mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A Survey on Traffic Signal Control Methods

arXiv 1904.08117 ↗First posted 17 Apr 2019cs.LG cs.AI stat.MLcited by 79

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Abstract (arXiv)

Traffic signal control is an important and challenging real-world problem, which aims to minimize the travel time of vehicles by coordinating their movements at the road intersections. Current traffic signal control systems in use still rely heavily on oversimplified information and rule-based methods, although we now have richer data, more computing power and advanced methods to drive the development of intelligent transportation. With the growing interest in intelligent transportation using machine learning methods like reinforcement learning, this survey covers the widely acknowledged transportation approaches and a comprehensive list of recent literature on reinforcement for traffic signal control. We hope this survey can foster interdisciplinary research on this important topic.

Key facts. Cited by 79 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). First posted on arXiv 17 Apr 2019.

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 13; 2022: 13; 2023: 14; 2024: 9; 2025: 19; 2026: 11.

79 papers.

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  1. 2023LLMLight: Large Language Models as Traffic Signal Control Agentscited by 73
  2. 2025A Survey of Sim-to-Real Methods in RL: Progress, Prospects and Challenges with Foundation Modelscited by 38
  3. 2024LLM-Assisted Light: Leveraging Large Language Model Capabilities for Human-Mimetic Traffic Signal Control in Complex Urban Environmentscited by 31
  4. 2021Expression might be enough: representing pressure and demand for reinforcement learning based traffic signal controlcited by 29
  5. 2024CityBench: Evaluating the Capabilities of Large Language Models for Urban Taskscited by 27
  6. 2021Multi-Agent MDP Homomorphic Networkscited by 25
  7. 2023Irregular Traffic Time Series Forecasting Based on Asynchronous Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Networkcited by 20
  8. 2025SceneDiffuser++: City-Scale Traffic Simulation via a Generative World Modelcited by 20
  9. 2022LibSignal: An Open Library for Traffic Signal Controlcited by 16
  10. 2025CoLLMLight: Cooperative Large Language Model Agents for Network-Wide Traffic Signal Controlcited by 15
  11. 2023UniTSA: A Universal Reinforcement Learning Framework for V2X Traffic Signal Controlcited by 13
  12. 2023Learning to Control and Coordinate Mixed Traffic Through Robot Vehicles at Complex and Unsignalized Intersectionscited by 12
38 more
  1. 2021DynSTGAT: Dynamic Spatial-Temporal Graph Attention Network for Traffic Signal Controlcited by 11
  2. 2021A Decentralized Reinforcement Learning Framework for Efficient Passage of Emergency Vehiclescited by 9
  3. 2022The Real Deal: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities in Moving Reinforcement Learning-Based Traffic Signal Control Systems Towards Realitycited by 9
  4. 2022EMVLight: a Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning Framework for an Emergency Vehicle Decentralized Routing and Traffic Signal Control Systemcited by 9
  5. 2023DuaLight: Enhancing Traffic Signal Control by Leveraging Scenario-Specific and Scenario-Shared Knowledgecited by 9
  6. 2021A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Fair Traffic Signal Controlcited by 7
  7. 2023Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Based on Representational Communication for Large-Scale Traffic Signal Controlcited by 7
  8. 2025Generative AI for Autonomous Driving: Frontiers and Opportunitiescited by 7
  9. 2021Learning to Simulate on Sparse Trajectory Datacited by 6
  10. 2022CoTV: Cooperative Control for Traffic Light Signals and Connected Autonomous Vehicles using Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 6
  11. 2022CBLab: Supporting the Training of Large-scale Traffic Control Policies with Scalable Traffic Simulationcited by 6
  12. 2023Large-Scale Traffic Signal Control Using Constrained Network Partition and Adaptive Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 6
  13. 2023SocialLight: Distributed Cooperation Learning towards Network-Wide Traffic Signal Controlcited by 6
  14. 2022Offline Reinforcement Learning for Road Traffic Controlcited by 5
  15. 2022Model-based graph reinforcement learning for inductive traffic signal controlcited by 5
  16. 2023FDTI: Fine-grained Deep Traffic Inference with Roadnet-enriched Graphcited by 5
  17. 2024MalLight: Influence-Aware Coordinated Traffic Signal Control for Traffic Signal Malfunctionscited by 5
  18. 2021Deep Reinforcement Q-Learning for Intelligent Traffic Signal Control with Partial Detectioncited by 4
  19. 2021Delayed Propagation Transformer: A Universal Computation Engine towards Practical Control in Cyber-Physical Systemscited by 3
  20. 2022Feudal Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning with Adaptive Network Partition for Traffic Signal Controlcited by 3
  21. 2022Centralized Training with Hybrid Execution in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  22. 2022ADLight: A Universal Approach of Traffic Signal Control with Augmented Data Using Reinforcement Learningcited by 3
  23. 2023HumanLight: Incentivizing Ridesharing via Human-centric Deep Reinforcement Learning in Traffic Signal Controlcited by 3
  24. 2024A Simple Framework Towards Vision-based Traffic Signal Control with Microscopic Simulationcited by 3
  25. 2025DreamerV3 for Traffic Signal Control: Hyperparameter Tuning and Performancecited by 3
  26. 2025VLMLight: Safety-Critical Traffic Signal Control via Vision-Language Meta-Control and Dual-Branch Reasoning Architecturecited by 3
  27. 2022A Critical Review of Traffic Signal Control and A Novel Unified View of Reinforcement Learning and Model Predictive Control Approaches for Adaptive Traffic Signal Controlcited by 2
  28. 2023DataLight: Offline Data-Driven Traffic Signal Controlcited by 2
  29. 2024Mitigating Metropolitan Carbon Emissions with Dynamic Eco-driving at Scalecited by 2
  30. 2025FuzzyLight: A Robust Two-Stage Fuzzy Approach for Traffic Signal Control Works in Real Citiescited by 2
  31. 2025Unicorn: A Universal and Collaborative Reinforcement Learning Approach Towards Generalizable Network-Wide Traffic Signal Controlcited by 2
  32. 2025A Dual Large Language Models Architecture with Herald Guided Prompts for Parallel Fine Grained Traffic Signal Controlcited by 2
  33. 2021Back to Basics: Deep Reinforcement Learning in Traffic Signal Controlcited by 1
  34. 2023Traffic Light Control with Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  35. 2024GuideLight: "Industrial Solution" Guidance for More Practical Traffic Signal Control Agentscited by 1
  36. 2024PyTSC: A Unified Platform for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Traffic Signal Controlcited by 1
  37. 2024TransferLight: Zero-Shot Traffic Signal Control on any Road-Networkcited by 1
  38. 2025Communication Strategy on Macro-and-Micro Traffic State in Cooperative Deep Reinforcement Learning for Regional Traffic Signal Controlcited by 1

50 most cited of 79 All 79 (JSON)