To relieve the oversaturation at intersections，the pre-signal intersection control method for motor vehicles was proposed． Owing to the given intersection design and phasing scheme，the calculation model of vehicle delays at the pre-signal and main signal were developed． With the minimum average vehicle delay at the intersection being regarded as the optimization objective，the signal timing parameters and the length of the waiting area were chosen as independent variables，and an optimization model for the timing plan at pre-signal intersection was proposed． The feasible direction method was used to solve the two models． Finally，a typical intersection was used as an example to test the proposed model． The results showed that compared with traditional control method，the presignal control method could reduce average vehicle delay as much as 60% under saturation or oversaturation conditions． 

 signal control, pre-signals, timing plan, waiting area, average vehicle delay