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 Thursday statement.

The new technology will dynamically allocate more “green time” for pedestrians, which is “expected to reduce the maximum pedestrian waiting time by 15 to 20 seconds,” a spokesperson for the department said.

In the first quarter of 2027, the department will roll out the Smart Traffic Signals at the junction of of Gloucester Road and Great George Street near Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, “a junction with high vehicular and pedestrian flows and high variations.”

The system will be rolled out at about 50 separate junctions in phases, starting with the one in Causeway Bay.

The department is also looking into establishing an AI-powered traffic management platform capable of identifying traffic bottlenecks and formulating contingencies in response to special road conditions.

Approvals

A new AI-powered licence approval system is also expected to launch at the end of the year.

“Using advanced large language model AI technology, it will automatically recognise, cross-check and verify application documents for online vehicle licence renewals,” the department’s statement read.

It will also handle applications under two cross-border driving schemes, the Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles and Southbound Travel for Guangdong Vehicles, which enable travel between Guangdong and Hong Kong via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The department aims to increase the proportion of automatically approved online vehicle licence renewals to over 90 per cent. Once the programme is implemented, it will take one day to approve renewals, down from the current 10.

It also aims to boost the ratio of cross-boundary driving permit applications automatically approved by AI to over 50 per cent, shortening the manual processing time by about 20 per cent, the department said.

The department has also introduced an AI system to combat queuing bots in an online booking system for issuing the Hong Kong Full Driving Licence. The anti-bot solution, which came into use in late June this year, has reduced the maximum waiting time from two hours to within 45 minutes.