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Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

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Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#151
post #147
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know that it's all pride. I don't have much of a problem admitting mistakes amongst friends and most co-workers, but I've definitely worked with a few people you could never admit failure to. They were either the type of people who felt everything needed to have someone to blame and who would be punished for the failure, or people who could use any mistake as ammunition in office politics. The government here…

Your last sentence just makes the worst excuse ever. Doing wrong to be able to do right in other cases...

Oh it's not an excuse for what they did at all. I was just pointing out that pride might not be why they did this

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going faster does not improve the speed of traffic. The parent never said that. When you merge on onto the freeway to need to merge at the fucking speed of traffic . I've been in so many cases stuck behind a clueless oregon driver merging onto I-5(70mph) at 35-40mph while there's a fucking semi bearing down on us 1/4-1/8th of a mile away. It's goddamn dangerous and putting people in situations where someone is goin…

This behavior makes me a selfish driver, too. Doing 20 under what I’m doing when you hit the end of the ramp? Well, I’m sure as hell not letting you in front of me. If you can’t be bothered to do it right, I can’t be bothered, either. Which doesn’t help traffic one iota.

You are not obligated to yield to traffic entering from an onramp. You are doing it right by not letting them in front of you.

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ticket was cited using PACING and the officer did not have a recently calibrated odometer which gave us an upperhand but that would not be enough to dismiss the case. For future reference, that would have been enough to get the ticket dismissed. Tickets must be based on calibrated range speedometers, not the officer's odometer. Also, the DA generally doesn't negotiate traffic tickets. It's not worth their time. S…

> For future reference, that would have been enough to get the ticket dismissed. Tickets must be based on calibrated range speedometers, not the officer's odometer. That is incorrect. PACING (officer's odometer) is accepted by the court. If you can provide any case/regulation that refutes this, I will pay you money for the lead. > since the worst case scenario is you get the same punishment you would have gotten if y…

Rely on the assumption that the prosecutor, judge, and officer do not care about nailing you, specifically, as much as they care about just doing their job and going home. If you make your case seem like more work for them, or if it will end up costing them money to prosecute, they will very likely drop it, even if you are guilty as sin. If I could make 100 deals in the same time it takes to prepare for one trial, I'd throw the trial case on the floor, too.

All the good traffic-ticket lawyers will know all the tricks for your state, and some of them are kind enough to give away those tactics for free, essentially as stealth advertising for those who would rather pay the money to ensure a professional will do it correctly. But I'm not a lawyer and don't get tickets, so...

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stay in the right lane if everyone else is speeding and you don't want to. Oregon has minimum speed limits too though.

The right lane is for people driving below the maximum speed limit. The second lane from the right is for people driving faster than people in the right lane. The left lane is for people driving the maximum speed limit. People weaving in and out of the left lane so they can pass people who are driving at the maximum allowed speed are a problem. Because instrumentation is imperfect, two drivers who believe they are dr…

No. Stop it. This attitude is consistently responsible for the most dangerous road conditions I see driving in America.

Keep right except to pass. Period.

Everybody traveling the same "maximum speed limit" is a fantasy and rarely exists in reality. There are lots of good reasons for traveling over the speed limit (quickly passing to avoid prolonged travel in close proximity to another car, for example).

Left lane cruisers inevitably lead to long queues in the left lane with empty lanes to the right, which leads to people passing on the right, tailgating, and a host of unpredictable situations that increase the danger on the road much, much more than simple speed (duh, many speed limits are arbitrary and political, not based on some absolute "maximum safe speed", which is a ridiculous notion anyway for roads that carry both sports cars and heavy tractor trailers).

Your prescription creates situations in which it is literally impossible to drive safely (and frankly, I'm sick of finding myself in these dangerous and completely unnecessary situations because of Americans' insane (and sometimes illegal[1]) driving practices...I don't want to race anybody, I just want to get to my destination safely and efficiently). Even choosing to waste your time being the slowest car on the road in the right lane, you end up being put in danger by cars trying to right-lane-pass with dangerous closing speeds up to dangerously close distances.

Keep right except to pass.

1. What you describe is actually illegal in many places: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/right.html

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#155
post #87

This is a clear case of using "well intentioned" laws to silence free speech. This supports the libertarian idea that we should reduce the size of government and regulation if possible, because given long enough and enough bureaucrats, fallible humans will exploit whatever mechanisms are available to them. People don't like criticism, especially when the criticism is of their work/policies and potentially threatens t…

> This supports the libertarian idea that we should reduce the size of government and regulation if possible, because given long enough and enough bureaucrats, fallible humans will exploit whatever mechanisms are available to them OTOH a perfectly libertarian system is ripe for the exploitation of fallible humans. Anyway there's a case for moderation here. I don't think shrinking the government to some ineffectual, m…

> a perfectly libertarian system is ripe for the exploitation of fallible humans.

That's why I've yet to meet a poor libertarian.

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't speaking of titles. I was speaking of submitting technical work on engineering related ideas. Typically this is highly regulated under U.S. state laws.

The generally-good requirement that plans are stamped by a " Professional Engineer " is required by public AHJs/codes and private regulations (eg insurance), and is not under dispute here. Meanwhile much engineering work is not under this regime, but checked by market demand and testing (eg software/electronic). As an Electrical Engineer that has little interest in power systems and isn't looking to rewire other peop…

These laws you speak of are a mix of unenforced, unenforceable, unconstitutional, and unconscionable.

Would you say the same thing about doctor licensing laws?

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just stay in the right lane if everyone else is speeding and you don't want to. Oregon has minimum speed limits too though.

The right lane is for people driving below the maximum speed limit. The second lane from the right is for people driving faster than people in the right lane. The left lane is for people driving the maximum speed limit. People weaving in and out of the left lane so they can pass people who are driving at the maximum allowed speed are a problem. Because instrumentation is imperfect, two drivers who believe they are dr…

The speed limit is irreverent. It's about relative speed between vehicles. Slower stays to the right. Slightly faster moves left to pass them as they come up behind them and moves right as soon as appropriate afterwards. Apply recursively for the number of lanes.

The "I'm following the law, screw moving over for anyone " attitude when applied in the left lane is exactly the problem that's causing this discussion.

>So people need to chill when the driver in front of them seems to be traveling 2mph below the max speed limit.

This attitude is exactly the problem.

No, that person needs to stop making a rolling road block and move over. Even if I'm going 10+ faster than the next lane to my right I'll move into the next open spot and slow down if there's someone who comes up behind me. It's just basic manners. It's the exact same at 55mph as it is at 85mph.

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#158
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, this. It is such bs, since most lawyers are incentivized to take as much time as necessary since they work on an hourly basis.

You can’t change the underlying economics of a market by changing your billing model. All the billing model does is change the risk allocation between the parties. Court cases take a long time because each judge handles hundreds of cases (and civil cases take a back seat to criminal cases). Briefing on a motion, for example, might be done over a few weeks. Then the parties just sit and wait possibly for months for a…

Maybe not in the legal field, but the counter example is online advertising (ppc).

The better question is why are there not more judges?

Everything is also bound by time.Unfortunately in the legal system there is just no incentive to go fast.

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an engineer. I am not a "registered professional traffic engineer". I am a software engineer. If I wrote a paper on traffic signaling (which is also huge in software) I should be able to call myself an engineer - yes I won't call myself a "registered professional traffic engineer".

As long as you are clearly stating that you are a software engineer and not purporting to have expertise in traffic engineering, I agree with you.

If Järlström had actually referred to himself as a traffic engineer then both the state and you would have a point. But he didn't. He said he had an engineering degree which he has and he stated that he was doing work related to the problem which he was.

Järlström did not misrepresent himself.

Re: Oregon punished an engineer for criticizing red-light cameras. He fought and won

#160

A guy around here got rid of the things https://www.dallasnews.com/news/richardson/2016/07/19/richar...

> City officials said the cameras are a safety tool in order to prevent accidents at busy intersections.

When I hear something is "for my safety", I take it to mean I'm about to lose some freedoms or some money.

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