Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique
Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique is a real time adaptive traffic control system for the coordination and control of traffic signals across an urban road network. Originally developed by the Transport Research Laboratory for the Department of Transport in 1980, research and development of SCOOT has continued to present day. SCOOT is used extensively throughout the United Kingdom as well as in other countries.
SCOOT automatically adjusts the traffic signal delays to adapt to traffic conditions, using data from traffic sensors. Sensor data is gathered from sensors within clusters of road crossings called "regions", and used to guide crossing timing decisions throughout each region. SCOOT has been demonstrated to yield improvements in traffic performance of the order of 15% compared to fixed timing systems.