April 28 2017, @04:22AM
Please note I offer the above not as a legal opinion, just as common sense.