Baguio turns to AI for traffic management, fight vs. crime

Baguio City plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) in managing vehicular traffic and preventing crime.

According to Maki Pulido's report on "24 Oras," the local government will spend P3 billion on the AI traffic management system to help ease the flow of vehicles in the country's popular tourist destination.

Instead of a timer, the AI will read the traffic volume to determine if the green light should still be on. Violators will be sent a traffic violation ticket at home.

The system will also have facial recognition software to help the police identify the criminals

 "We will have AI-powered cameras and systems which will be used to gather data daily and at the same time generate the right analytics," said Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong. 

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority hopes to also use AI in managing traffic.  Installation of CCTV cameras in bus carousels is 90 percent complete, it said.

MMDA said it aims to have a real-time volume count to notify motorists if they need to use another route, such as Mabuhay lanes, which will be linked to mobile applications like Waze and Google Maps.

“‘Yung sa kanila kasi they’re relying on the users to report kung may banggaan kung mabagal mga sasakyan, ito real time ina-analyze,” said MMDA Acting Chairperson Don Artes. 

(Their system relies on the users to report if there are accidents, what we plan to have is real-time.)

According to IT expert Art Samaniego, several countries are turning to AI for traffic management. 

However, one of the challenges in the Philippines setting would be the implementation of the no-contact apprehension, which has been temporarily put on hold by the Supreme Court.

The availability of a fast internet connection will also be a hurdle.

“Halimbawa may biglang banggaan, so ire-route ka. Iwa-warn ka pero ma receive mo lang ‘yan kung merong high speed internet kasi real time,” he said. 

(For example, there is a vehicle collision.  The system will warn you and reroute you but you will only receive this if you have a high-speed internet because it's real-time.)

Samaniego said the government can't rely on AI alone to fix its traffic.  

“Sa sobrang dami ng sasakyan malilito lang AI sa atin. Para maging effective ito, ayusin din natin mga kalsada natin hindi lang to technology dapat pati physical hindi lang to virtual,” Samaniego added. 

(With so many cars here, AI will only be confused. For this to be effective, let's fix our roads, too.) —Sherylin Untalan/LDF, GMA Integrated News