Public buses are less likely to get stuck in traffic in future, with a new system that can prompt traffic lights to change in the buses' favour.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced yesterday that it is carrying out a six-month trial of the Smart Bus Priority System, starting today.

During the trial, which ends next April, services 98 and 99 buses are fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers, which transmit the buses' real-time locations to a back-end assessment system.

As a bus with the GPS tracker approaches a traffic junction, the system will communicate with the traffic lights and prioritise its movement, if required, by either extending the green-light duration or shortening the red-light duration.

For instance, if a bus that has been delayed by a traffic jam approaches a green light that is about to turn red, the traffic light will stay green longer to allow the bus to pass. This will also benefit other vehicles travelling alongside the bus.

After the bus passes the junction, the timing of the traffic light will revert to normal.

The LTA said the system, which has a similar concept to one already in place in Australia, is aimed at providing faster and more reliable bus journeys for commuters. It added that a total of 56 buses which currently ply the routes of services 98 and 99 will have GPS trackers.

Services 98 and 99 ply Jurong East Avenue 1 and Jurong West Avenue 1 between Jurong Town Hall Road and Jurong West Street 42/52.

They were chosen for the trial because both routes have multiple traffic-light junctions, which will enable the LTA to better evaluate the effectiveness of the system.

At the end of the trial period, data collected will be analysed to determine whether the system can effectively complement existing bus priority measures - such as bus lanes, B-signals for buses at junctions and bus priority boxes - to improve bus journey times and reliability.