Hello all, I hope this is the right section for this.
I just ran into this problem for the first time so bear with me. It seems that in one of my cities I have a highway that is extremely congested. It shows up red on the traffic for a pretty far distance and I want to remedy that. The problem is the high way goes right downtown and there is no room to add another really. I'm not sure adding another would do the trick anyway, it seems when I do things like that all the sims just pick the new path and I can't seem to get them to use both. Any suggestions?
The only mod I have is the NAM, I've been thinking about getting the CAM but I'm not real computer friendly and I don't want to take the chance of messing up my region I've been working on because of my computer ignorance.
Thanks in advance.
Why don't you try the subway, works pretty good for me.
Robin :thumbsup:
Hello!
Just wondering...do you know where the source of the congestion is? Where does it start to get really bad? Wherever that point is, you might try placing a Park-and-Ride. Just build a parking garage (or two), and place bus-stops and/or subways around there, leading into your downtown. Hopefully your Sims will be more inclined to use these instead of driving, and it might help cut down on the congestion. Just something to try if you haven't already....;)
Of course...if it's so bad that mass-transit doesn't help, you might just have to sacrifice your CBD to fix the problem...&mmm
The problem begins at an intersection of two highways which is on the outskirts of the town and runs all the way downtown into my city and then it thins out after the CBD.
I haven't placed a subway system into the city at this point because I haven't had the need to. All other traffic headaches where easy fixes. I do have a bus system though. I'm more partial to busses since that's what we have in the midwest as opposed to subways, with the exception being Chicagos EL system. I do use subways in my larger metro areas but this is only a cluster of three cities, none of which are huge, and I've shyed away from subways at this point. It looks like I may have to consider a subway system though. I will also try some parking garages coupled with the bus stops to see if I can encourage more ridership.
This problem crept up on me so it threw me for a loop. I had never seen the highways congested before. lol
Welcome to the true "fun" of city planning! ;) Isn't it exactly the problem that annoys us in real-life all the time, getting stuck in a traffic jam when commuting to your job, school, university, ... or back home? But since SimCity is a game, you can take that as an additional challenge in gameplay, and try various methods - if they fail, there's still the bulldozer, or just don't save the city when exiting the game.
Anyway, there are lots of different approaches, and all might work fairly well in some points, but also have their individual weakness. Bus stops are easy to place, very cheap, but won't help much if they get stuck in the traffic jam as well. Subways are very expensive, but also relatively easy to place, since they need the same space as a bus stop, but the capacity is a lot higher, and you don't have to worry about buildings that block their way.
Railways are dirt cheap as well, but need a lot of space - the same counts for el-rail and monorail. The latter is very fast and doesn't suffer from congestion, so it might be a good option, esp. for long-distance routes. Don't forget to create transit switch points, though: Every rail-based system should interconnect with your bus network - use buses to get the people from their block to the next station, and let them commute via rail-based transportation. You can also build parking garages next to those stations, but usually, they only work well near a city border.
Also, if you build a city, make sure that the high-capacity transportation (avenue, highway, rail-based transportation) is always the shortest connection between residence and job. Most sims think they are "smart" by using the shortest connection, even if it's just a regular street. You can prevent that by using a toll booth, which will "encourage" your sims to look for an alternative way (so please provide one, like a nearby public transportation hub). But please don't use toll boots for making money by placing them on the most congested highway - this will trash your entire traffic system.
Well, you hurry up and wait for the RHW 8 and Modular Interchange System. :P
In all truth, mass transit is the way to go. I typically build freeways when traffic gets bad enough to need them. Of course I try to plan where its going to go and leave the right of way undeveloped.
Cheers,
Kevin
I'd recommend monorail, because, as Andreas noted, it's not very congestion-prone. Look for Brenda_XNE's the MMSB station on the STEX, which connects directly to subway and bus, and get the NDEX parking garage (every two stations - one 6x6 NDEX parking garage).
I'd lay down one monorail on either side of the highway, so that people wouldn't have to cross the highway to access the monorail system.
Thanks for the replies. I will try some monorail to see if that will help.
Or, you could build more highways.
Right, probably not the answer you were looking for...
okay, subway and monorial are the two superior transit options for high speed travel. if you can interconnect your city this way, it almost makes the need ofr highways obsolete...
remember, subway and monorial can connect cities as well..... :thumbsup:
enjoy playing the game!!