Monorail issues

[DanWalker8 3]

I have a monorail system in my cities, it runs through a city of 300,000,  an industrial center, another city of 100,000, and then to another city that has around 70k. No one uses it though? They are all linked to roads properly and i have gone through and looked for the breaks that happen when you place stations next to roads.... any advice?

[+Guest]

Cars and more cars.If there is another means of them getting to a neighbor via auto they will ignore all other forms of travel.

   If you don't want to cut off the connections then try placing a Parking Garage and a Bus Stop near the station or use Brenda all in one wonder station found on STEX.Goodluck

[DOXXP29 5]

BlackBeard is absolutely right. One other suggestion is to download the "HOV Tiles" and put them on the roads going out of your city. These road tiles block cars and only allow busses. There are some other types of blocking road tiles on the STEX also. Some are "no trucks" and a few others. My memory fails me as to all the types and names as well as the creator, but if you search HOV on the STEX, you should find them. Further search the name of the creator and you should find them all. By blocking cars from leaving the city, the simps will have to find alternative means of transportation. You can strategically place them within the city as well. For example, place them on all the roads going into the Central Business District and they'll have to take the subway, monorail or bus to get to work in the CBD.

[DanWalker8 3]

ah great idea dox, why didn't i think about that.. I thought that maybe since monorail was proclaimed to be the 'fastest inter city travel there is, that they would take it despite highway connections. Thanks you two!

[crazychickensc12 84]

i use monorails for fast commuting for long distances, in an inner-city i would use a GLR network..

[spa 968]

Here's a few other thoughts. The first thing that you can do that is actually realistic is to zone high density residental around monorail stations. That way there is a large # of riders that just have to walk out their front door to a station. Do the same in the industrial and business areas so that there are large numbers of jobs (high density buildings) clustered around the stations for your residents to commute to. In real life you get this kind of development around transit stations.

When you build don't neglect all sides of the station. I generally surround my stations with roads so that buildings face onto them from both the front, the back and the sides (the sims can enter or exit from anywhere so it doesn't matter and serves to quadruple the # of people or jobs that can be within walking distance of the station).

Finally, you might want to also try unique connections. Make the monorail line run through neighbourhoods instead of alongside major roads. If the monorail is parrelling the highway or major avenues that connects to neighbours why would the sims get out and hop on it when they can stay in their cars? If the monorail is the only connection though for several tiles along a neighbouring city and follows a path that is unique it will actually draw in users from the neighbourhoods around it and not just those who can walk to it provided that their are bus links.

Anyway, those are three lessons I learned through trial and error that have worked well in my cities. Good luck.