Prof. Gartner has done extensive research in traffic flow models and in transportation systems, with special concentration in urban traffic control strategies and systems and in transportation network analysis, fields in which he is widely published and internationally recognized.  He has developed and authored several computer methods for traffic control and network optimization, including:  The Generalized Combination Method, MITROP, MAXBAND and MULTIBAND.  He also developed OPAC (Optimization Policies for Adaptive Control), the first real-time, traffic-adaptive signal control strategy to be deployed in the U.S. It was implemented in the RT-TRACS program in the U.S. and in numerous other ITS projects both in the U.S. and abroad.

Prof. Gartner is the former Chairman of the Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee of the Transportation Research Board, a division of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (2000-09).