Comparison of Current Practical Adaptive Traffic Control Systems

Adaptive traffic control systems continuously monitor traffic conditions on an arterial and adjust traffic signal timings to accommodate variation in traffic volume and minimize stops and delays. This paper describes currently practical adaptive control systems which have been used in the United States and worldwide, which include Adaptive Control System-Lite (ACS-Lite), Optimization Policies for Adaptive Control (OPAC), Real-Time Hierarchical Optimized Distributed and Effective System (RHODES), Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) and Split Cycle Offset Optimization (SCOOT). The comparisons of the benefits from past experiences, cost and hardware requirements will help the traffic engineers and decision makers a guideline to select the optimized adaptive control system based on research objectives.