This report gives a comprehensive survey of the theory of highway traffic signals including isolated signals, one-way arterials, two-way arterials, and networks, limited however, to the common right angle junctions. The emphasis is on the logistics of control strategies rather than recipes for implementation.  It is anticipated, however, that the implementation of some of the strategies described here will give substantial reductions in delays as compared with existing procedures.

Although we lack a complete theory of the motion of individual cars, there are many simple facts that even the most inexperienced driver knows and there are others which we could determine through experiment if we thought these facts were worth the effort required to find them. The lack of such a theory however, should not deter us from constructing a framework of possible theories consistent with what is known and seeing if such an incomplete theory can give any useful information about the gross aspects of traffic.