Transporation net works

[Cob92 360]

The transportation program should automatically prefer the largest, fastest road available. Side streets should be the last routes to be considered, after there are no other reasonable roads available. In one of my regions, I spent millions of Simoleans building a state of the art highway system. The highways included frontage roads and a bypass loop was under construction. Every neighborhood was linked to the highway by high speed avenues. Unfortunately, when I checked the route, I found that people preferred to commute to work along little two lane roads that happened to run parallel to the highway. The roads were over fifty times over capacity, but no one cared.

[dasilva 3]

Hi guys and thanks for sharing all these details on how your citizens should behave in your cities when moving from one place to another. I cannot give you much details right now but what I've seen so far in development should meet at least some of the requirements I read so far.

[rctshack 182]

Thanks Philippe! I'm excited for the upcoming website! I am guessing since you haven't been showing up around here lately, you have been working on the website! Can't wait!

[Shingure 56]

Ok. Ive been very vauge in the past about what I want in this game in terms of transit networks.

Street Level Trams. - You know that in Philadelphia they have trams that run ontop of the streets that allow more space for other development. The same approach should take place. Then at a certain point they can travel into an underground setting in which they can be segregated.

Elevated Railines - The elevated railines can be operating at grade. Like in such instance between Melbourne and 69th street Terminal in the Philly. Also a bit more of a rational transition between the el and subway because the transition in SC4 was basically a S shaped drop into the ground. Make it abit more banked and smooth.Also the options for the el to run over the road and double decker like in New York City.

And that's about it for now.

[Deathtoall 28]

Thanks again Philippe!

I basically want every type of transport we have in the world in Cities unlimited.

On as side note what is the grid going to be like? The same as City Life?

[flame1396 9]

I'm optimistic about this. Monte Cristo has the potential to become my favorite game studio (currently Maxis, of course) if they do this right. I want to be able to do whatever I want with a transport network with relative ease. And it would be great if the networks were compatible and able to work together but still independent (like can be achieved in SC4 with considerable effort)

Bridges are a big thing. I want them to curve, and I want them to work at any angle.

I however DON'T want functional seaports/airports. I sculpt cities and don't want to have to control an economy (I would tolerate some function but not if it is critical to success)

[dasilva 3]

Originally posted by: flame1396 ... And it would be great if the networks were compatible and able to work together but still independent (like can be achieved in SC4 with considerable effort)...quote>

Hi flame1396, I wondered if you could clarify a bit what you mean by  compatible networks?

[mightygoose 92]

i think he means dual networks like roads with bus/HOV lanes, avenues with tram tracks etc...

[rctshack 182]

Yes, he is talking about how Light rail can go down the center of roads, but split off and still be it's own independant network, but at anytime converdge back with roads and work together again. If you have ever been to San Francisco, they are everywhere.

My addition to this would be stations that would work with multiple transport types. Grand Central Station does more than trains, it does busses and subway also. I would love to have the train stations in my city have connections to allow the subway to connect to them, for cross network switching of passengers. Once again, here we have platforms in the center of raods where the lanes for cars curve around them and they are long and narrow for passangers to line up and wait for their busses, but trollies also roll down the street on their tracks and stop of these pltforms, and is some areas, the light rail going down the road stops there as well. And the most amazing part... unlike all the bus and subway stops in SC4, these take up no building space on the block!

Another example is that the lightrail goes underground and follows directly above where the BART subway goes down market street. For the length of about 6 stations, both the light rail and subway use the same stations just stacked on top. Then right above these stations are maket street with massive amounts of traffic and busses. All in the width of about 100 feet. It's an amazing culmination of multiple transport types all synchronizing together to move people through the center of the city smoothly. I am sure there are many more different situations where transport networks have to merge and work together. Paris has actualy cross coutry trains using their subway lines if I am remembering correctly.

[mastrobrace 1]

I hope i will not see bus stops or metr

[Romaq 18]

One of the most fantastic mods for SC4 has been the 'road top mass transit' modules offered here. There *are* issues that require they be placed carefully, but holding down 256 square meters of realestate for a bus stop or subway is silly.

[screamingman12 30]

Bus and tram stops should bre realistic in size, those "things" that Maxis gave us were too out of scale and took up too much space.

[Cob92 360]

If you've ever been to the city center of Houston, there is also a light rail system. It includes sections that run along the medians of several roads, and I have seen some portions that run independently of the road. The stations are built in the median along with the tracks.

[Twister_Chaser 0]

I love my railroads, but I am hoping with CU they will be more efficient in the sims world, instead of just giving up using at transport at all, but I honestly like all of the above transport, without it, how would islands, countries or even small one's cope without it?

I would love to have the same option of transport networks being able to intermingle with each other, like train lines intersecting with roads, but still being their individual network, that was an awesome feature in SC4 and I would love to see it again in CU please.

T_C

[saltandsauce 0]

i'd love to see 2 things:

1,route planning, you choose the number of trains running from A to B or A to D showing stops and usage same with buses

2, sims not being unbelievably lazy so they should walk for about 10 minutes at least to commute

[silentsly123094 0]

this is how a rail system over streets should look

[333365 2]

Even if they look ugly,

i would like double-decked highways or railroads and maybe vary this with normal highways and rails

depending on their surroundings:

double-decks for tight spaces

Or maybe just shove all transportation underground.

For a randomly ridiculous futuristic theme

(maybe this won't be included in CU) a teleportation network, to eliminate all need for any other type of transport.

But make it locked at first until very high research points are gained and put it

at a crazy expensive price.

[333365 2]

For islands there could be an advanced high speed ferry or water taxi system.

I would also like old themed transport like steam trains or antique cars.

Recreational transport could go into big parks, museums, large residential areas, and zoos.

Also for recreational transport (this could make a positive tourist industry influence on islands)

sight-seeing boats & subs, jetskis, sailing vessels like catamarans windsurfers kite-boarders,

cruise-ships, etc.

[owenluby 1]

I hope to a rail network as complex and diverse as London's...

That would be my dream...

[mightygoose 92]

it is possible.... check out the road explanation blog..... http://www.cuplanet.com/index.php?/content/view/6/1/lang,en/

[+Guest]

Doesn't it look fantastic!? WE HAVE CURVED ROADS!

[lipman0 0]

i think there should be a variety of bus and subway stations like Toronto has. There are a variety of bus terminal here that have a different number of bus bays and each station has a different style. I think there should be a subway/ bus transfer where people get of the buses and go straight into the subway instead of building a subway station than a bus stop beside it which is very unrealistic.

[tSlater 134]

I've seen what was posted in the latest blog about the transit networks and lanes, and I love it. I have just one question: could street-side parking be available as one of the lane types? Even if it isn't very functional, at least for the visual and realism factor! Okay, a second question: Will lanes have to remain the same all the way to the next intersection or can they merge into eachother part-way? With merging or ending, it would be possible to add roads with street-side parking, and bump-outs/bulb-outs to the traffic lanes near intersections and crosswalks.. an element being used in many urban areas lately due to the safety and convenience of pedestrians and as a means of traffic calming. Even if traffic-calming itself won't be an element in-game, at least the bump-outs used to achieve such could be. =]

[dasilva 3]

Just a quick note to let you know Nicolas posted a new entry on the blog today...

[ben_1986 0]

Originally posted by: rctshack ... Paris has actualy cross coutry trains using their subway lines if I am remembering correctly.quote>

I guess you're referring to the RER-network. They are trains that connect the suburbs with the center of Paris. In the suburbs they drive on regular railtracks, in the city center, they have their own tunnels (they cannot use the same tunnels as the metro, they have less stops and drive faster. Also the metro drives on the right track while the RER uses the left track - like regular trains in France do). I guess the RER is a bit like the Crossrail project in London.

Edit: it would off course be nice if underground rail lines were possible in CU.

[333365 2]

Yea, i agree with ben.

For every city simulator game made, there hasn't yet been an underground railway feature

 that can connect to the normal railway already built into the game.

It was too much trouble getting all the BATs and MODs or this type of feature for SC4 off the internet.

[sim35350 0]

I'd like to see the possibility of building tunnels instead of bridges when crossing water and the option of building road tunnels underneath parts of the city, like the Zuidas area in Amsterdam which will be built in the next years. All the infrastructure in the Zuidas area will be underground, with the city above ground on top of it.

[sim35350 0]

I'd also like to build curved roads next to the orthogonal and diagonal roads of SC4 and i'd like to build building right next to them (building on diagonal roads is rather difficult in SC4).

In Black & White 2 road building tools have been implemented that allow for curved roads. It also allows for aligning buildings to curved roads. Perhaps the implementation of the road builing system of B&W 2 (or something similar) is a good idea, though people should be able to build straight roads as in City Life.

[jonnyrocks 0]

For me, one of the best things about SC4 was all the information you got about the routes people took, traffic congestion etc, soif that could be replecated it would be awesome. One bad point about it was how frustrating it was at times to build things like monorails and highway junctions, so if that could be made to be easy to implement without trashing half of the area would be good.

Reading this thread has given me a few ideas on cool stuff I would want to see: car parks would be nice, customisable ofc, to be placed int he city centre or by mass transit.

Aditionally, I can't think of the name of them, but main roads that have no central barrier, but throughout the day allocate a diffeernt number of lanes to each direction. For example, during the morning rush hour, there are 4 lanes going into town, and one lane going out, in the evening it reverses, if you get my drift Theres one I know of in the UK, the Aston Expressway, in Birmingham.

Finally, it would be good if external traffic coiuld affect your transportation, such as national railway lines and trunk roads, resulting in the need to build a bypass for traffic that doesn't stop in the city. In the scenario editor, this could be turned off, or settings made to show you want a city in a location with alot of through traffic, or little.

[doorknob60 11]

1 word: everything