MOTORISTS have been warned to expect delays at the A34 Botley interchange in Oxford after ‘smart’ traffic lights were switched on.

The lights are intended to ease traffic flow at the junction, but the Highways Agency, which installed the lights, said the new system, and drivers using them, will take a few days to settle in.

Spokesman James Wright said: “These are smart lights so they react to the traffic flow.”

He said the system, known as Mova, had been designed for use at busy road junctions and the lights determine their phasing based on traffic flow data.

Mr Wright said: “It is a smart system but it takes a couple of days to calibrate as we set it up with the best data we have but then it calibrates itself.”

He added: “The important thing is for people not to judge it on the first day.

“It can take a week or so to bed in.”

The new system also includes a pedestrian crossings on the A420 Swindon road. The project cost £480,000.