NEW YORK - Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses will spend less time tied up at intersections as the city expands the use of technology designed to give mass transit the green light.

Transit Signal Priority -- or TSP -- detects where buses are, and changes traffic lights appropriately.

It can reduce red light times and increase green light times to optimize traffic flow and get buses moving more quickly.

The technology is already being used on five Select Bus Service lines in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.

A report from the Department of Transportation says it's cut bus commute times by an average of nearly 20 percent.

TSP will be installed at nearly 500 intersections along 10 routes before the end of the year.