Oregon fines man $500 for doing math without a license

It all started in 2013 when Mats’s wife received a red light camera ticket, which sparked Mats’s interest in how exactly yellow lights are timed. He began writing and speaking publicly about how red light cameras misuse the standard mathematical formula for timing traffic lights, leading to unsafe driving conditions and unfair citations when drivers slow down to turn. People wanted to hear Mats’s ideas—local news covered his story and he presented his research at a national conference of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

But Oregon’s engineer-licensing board had heard enough.

After a two-year investigation, the board fined Mats $500 for the unlicensed practice of engineering. If Mats continued to “critique” traffic lights, he could face thousands of dollars in fines and up to one year in jail for the unlicensed practice of engineering.

The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying also said that Mats cannot even call himself an “engineer,” even though he has a degree in electrical engineering and decades of experience in technical fields. Like most engineers in Oregon, Mats is not a state-licensed “professional engineer.” (A professional engineer is the specialist who would be responsible for designing a bridge or the electrical system for a school.) Yet the board thinks that only licensed professional engineers should be able to call themselves “engineers.”.