An electronics engineer says he found a flaw in traffic lights. The Oregon engineering board fined him for it.
In September 2014, Mats Järlström, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk."
"I would like to present these facts for your review and comments," he wrote.
This email resulted not with a meeting, but with a threat. The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying responded with this dystopian message:
"ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the practice of engineering in Oregon without registration … at a minimum, your use of the title 'electronics engineer' and the statement 'I'm an engineer' … create violations."
In January of this year, Järlström was officially fined $500 by the state for the crime of "practicing engineering without being registered."
This is from a guy who filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Beaverton for the timing of their yellow lights, and lost his case. He also has a history of suing cities and people based on his expertise as an "engineer". Well, if he wants to sue, he'd better prove he's an engineer by getting a PE license.
He also may or may not have a free speech basis with his lawsuit and the State of Oregon may be a little heavy handed, but there's a reason that the state requires someone to get a license to be a practicing engineer. It's called making sure that someone who calls himself or herself an engineer is professionally acredited and degreed and not some quack. This guy is self-employed and a Swedish immigrant. How would someone wanting his expertise know if this guy is actually an accredited engineer or even knows what he's talking about? It's like going to a doctor who has a "diploma" on the wall from some country you can't even read the words on because it's in a foreign language.
