The aim of this paper was to undertake a brief, exploratory, qualitative review of current research trends on adaptive intelligent traffic control systems for congestion management. Selective search of the internet yielded 25 usable papers which were reviewed under different sections. The results of this review are summarised here.

The seriousness of traffic congestion even in the case of a developing country, is evident. The methods of measuring traffic congestion is a less researched area. One of the method to reduce congestion from economic point of view involves any of the different methods of pricing. But this has low acceptability among users.

The methods currently available, researched and used ones can be broadly categorised into control from the vehicle using VANET etc. and control from the road using sensors etc. The former seems to be better and easier to manage with real time data. Replacement of control from the road with control from the vehicle has produced better results in some occasions.

In future, there should be more research on methods of congestion measurement and the possibility of some hybrid technique using both vehicle and road controls.

Keywords: Adaptive, Traffic Control, Systems, Intelligent, Congestion