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Jakarta installs AI-controlled traffic lights to ease congestion
The artificial intelligence will calculate the optimal green light duration based on the number of vehicles passing through a road segment and projected time they needed to go to the next intersection.
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Jakarta’s traffic problem has gotten so bad it has forced the city to enlist artificial intelligence’s (AI) help to solve the perennial problem.
The Jakarta Transportation Agency is working with Google to install 20 AI-powered traffic lights across the city. These lights use AI to analyze the optimal green light duration based on the number of vehicles passing through and calculated time they need to go from one traffic light to another.
“Until now, managing traffic light duration is done by manually by officers,” said Jakarta Transportation Agency head Syafrin Liputo on Sunday, as reported by Kompas. “But now algorithms will do it automatically in real time.”
Syafrin claimed the AI had successfully eased congestion because it gives longer green lights for a more crowded road segment. The system can also recognize public transportation vehicles, such as buses of city-owned operator Transjakarta, and give them priority in intersections, he added.
The transportation agency has installed the AI-powered traffic lights in several parts across the city, such as an intersection between Jl. Kyai Tapa and Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta; the Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. Rasuna Said intersection in South Jakarta and Jl. Senen Raya-Jl. Kwitang junction in Central Jakarta.
The agency is planning to install AI traffic lights in 40 more intersections this year, Syafrin said.
The AI-controlled traffic light is the latest strategy launched by Jakarta to solve the severe traffic congestion in the capital city. More than 22 million motorized vehicles travel the city’s roads and millions more commute from surrounding satellite cities every day, according to a Jakarta Police estimate.
Jakarta ranked fourth in 2017 in the list of most congested city in the world issued by Dutch location technology company TomTom. But the city’s traffic improved and it ranked 46th in 2021 thanks to mobility curbs to halt the spread of COVID-19.
But as the number of COVID-19 cases drops and mobility slowly returns to pre-pandemic levels, congestion has returned to the capital’s roads. Last year, Jakarta ranked 29th in TomTom’s list.
Jakarta acting governor Heru Budi Hartono has instructed the closure of 32 U-turns across the city that are often blamed of creating congestions. He also suggested private employees to start their morning at two different times, 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., to reduce morning traffic rush.
But a local councilor urged the transportation agency to evaluate the project’s effectiveness due to the lack of improvement on Jakarta traffic. Gembong Warsono, a city councilor from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said it was crucial to compare the congestion levels before and after the installation of the AI-powered traffic lights before deciding whether to allocate more budget to the program or terminate it.
“The agency should open the data to the public,” Gembong said on Monday as quoted by Antara. “If the project is not effective, they should implement other innovations and work together with related institutions to solve the traffic problem.”
Transportation experts previously suggested that traffic engineering, like the AI-powered traffic lights, would only serve as stopgaps. Instead, improving the public transit system in Jakarta and satellite cities would be more effective to solve the perennial traffic problems. Some analysts have also called on the city administration to introduce tougher policies such as electronic road pricing and higher parking fees to deter people from using private vehicles.
Acting governor Heru recently announced a plan to expand Transjakarta routes to various destinations in Jakarta’s satellite cities, including Depok and Bogor in West Java as well as the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. (nal)
