ABSTRACT

Automatic control systems penneate life in all advanced societies today. Such systems act as catalysts in promoting progress and development. They are integral components of any industrial society and are necessary for the production of standardized and quality goods. Suitable signal plans at each road intersections can be used to solve the problem of traffic :flow. These plans could be fixed-time, time varying, or traffic actuated. Traffic control systems have evolved during the 20th century in response to the growth in automobile density. Hence, traffic systems must be organized and controlled carefully in order to operate efficiently and smoothly and meet the planned traffic control requirements. The advent of computers as control elements has advanced the technology in the automation of vehicle actuated traffic control. In this research project we focused and designed an automatic vehicle actuated traffic control system for use at intersections on the road network.Astudy of the road network in Nairobi was done and the nature of traffic density. A sensor was then developed to detect the presence of vehicles and determine the length of the vehicle queues. A computer was used to a study of the road network in Nairobi was done and the nature of traffic density. A computer was used to process the signals from the sensors and allocate more time for traffic to flow on the street with longer queue. A program was developed so that the computer allocated the timing sequence depending on the sensor status. The system can therefore be used to optimize traffic flow by ensuring that longer queues have more time for traffic to flow.