Wave for green man: Pedestrian push buttons to be replaced by sensors

Instead of pushing a button to activate the green-man signal at traffic junctions here, pedestrians would just need to wave their hands in front of a sensor to cross the road in the future.

- Kok Yufeng

Beginning from the fourth quarter of 2025, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will replace all existing mechanical pedestrian push buttons with touchless microwave sensors that detect hand movements using electromagnetic waves.

When the new sensors detect the wave of a hand, they will send a signal to the traffic light system that a pedestrian is waiting to cross the road.

There are about 11,500 push buttons at around 2,790 traffic junctions across Singapore. LTA expects to take six years to replace all of them.

The move, which LTA said is aimed at reducing touch points and improving hygiene, comes after trials were conducted in 2022 and 2023 to evaluate whether such contactless systems could be a viable alternative to the conventional mechanical buttons.

The reliability and maintenance requirements of these contactless systems were also assessed during the trials.

LTA tested two types of sensors an infrared sensor and another that uses microwaves.