Traffic congestion is only increasing, and unless there is a massive switch to public transport in the coming years the situation will only become worse. But in the past few years Netivei Israel - the National Transport Infrastructure Company has deployed some 170 AI-based adaptive traffic lights in an attempt to analyze demand and adapt in real time to the situation on the roads. "Globes" reports on the effectiveness of these traffic lights.
Netivei Israel’s sample comprises 25 junctions presenting different scenarios. The average time saving at those junctions over the course of the day was 25 seconds per vehicle. At Furedeis junction, traversed by some 80,000 vehicles daily, the total daily time saving was estimated at 771 hours. At the junction at the entrance to Kiryat Tiv’on, the time saving was measured at up to 56 seconds on average per vehicle, or a total of 679 hours per day.
Netivei Israel estimated the contribution to the economy, and found that deployment at 100 junctions could benefit the economy by over NIS 500 million a year.
Regular traffic lights generally operate according to a timing program set in advance on the basis of periodic traffic counts. But the situation on the roads changes all the time. Demand rises and falls, the direction of traffic congestion switches, and sometimes unexpected events occur. An adaptive traffic light works differently. Cameras installed at the junction identify vehicles and analyze demand and the length of queues up to 100 meters from the junction. The algorithm adapts the timing of the traffic light in real time to the situation on the ground.
The system was developed over the past few years by ITC (Intelligent Traffic Control) in collaboration with the operations and maintenance division, the traffic management department, and the engineering R&D department, at Netivei Israel. "Our aspiration is that within five years all 750 junctions for which Netivei Israel is responsible will be adaptive," says Eitan Silberstein, head of the technologies unit in the traffic management department at Netivei Israel.
"On average, a driver uses three main roads on the way to work, with five to ten junctions on each," Silberstein adds. "We estimate that an average saving of ten minutes on each journey will amount to two working weeks over the course of a year. The aim is not just to turn more traffic lights into smart traffic lights. If I save 30 seconds at a junction, but delay a driver at the next junction, I haven’t done anything. The real leap forward will be when the entire route is adaptive."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 13, 2026.
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