Patent ID: 7557731

Claim:
A method for regulating the flow of traffic at a roadway intersection having one or more traffic signals, comprising: positioning a processor in the vicinity of the intersection, said processor storing adaptable cycle times for each traffic signal at the intersection corresponding to all of the traffic flow directions at the intersection which are controlled by the one or more traffic signals; mounting an RFID reader having a predetermined communication range in the vicinity of each traffic signal at the intersection, each RFID reader in communication with the processor at that intersection, each traffic signal corresponding to one or more of said traffic flow directions; mounting a plurality of RFID tags in the vicinity of a license plate of each of a corresponding plurality of vehicles; wherein, when one or more vehicles having corresponding license plate-mounted RFID tags approach the intersection so as to be within the communication range of an RFID reader, the RFID readers interrogate the RFID tags of the vehicles to count the number of RFID-tagged vehicles present in all of the traffic flow directions at the intersection; in response to counting the number of RFID-tagged vehicles present in all of the traffic flow directions at the intersection, calculating an unused time slice of the cycle time for at least one of the traffic flow directions at the intersection; and, reducing the cycle time for said at least one of the traffic flow directions in accordance with the unused time slice, and increasing the cycle time for at least one other of said one or more of the traffic flow directions in accordance with the unused time slice.