Coincidence or Reference?

Just saw this whilst watching Cars 2, and thought it looked familiar… what do you guys think?

This is a traffic light camera in Porto Corsa, Italy (sorry about the dodgy quality)

and this is a traffic light camera in the film the Italian Job (1969) in Turin, Italy (a film about cars)

…just a coincidence or a reference to the popular car related film? (starring Sir Michael Caine in both!)

(and just a goof… if you look, in both images the cars are going the wrong way down one way streets as the traffic lights are facing the opposite direction)

its entirely possible it could be a reference of some sort