Back in 2013, Mats Järlström challenged a ticket that his wife got for running a red light. She wasn't pulled over but was instead nailed by a camera. Järlström said that the timing of the camera was wrong and drew upon his experience working for the Swedish Air Force and his degree in electrical engineering. His data impressed the Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) enough that they wanted him to address them, but the state of Oregon decided to fine him because they said he was representing himself as a professional engineer even though he didn't have a license as one.
Of course, Järlström hadn't called himself a registered engineer when presenting his research to the state so he didn't pay the fine, he paid a lawyer. In 2017 the state said they wouldn't impose the fine if Järlström didn't try to represent himself as a professional engineer, but both he and the group he was working with wanted something a little stronger than a state bureaucrat's promise to lean on. Last year, a federal court forced Oregon to recast several of its licensing procedures and the fines accompanying their violation.
And this week, the ITE updated its standards for timing on red-light cameras in ways that take into account the speed and size of the vehicle, deceleration rate, whether or not it's turning and so on. Their guide in doing so? Järlström's "extended kinematic equation" that he had initially presented when he thought his wife's ticket was wrong. If the state of Oregon wants to keep its traffic light cameras updated, they will have to use the very same research results for which they once tried to fine Mats Järlström.
You win some, and then sometimes you really freakin' win some.
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