So what's really up with Industry?

[Mr_Maison]

When it comes to my commercial zones, I have no problem managing them and they always become popular  with all kinds of traffic. If commercial lacks workers, buildings will abandon. But my industrial zones seem to be completely different animals.

For one, industry don't seem to grow very much at all, especially when High Tech arrives. It seems more active if dirty industry is there (I like to tax them out). And my passenger trains do not seem to be popular with industry either (at least in my city).

Industry seems to be able to exist all on it's own. I have a large industrial city that don't seem to attract any real traffic from surrounding cities. I get the caked up avenue that connects to it but on the rail road all you would hear is crickets.  I also have a highway system going through it too. But the Sims only enter through that one avenue up in the corner.

85% of this city do not show any workers commuting to and from work. Not a car, bus or train. But it seems to strive as long as the freight truck's commute times are not long. It's basically a freight truck city that seems to have no consequences for the lack of workers. So who the heck is driving those trucks?

(Yes I have bus stops and all the mass transit amenities in my industrial zones)

So my question is, what's really up with industry? What are it's dynamics and how do I get workers to populate them?

[sumwonyuno]

Yes, in some basic ways, industrial is structured differently than commercial.  Generally, commercial is straight forward; it does abide by what you would think it needs (e.g. direct surface street access, demand, water, customers, workers, etc.) and responds to a lack of these requirements.

All that is required for industrial is "access" from it, whether it be a street, road, ave, one-way, or even directly onto a heavy-ground rail line.  Power to the zones is assumed.  Water is only needed to get the bigger lots and HT.  Neighbor connections/seaports are only needed to break the caps.

This may sound surprising, but from my experience, industry does not need workers.  Specifically, industrial lots do not need Sims commuting to and from them in order for the lot to function.  I'm not exactly sure of the reason why.  Though what I do know is that there are 3 type of industrial buildings.  I don't mean dirty, manufacturing and HT.  There's anchors, mechs and outs.  (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)  Anchors are the ones that attach directly to the transportation network, handle commuters and send off the freight.  These are the lots that you may have noticed all the arrows point to and from in route query.  Mech and out are generally filler lots that attach to the anchors, and "add" jobs and freight to the anchor lot, and do not need direct access to transportation.

So what does this all mean?  You could build industrial to spur residential growth, and there will be Sims that will commute to some of the lots, but not all, if any at all.  It may be possible to fill all those "job openings", but I've never been able to do it for larger industrial parks.  This leads to the annoying thing where you are forced to zone for more industry when, at least according to the route query, there are available jobs.  There are industrial job multipliers that increases the concentration of jobs, requires less zoning and spurs more residential demand.  However, this does lead to a greater percentage of these no-worker lots.

You can "parcel" industry: ctrl-click lots to force them to certain sizes, and greatly control the look and dynamics of the industrial park.  Also, creating space within a blocs, rather than filling a whole block with industry, is a better practice.  In my gameplay, subjectively, this reduces the amount of no-worker lots, within mixed-zone city tiles.  Industry-only city tiles are another story, which is what you are experiencing now.  As long as the Sims are not abandoning because they can't find a job, you're not in any real trouble.  You could zone residential closer to the industrial neighbor edge to encourage commuters to the industrial city, but once you go back to the industrial city, don't expect those same commuters to appear, because the traffic simulator does have its share of irking inter-city behavior on top of all the quirks of industry.

[St. James Avenue]

I've always thought that the amount of residents should equal or somewhat equal the sum of the commercial and industrial populations...is this true?  Or does industry screw this whole equation up?

[wouanagaine]

only a percentage of the population is able to work, ie youngest and oldest don't work