Does CAM have any effect on commuters if you don't install the traffic plugin?

[masseymo]

ok, so i installed cam. no brown boxes yet but i started a completely fresh region, a completely flat one to remove all variables.
i'm using CAM and NAM and from reading i should use NAM's traffic plugin. but as my city grows sims just won't travel far to work? i mean its ridiculous. City 'A' has a population of around 5000 and no industry but farming and city 'B' is just dirty industry. it has far too low demand and almost no sims are traveling to work there.
i tried a plugins folder with just CAM and NAM and still had the same issue. could some of the camelots i downloaded be causing the issue?
any help/advice appreciated

[jmyers2043]

Let me see if I understand your new region. There are a small number of Sims. No huge city. The Sims probably have a low EQ. Right? The majority of your Sims are probably R$ if true. Sims at this point of a cities development love to work on farms, dirty industry, and CS$. They will seek, by far, more farming jobs. Your Sims will want other jobs as they become educated. You didn't mention any 'no job zots', nor any housing abandonment due to commute time. I think that I would select the route query and start clicking on some of your homes and businesses. See where your Sims are working. This is a good way to know what jobs your Sims seeking and where they are traveling. A Sim that decides to work on a farm instead of a factory is not a sign of a malfunctioning CAMelot.

It sounds to me like your city is doing fine and dandy.

Here is some reading about workforce demands. It will give you an idea of what jobs your Sims are applying for at different stages of city development.

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1878.0

But you are correct. You should select one of the traffic simulators from the NAM.

By the way, questions like this are answered better if you include a screen grab of the census repository query.

- Jim

[masseymo]

thanks for the reply, the thing is i'm playing the game in the style of xPoohx's lets play on you tube,
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL95BD04041D417E30&feature=plcp
i started a region like this, then found CAM and decided to restart the region with CAM installed. Things are of course developing at a very different pace. i got to the point where i would have originally waited for the population to grow and then start city 2 but development stagnated..
so do i need a sprawling suburbs before there is enough educated mid wealth population to start a sister city?
i apologize for my ignorance but i have done a lot of reading and some of the doc's are a bit confusing because of old versions+NAM.
( and i'm on a mac and have tried multiple setups just to get to the point where i can play the game )