Hong Kong to slash crosswalk waits by up to 20 seconds using AI-powered traffic lights
Hong Kong’s transport authority will aim to drop crosswalk waiting times by 15 to 20 seconds by implementing an artificial intelligence-powered traffic light system, starting with a junction in Causeway Bay next year. The AI system functions by detecting real-time vehicle and pedestrian traffic and computing signal times accordingly, the Transport Department explained in a […]
The Hong Kong transport authority plans to cut crosswalk waiting times by up to 20 seconds using artificial intelligence-powered traffic lights, starting with a Causeway Bay intersection next year. The AI system gauges real-time vehicle and pedestrian traffic to adjust signal timings accordingly, the Transport Department revealed in a statement.
By allocating more "green time" for pedestrians, the technology aims to cut the maximum pedestrian waiting time by 15 to 20 seconds. The Smart Traffic Signals project will debut at the Gloucester Road and Great George Street junction in Causeway Bay, a location with high traffic volumes. Phase one will see the implementation in about 50 junctions, beginning with the Causeway Bay site.
The Transport Department is also exploring an AI-powered traffic management platform to identify bottlenecks and devise contingency plans for unique road conditions. Simultaneously, a new AI-powered licence approval system is set to be launched by year-end, utilizing advanced language model AI to automatically verify online vehicle licence renewals.
This innovation seeks to boost automatic approval rates for vehicle renewals to over 90 percent, reducing the approval process from 10 days to one day. Additionally, the department intends to raise the proportion of automatically approved cross-border driving permit applications to more than 50 percent, cutting manual processing time by about 20 percent.
The AI system also combats queuing bots in the online booking system for Hong Kong Full Driving Licences, shortening maximum wait times from two hours to within 45 minutes.
Written by urgent.news from Hong Kong Free Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
