Developing a road traffic control system with GIS

Since the onset of rapid urbanisation and the growth in vehicular transport in China, the cycle time for supplying urban road demand has become shorter, requiring urban road traffic control information such as signal controls, traffic marks and signs to change dramatically. This has led to a much greater focus on how to collect, manage and update dynamic traffic control information and to analyse traffic resources with this information. The present study aimed to develop a system to manage road traffic control information and analyse traffic resources using visual techniques. In this system road traffic control information is represented as objects such as points, lines or regions in a geographic information system (GIS) and their specifications are stored in an attribute table of the objects. Moreover, graphic user interfaces were developed to process, edit, query, display and print the information. A road traffic resource analysis system has been developed based on the road network and the relevant traffic control information. This system has been implemented by the city police and is being used by the urban traffic police to manage and disseminate the information.