This study aims to investigate the design and performance of different architectures for urban traffic control with consideration of variations and uncertainties in traffic flow. The architectures, which ranging from centralised, semi-centralised to decentralised, are applied to different road networks. Both macroscopic and microscopic flow models are developed and used to calculate the performance of the systems. The macroscopic model is capable of generating essential traffic dynamics, such as traffic queues’ spillover, formation and dissipation. The control systems’ are tested under varies traffic demand levels. The results suggest that the centralised systems generally can outperform the decentralised systems, and the most benefit gained in the centralised control comes from its setting of signal offsets. On the other hand, the microscopic flow model captures the movement of each individual vehicle and drivers' rerouting behaviour with respect to traffic conditions. The test results showed that the drivers' response to the traffic condition can help a decentralised system perform as well as a centralised system. This study brings a new insight into cooperative transport management, and contributes to the state-of-the-art of urban traffic system design
