Japan to Install “Smart” Traffic Lights Throughout Cambodia’s Capital
As Cambodia’s economy has boomed over the last decade, the broad French-built boulevards and leafy backstreets of Phnom Penh have become bottlenecks, with giant SUVs parked two- or three- deep, clogging the roads. At peak hour, the center of town turns into a Hobbesian crush of all against all, a gridlock of motorbikes, cars, bicycles and hulking SUVs, each giving no quarter and ceding no unnecessary inch.
Japan has worked to alleviate Cambodia’s traffic woes before, and as the gridlock worsens, is jumping back into the fray with a total overhaul of the capital’s traffic light system. Over the next few years, Tokyo’s development arm, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), hopes to replace the traffic lights at Phnom Penh’s 69 controlled intersections and add around 30 more, then link the entire system together with a computerized central control station. …
Sebastian Strangio
http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/japan-jica-install-smart-system-of-traffic-lights-phnom-penh
