Encouraging El-Train/Rain over Bus/Highway

[jacozekk2 0]

Hello everyone,
long time lurker, first time poster hehe

I have a question. Ive been reading up on mass transport threads (Greyveils is the most noteworthy) trying to develop some effective mass transit schemes. Most of the citys I end up building have a fairly extensive bus systems in each of the Industrial, Commercial and Residential zones. Each zone has a main artery and feeders out to the tips of the zone. I try to connect my zones by *as few* roads as possible. Instead, I setup central El-Train hubs in each of the zones and link these up to the zones bus systems. I setup a passenger train system for exiting the city to the rest of the region only. Furthermore, I have a highway, usually running down the middle of my cities and only have 1 overpass per city.

My problem, is that my Sims LOVE to use the bus system. So much so, that they completely neglect any of the other mass transit options. They completely avoid the El-train and the passenger trains.....instead the busses go straight for the highway and off to the rest of the region.

After several cities of trying different strategies to encourage mass transit, I just couldnt figure it out. So I removed a section of highway making it useless to get out to the region. While I finally managed to get my sims to use the train, hardly any of them do.But still NONE of them take the El-Train to get around town. Still busses. Its really frustrating and I dont know what to do.

I also noticed, that when I use the transit query tool on my commercial and industrial buildings (which are a decent distance from my residential area) nothing happens....no transit lines on the map, no transit info, nothing.

I really am not sure what to do next. Any help/suggestions/info you have would be great! Thanks guy!

(PS Im using NAM)

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

Its a hard one to get ur head round but after a few attempts you can get an effective mass transit network, just follow busy roads too, i hav an el rail where the stationsa re at 170% capacity

[jacozekk2 0]

Could part of the problem be that my sims simply live too far from the commercial/industrial jobs that they dont bother travelling/cant find those jobs, regardless of how much transit there is? Whenever I use the route query tool on 95% of my commercial and 100% of my industrial buildings, there are NO links to any part of my city.

Therefore, is it possible that my zones are too far from each other, and how could I correct this?

[kmannkoopa 0]

The all two obvious answer is to zone commercial and industrial closer to your city. How big is your city/region?

I am currently working on two Large Cities that have 200,000 between them and having the time of my life providing enough mass transit between them. (All my RRs are Red with 6,000 on one of them) You would be surprised how much separation between development there is on my larger city, yet they pack those trains and not those highways that I built at great cost.

[jacozekk2 0]

kmannkoopa, would it be too much to ask of you to post a few screenies of the city where your sims prefer the trains over the highways? hehe thanks in advance

[kmannkoopa 0]

My schedule does not allow me the time to post screenshots, but I will say that the vast majority of my residents ride the bus. Buses are key to any mass transit system, for only they get the sim from the mass transit stop to their destination. If you built elevated rail only, you would probably need to put stops basically back to back to back to get the coverage you need.

I actually want more cars to use my roads, I feel like I built this great loop and spur to the next city that no one uses. But I know what will happen to my local streets if this happens, so I won't force the issue by deleting my stations.

[____----____ 37]

one tip i have for you is to place parking garages and bus stops next to your transit station(rail/el/mono)

this works great sims take the bus to the station then will ride the rail as well.  you can get sims to use all form of transportation available.

 

like this

 

That picture was WAY too big...800x600 is the size limit

[jacozekk2 0]

I have yet to be able to get my sims to use parking garages. I suspect it may have something to do with my extensive bus network. Is this correct?> Or is there some other reason that Ive overlooked....

Also, while my sims have started using the el-trains now that my city is becoming more populated, I find that bus travel over long distances has gone up 10fold.

[PhantomSoul 3]

Could it be possible that if traffic along the roads/highways in your city is not congested, that it's just easier for Sims to get on the bus at the local bus stop and ride it to where ever they're going?

I mean, around here in NJ, no one ever rides the commuter rail unless going to New York either during the rush hour, in which case traffic is so unbearably bad, you have to get on a train if you ever want to get to work, or because parking your car in New York is either impossible/unaffordable.

I think that in order to start seeing consistent rail use, you gotta get traffic levels in your city up so high that sims actually start looking to other modes of transportation. This could be where things like the railroad (or ferry, in the case of a river or lake) really shine.

Perhaps enacting the parking fines ordinance (I think they still kept this one) downtown might help?

[+Guest]

I have to agree with PhantomSoul your city must have a high poplation before your sims conseder(Sp?) MT.

[BlakeMW 84]

The problem seems to be that Sims are stupid.

You'll note there is the choice of a nearly straight monorail, or a horribly convulted railway. About 25% of the Sims still choose the railway.

If the Sims are all forced onto the monorail the average commute time does increase so they aren't actually being stupid.

It is my understanding that all costs of travelling are included in commute time. Say that rail is really cheap to ride, but monorail is quite expensive. A poor Sim might have to work for 1 additional hour to afford the monorail ticket, and this is tacked onto his commute time (the same concept for toll booths). However some Sims are just stupid and take the first path they find, in the above case only those sims closer to the railway station than monorail station choose to take rail. But with a less convulted path most sims will skip the monorail station and take the rail.

Basically it seems that bus and rail are really cheap and most Sims prefer to use them, with bus/subway additionally favored due to the ease of finding routes through/under the city.

If the city simulator was a bit more solid then we would be able to subsidize monorail and stuff, I mean if I'm going to be building a white elephant monorail system I'd like to do it properly and get to sink money into it on an ongoing basis.