The article presents a systematization of the application of control theory methods – robust, adaptive, and intelligent control – during the decision-making phase in the formation of traffic management system levelsQuery. A diamond-shaped architecture of the hierarchical traffic management system and schematic diagrams for each control level – local, tactical, and strategic – have been developed. A concept for the formation of distributed control systems has been proposed, which includes the main provisions of the system approach to the development of the structure of traffic management systems, traffic management methods, and methods for determining traffic efficiency for various levels of management systems – from local to strategic. Key points include: the traffic management system should have a hierarchical structure with partial decentralization of control; the structure of traffic management systems should have correctly formed control levels with appropriate mathematical descriptions and technical support; the decision-making level should be separated from the control center with priority given to other levels; the design methodology should take into account traffic efficiency indicators for all operating modes of the management system (from local to systemic); the design process should consider the degree of uncertainty in traffic parameters; the distribution of automatic regulation and automatic traffic control methods should be carried out through decomposition and aggregation; and the traffic management system should be adaptive to changes in traffic flow parameters in real-time.