Abstract: Traffic control system has been developed for last 20 years. In the 1st generation, traffic controller aimed to control traffic light only, it worked based on fixed timing plan for the whole day. The problem occurred when traffic demand was changed significantly. At that situation, the traffic controller would not able to control traffic flow well. The second generation traffic controller came to address problem of previous traffic controller. The new traffic controller worked based on predetermined time interval. Time in a day was divided into several time interval and every time interval has different timing plan. Further developments of traffic controller resulted the third and fourth generation traffic controller that worked based on real time traffic demand that detected by traffic sensors. However, in order to back up the traffic controller system when there are some problems with the traffic sensors, the second generation of the traffic controller is still installed together with the third or fourth generation of traffic control. Hence, the second generation of traffic controller until now is still relevant with development of traffic control system. This study presents a method to develop second generation of traffic control system based on a micro traffic simulation system. Determination of the timing plan for every time interval is carried out using a hardware in the loop simulation system. The simulation system is not only able to visualise performance of the tested traffic control system but also able to revise the timing plan based on the simulated traffic demand. Several laboratory based testing shows that the proposed hardware in the loop simulation system is very beneficial in evaluating a traffic control system.