Urban traffic congestion has caused serious issues, such as environmental pollution, stress to drivers, and reduced safety levels despite the ongoing efforts and initiatives of urban planners to improve road infrastructure networks for long - term development. Focusing on temporary control strategies, this study aims to reduce traffic congestion at intersections through the consideration of traffic signal timing, two - stage left turn box, and traffic direction assignment. A simulation - based optimization model for traffic problems is developed to estimate vehicle travel time and queue length, which are important components of intersection performance. The traffic data of the main intersection located in Can Tho city, Vietnam was collected during peak hours to analyze and evaluate the existing and future traffic conditions. Our findings highlight the need for temporary control strategies to improve recurrent congestion and traffic - related air pollution exposure. Furthermore, the model in this study can be applied to investigate various traffic scenarios before implementing them in reality.