With a Japanese-funded study of Phnom Penh’s worsening traffic congestion wrapping up, a municipal official said Sunday that the capital’s 64 traffic lights would be replaced next year with new ones equipped with sensors and CCTV cameras, while the old ones will be reused at other intersections.
“We will not throw them away,” deputy municipal governor Chhreang Sophann said of the old lights. “We will install them on the outskirts of the city.”
According to municipal traffic police, there are currently 64 traffic lights in Phnom Penh, all of which operate on a fixed-timing system, inherently inefficient because their signal pattern does not vary based on traffic conditions.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been conducting a study of the city’s traffic conditions and plans to replace the old stoplights, pending approval of the Japanese government.
JICA spokesman Egami Masahiko said Sunday that approval from Tokyo could come as early as February 2015 and that a draft of the study was submitted to City Hall last week.
