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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: 2) by aclarke on Thursday April 27 2017, @02:59PM (3 children)
Some professional boards are hypocritical, myopic and adversarial. However, possibly you don't understand that Professional Engineers are legally liable for their engineering. If there's an environmental disaster, a mall collapse [www.cbc.ca], or some other engineering screwup, engineers can go to jail. This doesn't happen to code monkeys who decide to put "software engineer" in their email signature line. Although you could be fined for that if you live in Oregon and a number of other states.
As for the second half of your comment, I'm having a hard time parsing useful meaning out of it. Why would "the Board of Higher Education" fine me for my comment? They know that an engineering degree isn't sufficient to become a Professional Engineer. The State Board in Oregon can fine this guy because they have the legal right, and more or less obligation, to do so.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 27 2017, @04:31PM (1 child)
I hear P.E.s trotting out that line a lot, that a P.E. can go to jail if his authorized building design fails.
Yet, I have never heard of such a thing happening despite structural failures. I call *effectively* bullshit.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 28 2017, @12:01AM
Almost like a "Professional Senator" ;-)
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 27 2017, @05:16PM
> Why would "the Board of Higher Education" fine me
Is it not obvious why they would be unhappy with your statement? If engineering grads can't call themselves engineers, aren't good enough for that, that lessens both the meaning and value of their degrees. It suggests the quality of the education they received is poor, and therefore the universities did a bad job. Probably they respect freedom of speech, and unlike this Oregon board, are just plain wise enough to understand it won't work, to want to seriously try to fine you. But why should they take that lying down, just accept your assertion that "an engineering degree isn't sufficient to become a Professional Engineer"? Is it not possible for them to provide the education necessary so their graduates are every bit as good as board licensed engineers?
Accusations that universities fail their students are common, but seem to be more frequent in recent years. Also, they are less constructive. What do you suggest universities do? Die? Close their doors? Do we disband them, switch to some sort of craft model with ranks of apprentice, journeyman, and master?
A big problem, especially in engineering, is a too narrow education. Business interests push for that, seem to prefer idiot savants who know their technical chops but can't in any way threaten their managerial positions. Some of these have a peculiar sort of religious view that it would be better if all of society was less educated and more docile and pliant, really do not believe in democracy and public education, prefer a plutocracy with themselves on top of course. Lot of the criticism of education I've heard is of the self-serving sort with that as the ulterior motive.
It is a good education that shows people why such a plutocratic vision of society is a bad idea. Seems a lot of people just don't get that.
> possibly you don't understand that Professional Engineers are legally liable for their engineering
Oh, yes, I understand that. Maybe you don't appreciate that anyone can be sued for anything. When an engineering failure leads to a massive disaster, the public is not going to give a rat's patootie about licensing. We want to know what went wrong. Was it an honest mistake, or were people taking short cuts? We want whoever is responsible held accountable, whether or not they are licensed. If they were licensed, then the board is going to be very, very quiet, in hopes they won't have to answer any questions about why their licensing processes didn't prevent the grossly negligent engineers from getting licenses, and head off the disaster. They will wish for a story of management pressure and overruling of engineering decision to come out. If the engineers were not licensed, the board might well join in the chorus of accusations and recriminations, likely suggesting that more stringent enforcement of licensing requirements is needed.