Currently most of the street lighting systems in Bahrain use non-dimmable High-Pressure Sodium lamps (HPS) along with an on/off control system. This system is not cost-effective, may lead to unnecessary energy use in some regions, and lowers the life spans of lamps. Considering the above problems, it has become increasingly important to develop a system that is more efficient and cost-effective. In recent years, with the advanced technology of high-quality energy-saving LED lamps at lower cost, led to great interest worldwide in using LEDs in street lighting. The merits of the LEDs are their dimming capability, which allows adding an intelligent system for monitoring and controlling their lighting level and energy consumption. In this study, a retrofitting strategy to convert current Bahrain street lighting system into a smart system is proposed. The smart street lighting system will incorporate dimmable Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) streetlights, motion sensors, light sensors, and microcontroller. The aim of this work is to illustrate an evaluation and analysis of the current and proposed lighting systems in terms cost, energy consumption, lifespan, maintenance, efficiency, etc. The proposed system is implemented and evaluated on a locally built prototype of a selected highway in Bahrain and the results were successful. These results support a possible large-scale implementation of the proposal. Finally, design a mobile application to make the posts (poles) interactive with mobile phones, smart cars, and the smart transportation system. This will give the mobile holder a facility of interaction with the localization in the street and it will be useful especially for the people with disability. The novelty of the proposal is not only making the posts has an intelligent dynamic lighting system, but also it will have the ability to interact with different applications like mobile phones, smart cars, and smart transportation. © 2018 Institution of Engineering and Technology. All rights reserved.