http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2015/2/3/can-you-be-an-engineer-and-speak-out-for-reform
An interesting question posed by Charles Marohn, P.E. of StrongTowns.
Usually, people will footnote or otherwise document that they are in such a profession, and they are speaking their opinion.
It is generally a tricky slope, and most people will just avoid it by keeping their thoughts to themselves.
The board's response to the complaint lodged against the engineer seems appropriate -- a fairly quick "no action" disposition of the complaint (especially since any other action would have been constitutionally questionable). There is the bit about possibly taking action if new evidence warrants, but that might be standard boilerplate language. Certainly my former employer, a Federal regulatory agency, routinely used such language when it informed targets that their investigations were closed, even where it turned out to be not even close that the investigation should be shut down, and agency staff had no desire or plans to pursue those targets again.
We also regularly used disclaimers like what Jeff noted, but they were really to make clear our views were our own and didn't necessarily reflect our agency's policy (or, sometimes for agency heads, some of what they said spoke for the agency and some didn't). For self-employed professionals, there usually is no such need to make clear that the views expressed are their own rather than anyone else's.
I really enjoyed the video at that site, even if some here might not agree with its message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9BUyWVg1xI
I think an engineer has to sometimes draw the line between personal comments and those of his/her employer, but should absolutely be able to speak out for reform within the profession.
I have a civil engineering degree, but am not employed in the profession (I just play an engineer on roadgeek websites). In reading the blog post, I think he is on to some things--and the "conversation with an engineer" video highlights some of that. Yes, there are engineering standards and manuals for a reason. However, part of the job of an engineer is to use problem solving and common sense. There are situations where the standards shouldn't automatically apply. Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at whether the proposed solution is the right one for the problem (or if the proposed solution is there looking for a problem to begin with).
There is truth to the statement that some of our roadway systems are over-engineered and standards tailored to a single-mode mindset. And that is absolutely applicable to certain applications. However, there needs to be consideration of multiple users, multiple modes, and a sliding scale of standards based on application. I think this mindset is embraced by some, especially in the rising prominence of road diets and complete streets. However, there are some users and engineers that are still stuck in the old single-vehicle mindset that will be resistant to that philosophical shift.