"Järlström discovered a problem with the timing of traffic lights in Beaverton, Oregon, after his wife Laurie received a $260 ticket for a red light violation from an automated traffic light camera in 2013.
Järlström, who studied electrical engineering in Sweden, challenged the ticket, arguing the timing interval for yellow lights fails to account for scenarios like a driver entering an intersection and slowing to make a turn. A slightly longer interval, he argued, would allow drivers making turns on a yellow light to exit intersections before the light turned red."
Also
“In a way, history is repeating itself. The initial 1960 light timing work came about because one of the scientists involved believed he’d been wrongly ticketed. In email correspondence with Järlström, Maradudin explained that he became a co-author of the 1960 paper because another co-author, Robert Herman, invited him to spend time at the General Motors Technical Center to work on traffic light math. Herman did so, Maradudin said, because he had received a red light ticket that he felt was unfair.”
Moral: An old saying but true - Necessity is the mother of invention! 
