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posted by mrpg on Thursday April 27 2017, @09:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the illegal-to-doubt dept.

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


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  • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday April 27 2017, @09:51AM (2 children)

    by FakeBeldin (3360) on Thursday April 27 2017, @09:51AM (#500583) Journal

    I'm going to guess that neither the fine nore the caution is addressed to the right person. After all, if Mats holds a Swedish engineering degree, the Board should've referred to him as "Ingenjör [wikipedia.org] Mats" - mr. Mats is likely a different person.

    (Admittedly, I'm not 100% sure on how Swedish degrees convert into mode of address. I would guess it works similarly to my experience -- I am 100% confident in saying there is no such person as mr. FakeBeldin. ;-)

    (PS: Small typo in the title of my comment? That's no typo - it's a space station! Or intentional!)

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  • (Score: 1) by evk on Thursday April 27 2017, @10:14AM

    by evk (597) on Thursday April 27 2017, @10:14AM (#500586)

    Swedes aren't much for titles, so just "Mats" would be fine. Or if you'd be really formal you could use "Herr Järlström".

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @11:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @11:38AM (#500602)

    > there is no such person as mr. FakeBeldin. ;-)

    OMG it's $current_year, if you want to be called Miss, just say so.