RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

[itfitzme]

Of course we have under development wider RHW's over other RHW's and RHW's over wider RHW's so the point of tunnels becomes a null point.
Either way, when I say tunnels are not possible, I mean that they do not function at all. 0 capacity. Does not carry traffic at all. Traffic would take other routes and this would render one of the highways in the interchanges non-usable.

As a side note, remember this is a game and that this is merely a hobby. Its not the real world where people won't take no as an answer (and the sims could hardly care less)

Indeed, it is just a hobby.  And I recognize this.  As such, I avoid any negative feedback and work hard to stick with "how do I" questions.  

To put my experience in context, he game I'm playing is the "maximize density and traffic flow" game.  

What I have found so far is that the RHW-4 provides less capacity than the standard Maxis highways which make it simply eye candy.  The RHW-6/8/10 are not capable of an effective interchange.  And, the fundamental restriction on a highway network is the capacity of the interchange system.  With the RHW mod limited by the MIS interchange on the RHW-4, the whole thing just doesn't deliver anything more than a different skin on the network with less capacity when connected.   There is eye candy and there is eye candy.  There is eye candy that doesn't do anything and there is eye candy that does exactly the same thing as what is already there but looks different.  

It's my own fault really.  The intense effort analyzing the game and traffic, the traffic simulator configuration tool, the appearance of the different networks in the NWM and RHW mods led me to believe that they would add to my game play. Unfortunately, in deeper analysis they don't deliver more often than they do.  The NWM and RWM aren't really adding as much to my game for all the puzzle pieces that they contain.  I'm just saying.

But, I'm all about positive feedback, and as "sims could hardly care less" anyways, then I'lll just say that

On the other hand, "What a great job you've done."    

[itfitzme]

Any who....  So the attached pic is what I'm up against.  Note the MIS is at capacity of nearly 500 cars.  The RHW-8, it is feeding, is at 1000+ cars.  That MIS is actually coming off of an RHW-4 from a residential zone and the RHW-8 is also being fed by residential.  Indeed, there are three residential zones coming in from three quadrants but the third isn't connected as I can't bypass or interchange the RHW4 with the RHW8 yet.  There are the two issues that I'm butting up against.  I've hit this roadblock before and thought that I might just as well use the Maxis standards.  Then I've thought, "nahh, these guys put alot of work into these mods, the least I can do is not give up easily.  There must be a workaround that I can use while waiting patiently for the all anticipated and upcoming revision."  And I thought I had it with the tunnel with a blue hole.




What I'm thinking is that I may have to settle with lane reductions to RHW4s at the interchange and bypasses.  And, if needed, I will have to settle with multiple parallel RHW4s if I need more capacity across the interchange.  I'm not sure if I like that any more than transitioning to the Maxis defaults but I am thankful that someone was thoughtful enough to include those splitters.  It may take up a bit more room than I prefer but I have already had to compromise on room.  For instance, below is my best attempt at the clover leaf.



So far, that's as tight as I can get it.  It is an RWH4 under an avenue using those nifty slip lanes.  I haven't yet tested it for capacity or actual traffic connectivity for that matter.  That's an issue as both the automata and the Showpaths function can provide the illusion of connectivity where the capacity is actually zero (something I learned recently). 

I'm wondering if that FlexFly might give me some utility in tightening it up.  I'm not entirely clear on what utility FlexFly is meant to have and need still to find some good tutorial on it.  Perhaps if someone knows the link, they might point to it.

Thanks,

And happy traffic engineering.

[metarvo]

If you do have to reduce the RHW-8 to RHW-4, you could try splitting the RHW-8 into two RHW-4s for interchanges and the like.  This would not only retain the capacity, but it would provide enhanced flexibility for interchange design.  In any case, you are indeed putting the RHW to its limits in a way that I rarely ever see.  It seems like you would be able to effectively recreate a realistic traffic jam this way.  The RHW is meant to be a real highway, which would mean that it simulates RL.  Traffic is a fact of life in virtually any RL big city, but most of these cities have public transportation, too.  Could it be that you should build a mass transit system?

The FlexFly is a curved elevated MIS-1 ramp that the RHW-4 can be built under.  This allows for more compact interchanges, which may be what you're looking for.

[Blue Lightning]

You know, 500 sims isn't really that much I have plenty a MIS that runs 3,000 sims. And the RHW is plenty capable of high capacity systems, I've shuttled 850,000 sims along a RHW-8S-6C-8S collector/distributor setup.

And as metarvo said, splitting it into a collector/distributor system works well.

FLEXFly's usage is pretty straightforward, plop the piece, demolish the helper tile, and draw RHW under it. It's not too stable in v4.0 however it should be a lot more stable in v4.1.

[Aldini10]

I need yellow lines outside of the FLEXFLY puzzle piece. Right now for me, FLEXFLY is a bust if it is not completed. Blue Lightning, this is not meant for you to start a rampage, burn your computer, and go out into the streets and start a riot. I would very much like to see it completed.

[smileymk]

I'd like to see ramps that go straight to RHW-4 instead of MIS, without lane dropping, to create 2-lane slip roads.
These would be much more realistic, as I do believe that most motorway slip roads are 2 lanes - especially here in the UK.
This picture should show you what I mean:

[MandelSoft]

You mean thes kind of ramps?
http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.454899,-1.489398&spn=0.001188,0.003473&t=k&z=19

[Wilfried]

Smileymk, virtually any UK 2-lane on-ramp has a smooth transition into one lane just before it merges into the main carriageway. The 2-lane setup is just to enable overtaking before the merging point.

[smileymk]

You mean thes kind of ramps?
http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.454899,-1.489398&spn=0.001188,0.003473&t=k&z=19

Pretty much, only quite a lot shorter.

Smileymk, virtually any UK 2-lane on-ramp has a smooth transition into one lane just before it merges into the main carriageway. The 2-lane setup is just to enable overtaking before the merging point.

Many of these are wide enough to be effectively 2 lanes. The 2-lane setup actually serves the purpose of creating separate lanes for separate turns, useful considering that the vast majority of motorway junctions are roundabout interchanges.
Anyway, why would you want to overtake on a slip road?

[pierrebaptiste]

Hello

I have one idea for a futur nam

http://covoituragedynamique.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/voies-de-covoiturage-dynamique-san-francisco-covivo.jpg

http://covoituragedynamique.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/carpool_sign_500.jpg


It is a " carpools " this system it is used in USA in great city ( seattle , los angeles , honnolulu ... ) . You are 2 in a car when you use ring way ? You can use this lane   .



for lhd                                     for rhd

We can place a lozenge in lane for the carpools , and a rafter for the direction of drive .

PS : have you a news about RHW euro road texture for lhd system ? 

[deathtopumpkins]

While HOV (or carpool, what they're known as in California) lanes would be wonderful in SC4, the game cannot tell how many sims are in a car. The idea could, however, be applied restricting the lane to buses only (and has been done before--see Blue Lightning's latest STEX upload), but not on the same tile as the regular lanes, as buses use the same paths as cars.

[canyonjumper]

What about cosmetic pieces? Couldn't this design be used?

[deathtopumpkins]

Yes, it would be perfectly feasible to make a cosmetic mod that uses this design.

[MOREOPTIONS]

Greetings my friends,  I only stopped by to lurch and to ask if anyone is working on this?


Am able to do everything.. but the overpass.   and is anyone thinking of making 4+ lane over passes.

am Working on my Kuwait City. and so many of the roads/Hyw's are 6+.. and the overpasses as well.  Thank you for taking a look. God Bless.

P.S.  That looks great with the buss lanes...

[Tarkus]

Pretty much, only quite a lot shorter.
Many of these are wide enough to be effectively 2 lanes. The 2-lane setup actually serves the purpose of creating separate lanes for separate turns, useful considering that the vast majority of motorway junctions are roundabout interchanges.
Anyway, why would you want to overtake on a slip road?

Sounds like a piece you'd want to have as a unidirectional setup--on-ramp but no off-ramp.

Greetings my friends,  I only stopped by to lurch and to ask if anyone is working on this?

That looks like a Three-Level Diamond Interchange, popularly called a "Volleyball Interchange" by many road enthusiasts.  Unless you use some tunnels in there, it's not quite possible yet, as we haven't gotten into the "multi-height" ERHWs yet, and to emulate that particular setup, we'd need to make dual-lane slip TuLEPs, elevated OWR-4 pieces, and elevated Wider RHWs. 

All of those are things that are planned as long-term development goals, however.

-Alex

[el_cozu]

Well... you can use tunnels (level -1) and Elevated RHW (level +1) and the intersecting roads at the Level 0

[Blue Lightning]

I tried something before around those terms...



Limits when vehicles can enter/leave the center lane. If used in conjuction with TE bus lots it would create HOV lanes.

[Tarkus]

Another bug to report. I don't know if this happens with RHD, but when travelling on the inside lane of FARHW-4, the paths seem to be broken. Automata will not use the inside lane and UDI will end when in the inside lane.
I can't really can't provide a screenie because the paths appear intact.

I was able to replicate it and diagnose what was causing that.  It appears that the pathing was cutting across the diagonal at the -8/+8 point, and while it actually lined up geometrically, it didn't line up tile-wise and the game didn't like it.  I added a short little jog at -7.99 on the connecting tile and it appears to work now.  It'll be going into 4.0.5.

-Alex

[kaylacey]

When I used the RHW none of my residentials or commercials would grow facing the RHW.  Is it supposed to be that the way?  They come up with the no road connection zot. 

[Blue Lightning]

The RHW is a highway network, therefore it does not directly support RCI development along it. Its akin to zoning along a maxis highway.