Subway usage poll

[z]

As someone who is working on a traffic simulator, the question of subway usage naturally comes up.  I have noticed in my cities that with existing simulators, SC4 (and even SC3K) required a lot more subways to provide effective mass transit than you would normally find in most cities.  I'd like to find out to what extent other people share this experience.  Ideally, only the biggest cities should require extensive subway networks, with smaller cities having only a few subway lines plus a number of elevated rail lines and commuter rail lines for additional high-speed mass transit.  So I'd like to find out if people are actually able to do this.  It would also be helpful if in addition to voting, you would make a short post about the size and density of your city, as this has great bearing on the results.

On a related note, I have noticed that the cost of building subways is way too cheap compared to what it costs in the real world.  Yet I have not been able to change the game's plop cost for a subway tile.  Making a copy of the subway tile's exemplar and then changing the plop cost changed what the menu said, but had no effect on the plop cost.  Even editing SimCity_1.dat directly did not affect it.  It appears that the cost of a subway tile is hardwired into the game.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?

[nerdly_dood]

I would vote but I've never had a city with half a million sims... The most I've had was 318,000 and it had subways all OVER the place in a very disorganized fashion, but they did not follow any roads. Stations were in some parts of town placed on every single block... I've now mended my ways and whenever I have occasion to use subways, I will likely use them Washington, DC style: Underground in the densest areas, I don't know if they follow roads, but in the burbs they'll be more like GLR. (Where they are underground they will likely be simply the most efficient way to link all stations)

[redraider147]

ok i voted for manhattan style, but after thinking about it, i play more of a new york style...some elevated over roads, some not related to roads, some under...plus i also have been studying the effects of express lines...i'm not sure how it would work to combine them, i know i could do a texture override that could provide the look without the true functionality, but i'm not sure if a true workaround is possible...so yeah i play ny style with express lines....

[FrankU]

I never got to >500.000 sims, but use the subway sometimes.
Just as you say: in SC4 it is very easy to add subway lines and they cost almost nothing, so they are very interesting if you come up with traffic problems. I use them, if neccessary, as shortcuts, often diagonal, between res and com.
If the simulator should resemble reality the placement of Subways would demand demolishing everything, because in most cities you can't just drill through the ground. And that is EXPENSIVE!

[TEG24601]

I much prefer monorails instead of Subways, but there are some areas in my different cities where installing a monorail would cause too much collateral damage to the infrastructure and the population.  In those cases, I use road-top transit to install a series of subway/bus stations in the area and usually place them to get the most riders and the shuttle them to other major areas, and provide connections to other transit options, like ferries and monorails, and to major commercial and industrial centers.

TEG

[frdrcklim]

Subway choices can't be limited to that. I think I'm trying to follow Singapore's subway system. I went there. Very organized. I liked their layout.

[Ra1n]

I use them Manhattan style following major roads and utilizing main arteries that smaller lines run into.  I like subways more in my major cities because they don't take up a lot of room.

[pierreh]

In the course of reading a lot about Traffic Simulators (in view of - finally - updating to the April '08 version of NAM, even if the next one should be released soon) I came upon this thread. My experience with SC4 in general is still somewhat limited, due to never finding enough time to play. About subways:

I have one mature city with a population of about 775'000, mostly high-density residential and high-density commercial zoning. The subway network is about half-way between Chicago-like and Manhattan-like - actually it looks more like the subway networks of Paris, Madrid or Berlin; it generally follows main roads but not necessarily. I layed it out somewhat 'instinctively' (though taking traffic patterns in consideration), and its usage is not optimal. I need to learn and experiment a lot more with subway layout.