Smart Traffic Lights Control for Smart Cities: Conceptual Framework

Traffic control lights have being in use for more than a century and are positioned at road intersections and pedestrian crossings to control the flow of traffic. The operation of traffic lights has been time-based and therefore open-loop in nature. The traffic lights only change state after and according to the pre-set time intervals irrespective of traffic situation. Today, the number of vehicles, the volume of traffic, and human activities have made time-controlled traffic lights inadequate in many situations. In this work, traffic lights that operate based on the volume of traffic, that is one with a feedback system or sensor is developed for a four-way road intersection. Sensors are placed at the different roads of the intersection to gather traffic information on the roads. The controller, Arduino in this work, coordinates signals from the sensors and controls the traffic lights intelligently such that priority is given to the busiest road of the intersection and emergency vehicles.