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The majority of fuel consumed in traffic on urban arterials is related to driving in congested traffic, characterized by frequent speed fluctuations and stops at signalized intersections. A range of traffic control strategies was suggested in the past to decrease fuel consumption and emissions in urban networks. The research presented in this study aims to fill the gap in the existing knowledge by proposing a novel combination of an ecology-based performance index and an evolutionary method for optimization of traffic signal settings. An optimization problem is defined to find the best values for traffic light control parameters on the street network. The ecology-based performance index is used as the criteria for optimization. The defined problem is solved by the Bee Colony Optimization (BCO) technique. The geometry of the subject network has been inserted into a Vissim model calibrated by using relevant traffic demand and field-measured travel times. The Vissim has been used as the tool for the evaluation of the proposed BCO, TRANSYT-7F (T7F) and field signal timing plans. The methodology is tested on the field-real-like network of the City of Kragujevac, Serbia. Results show that in the case of the overall network ecology performance index, BCO makes a decrease of 11.95 % and 8.47% compared to the signal timings from field and T7F, respectively. • Proposed an ecology-based fixed-time control logic for street networks. • The model uses a BCO algorithm and derives control parameters. • A VISSIM simulation estimates the quality of the proposed control algorithm. • TRANSYT-7F and field signal plans are used for comparison with the BCO algorithm. • The model is tested on the field-real-like network of the City of Kragujevac. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]