My country's road traffic signal control began in the 1970s and has undergone nearly 50 years of development, roughly going through four stages: single-point traffic signal control, regional coordinated traffic signal control, intelligent traffic signal control, and big data-driven coordinated traffic signal control.
The single-point traffic signal control stage began in the 1970s. Research on independent technology for automatic traffic signal control began in 1973. The Capital Automated Traffic Control Project was launched in 1974. In 1978, Beijing implemented the first offline coordinated traffic signal control system in China using domestically produced computers. Around 1980, several major cities began the production and application of single-point, fixed-cycle traffic signal controllers.
The regional coordinated traffic signal control stage began in the 1980s. my country introduced systems such as SCOOT and SCATS. The national "Seventh Five-Year Plan" key scientific and technological research project developed the "Urban Traffic Real-Time Adaptive Control System," which was demonstrated in Nanjing. The "Eighth Five-Year Plan" key scientific and technological research project demonstrated its application in Guangzhou's Tianhe District.
The intelligent traffic signal control stage was driven by the Ministry of Public Security's guiding opinions after 1997 and the "Smooth Traffic Project" in 2000. National key scientific and technological research projects during the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the "863 Program" supported the development of next-generation systems, resulting in representative systems such as HT-UTCS, NATS, and HiCon. Artificial intelligence technology was introduced, and relevant technical standards were established. By 2017, domestically produced traffic signal controllers and control systems had largely replaced foreign products.
The big data-driven traffic signal collaborative control stage has developed in recent years with the application of next-generation ICT technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Urban traffic brains and "Internet + traffic lights" have emerged, achieving traffic perception and intelligent decision-making through various new technologies. Reports from Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and other cities indicate that intersection traffic efficiency can be further improved by more than 10%. Recent policy planning has put forward specific requirements for traffic signal control, and some large and medium-sized cities have begun constructing unified traffic signal management platforms.
