Monorail direction and track layout

[landen99 0]

When using Monorail with parking lots, I've noticed that sometimes the monorail gets substantial use and the parking lot gets zero use, while at other times the reverse is true.  This is in the middle of a dense residential district (city population is about 617k).  Any ideas why?  I can't see a correlation, but it raises some additional questions:  Concerning directional alignment, can the monorail station face the parking lot or must it face a street?  The idea is that the sims drive to the monorail and board from the parking lot (does the parking lot generate revenue?).  If the monorail station faces a street, then is it best to have the parking lot across the street from it or adjacent to it facing the same street, or can it be adjacent facing a different street.  Does the traffic density on the street it faces affect its usage?

When building monorail, in the event of a T, does the rail need to connect to both directions or will the sims be able to go in one direction, get off at the next stop, and take the next monorail going the other direction?

[Constantina 5]

What I know of, The location of the monorail will have the same effect as long as it has road access.

[pnorrell 4]

I believe that Tropod identified a bug with the Maxis elevated and monorail stations. Basically, if commuters enter the station from either end, they can only travel in the direction of the opposite end. In other words, a commuter entering from the left end can only travel right. To avoid this, you are supposed to provide access only to the middle of the station, to allow commuters to travel in either direction. An example would be a T road or street, where the station is along the horizontal bar of the T and no road connection is provided to or across either end of the horizontal bar.

[mayormommy 8]

Do you mean the in-game parking garage? I don't think the location of the parking garage matters too much as long as it is very close. If it's across an avenue, you might want it at an intersection because I don't think sims jaywalk on avenues. Garage usage is pretty hit or miss.

Regarding your second question, I've never seen sims travel that way at a T-intersection on a monorail. It would be better to set up the intersection so there is a switch at the junction and trains can go either way.

EDIT:  Actually, after reading pnorrell's response, I'm not sure I understood what you were asking.

[pnorrell 4]

Originally posted by: mayormommy Do you mean the in-game parking garage? I don't think the location of the parking garage matters too much as long as it is very close. If it's across an avenue, you might want it at an intersection because I don't think sims jaywalk on avenues. Garage usage is pretty hit or miss.

Regarding your second question, I've never seen sims travel that way at a T-intersection on a monorail. It would be better to set up the intersection so there is a switch at the junction and trains can go either way.

EDIT:  Actually, after reading pnorrell's response, I'm not sure I understood what you were asking.quote>

 

No - I think you understood correctly. Sorry if I confused things by throwing in a different "T" reference. I was trying to offer a suggestion for why the ridership might vary at his monorail stations in general. If the majority of people wanting to use the station approach and enter from the right and also want to travel right, they may not be able to, potentially resulting in usage of a nearby parking garage but not of the station.

I don't know the answer to his question about a T in the track layout...

[landen99 0]

Well there's a problem, as I've already placed the monorail stations parallel to existing roads in my large city.  I'll have to think about that one.

I have a 6x6 block with no sims traveling between a monorail facing one street and parking lot facing a perpendicular street, but sims will travel to a nearby bus stop and subway station from the parking lot.  Can't remember if the bus and subway are on the same block or right across the road from the parking lot, but they are at an intersection.

So, do sims jay walk?  Can they cross the street anywhere?  The query tool ALT-? seems to indicate so by the pedestrian lines that it draws.  The monorail station gets use, but not from the parking lot.  Only from sims who walk to it, at least that's what the query tool seems to be telling me.

[rodent1989 9]

if you have rush hour try using the route querey on nearby buildings (not the station) to see what they are doing.

Also, as far as the "T" question is concerned, Depending on how far apart your staions are I would just connect it in both directions, otherwise the commute time will be longer because you've added another leg to the trip.  If your stations are really close together than leave it, but I would just buckle down and build the corner

[landen99 0]

I've added the monorail after my city has become really dense, i.e. 617k sims, so its tough to run a line anywhere (let alone build corners) without knocking down some rather large buildings. I accidentally lost a few when I first installed the lines (weaving around large buildings while demolishing "smaller" ones, but it seems that the investment grew my city from 417k to 617k, so I guess it was worth it.

So where can Sims walk? Can they walk through bus stops (even RSMT) , across avenues and roads (J-walk), or over undeveloped terrain? Can garbage trucks travel through Roadside Mass Transit (RSMT) such as bus stops on roads? How about police cars, and fire trucks? Can you drive through them in U-Drive-It missions. Just checking before I upgrade my main city (617k sims) and use the extra space for beautification and plazas. Okay, it may seem like I'm changing subject from monorails, but I'm considering how my sims will travel by foot to and from my monorail stations if I block cars from a very busy section of my commercial area with RSMT and basically force them all to go through my monorail stations. Plus, the subject of pedestrian travel is useful in a great many other applications.

[landen99 0]

I just remembered another question about monorails, so sorry about the double post in advance.

I just had a great idea concerning the T-issue with monorail: Are there any "no pedestrian" roads and avenues? I was just thinking to place them on the roads adjacent to the ends so that pedestrians couldn't access the ends (of the monorail station). Or maybe I can place toll booths at either end, assuming sufficient clearance from an intersection. Can pedestrians travel on toll booths?

[DreTitans23 2]

how many people can fit on the monorails?