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Traffic signal optimisation may lead to the alleviation, to some extent, of urban traffic congestion, particularly by using real-time data rather than expected traffic flow data. Recent advances in radar technology have made it possible to observe detailed traffic flow data in and around roadway intersections in real time. The notion of self-organisation has relatively recently been proposed as a promising alternative to improve the effective allocation of green time, particularly under lighter traffic conditions. A fixed-time control strategy and seven self-organising algorithms are compared in a microscopic traffic simulation model of a provincial road in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Actual arrival rates are used as input for the model, while the algorithms are compared using six performance measure indicators, under both light and moderate traffic conditions. The results are used to make a case for the adoption of self-organising traffic signal control algorithms, especially under conditions of light to moderate traffic densities, since this can lead to significant improvements in traffic flow in terms of delay time, vehicle stops, and time spent travelling at unacceptably slow speeds through the road network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]