---
title: "Oregon Violated Rights of Man Who Challenged Timing of Traffic Lights"
description: "State attorney general reportedly rules in favor of resident who claimed in a suit that state board engaged in an 'unconstitutional ban on mathematical debate.'"
date: "2017-12-07"
modified: "2017-12-07"
authors:
  - name: "Kate Gibson"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kate-gibson"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/16790/oregon-violated-rights-of-man-who-challenged-timing-of-traffic-lights"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "engineer"
  - "free speech"
  - "oregon"
  - "traffic lights"
  - "yellow light"
---

# Oregon Violated Rights of Man Who Challenged Timing of Traffic Lights

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Oregon's attorney general this week reportedly acknowledged that the state had violated the free speech rights of a resident and frequent critic of traffic-light timing.

Mats Jarlsrom, a Swedish-born electronics engineer, found himself in a running battle with the state as he repeatedly challenged the timing of yellow traffic lights as not long enough, according to the *Oregonian*.

The dispute began after Jarlsrom's spouse received a ticket for running a red light in the mail in 2013, and he decided to do his own research, finding the yellow light to be too short, the newspaper [said](<https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/12/state_board_concedes_it_violat.html>). Jarlsrom, a resident of Beaverton, Oregon, shared his results with local media, the *CBS* network show, "60 Minutes" and to the yearly gathering of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

A state board fined Jarlsrom $500 for "unlicensed practice of engineering" after he called himself an engineer in emailing city officials and the Washington County sheriff about the traffic light signal timing.

In a suit filed in April, Jarlsrom, who is self-employed as a tester of audio products, claimed not letting anyone use the word "engineer" unless they were licensed in Oregon amounted to an "unconstitutional ban on mathematical debate."

A senior assistant attorney general on Monday told a federal court that the state's regulation of Jarlsrom under engineering practice law "was not narrowly tailored to any compelling state interests,'' the newspaper report said.

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