How do you plan your highway systems?

[Bombshoo 3]

How do you go about planning how your highway and roads will work?  I see a lot of different models for how people do their  highways across their regions , and looking at some real pictures, you tend to see loops around big cities with maybe a couple of branches going down the center. I just want to know, what works best, what is the coolest looking, whats simplest, and how do you know what will go where? Do you usually draw it all out first?

[2nerdy4u 1]

Well, I suppose it depends on the terrain and the type of city one is trying to make. For midwestern US cities, highway loops around downtown connected by highways are good. For coastal cities, I like to have an avenue nearest to the coast with a highway a little further inland. And it's always fun to do something spontaneous and random when making highways.

[Bombshoo 3]

I suppose. I have a very oddley shaped region though, with a lot of coastline, and a lot of inland territory. We'll see how it works out, but I'd love to hear other suggestions.

[Haljackey 17,259]

Well, the best way for me to explain this to you is with visuals.  "A picture says a 1000 words" as well as giving you an example.  Here are some useful links:

Highways:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=1047.0

Highways / Interchanges:

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=23&threadid=89089&enterthread=y

Intersections / interchanges:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=252.0

If you have any questions / feedback don't hesitate to post in the threads.

-Haljackey.

[Bombshoo 3]

Thanks for all the links!, but if I were to post a picture of my region, with a plan drawn out in MS paint or something, would you (or anyone for that matter) be so kind as to give me commentary? The links give me a lot of good ideas (and I've looked through most of them pretty well already) but my main questions are still more about the system as a whole rather then the pieces. I'm reluctant to draw out a whole system, start building and then once I get to a large size found out I have to redo the whole thing...(basically what happend in my actual city, Columbus, Ohio)

[masochist 111]

Hey, Bombshoo!

Well, to answer your question, I usually have a master plan of where I want my main freeways to go.  Usually that plan includes at least two main highways that border my CBD, as well as a  ringroad of some length (I try to get at least 3/4th of the way around if I can't get it all the way).

I have that master plan, but that's only a plan drawn out.  When I build, I go piece by piece.  I build the freeways as I build the city; plan a bit ahead but not too much (because sometimes things don't fit, or I need to build a road a certain way and the freeway can mess things up).  Usually this works for me, but sometimes I'll find that I have an avenue that takes on too much traffic, or I want to connect some suburbs to a commercial area and I'll build extra freeways that weren't in the master plan.

That's just how I do it.  If you want to post pictures of your highway system (or system plan), feel free, and you'll at least have one comment on it .

[Sydney Claridge 106]

Well, sometimes I don't have a master plan, sometimes I do.  But anyways, I do build them along with the city at times (unless I have a true master plan), plus in suburban areas, I'll sometimes build the access roads only at first (like it is done in Texas frequently).  I also build based off a hub, spoke, and loop system frequently.  This is the model I'm using for my largest city, Halston (I want to bring it back as a CJ here or an MD at SC4D, but I get bored playing SC at times...).

[Bombshoo 3]

Edit: nevermind I got a picture.

The red is what I think I want for sure...the green is what I am not sure I want or need. I'd appriciate just comments, or if anyone wants to take the time, to just take picture and edit it to what you think might help.

[Droftrah 2]

I never "Plan" my highways as I like my regions to look as thought they have developed over time, I actually like demolishing parts of a city to fit in a Highway, so it adds a certain realism to things.

If that makes sense..

[ZtBoy 0]

I use the good old "Eminent Domain" method!!! ;-)

[Palpatine001 57]

This is my Highway System at the moment

Isn't it so ummm Chaotic and patchwork?

What can't be seen is the Big Dig on Solarian Island

[dedgren 830]

I have planned 3RR's highway system holistically, and before anything was built.

That's a 16x16 quad (large city square) region.  Here's a 2,560x2,560 pixel view (just under one meg) that will open in a new window [linkie].

There's way more, if you're interested, over at 3RR [linkie].

David

[BurroDiablo 222]

Ah, Dedgren you showoff, lol... thats one amazing map you have there, wish I had the patience to make an intricate highway network like that.

[djrules5454 5]

Originally posted by: El Burro Ah, Dedgren you showoff, lol... thats one amazing map you have there, wish I had the patience to make an intricate highway network like that.quote>

 

I'm in the same boat as you here. Actually, that's not true, because I probably have a lower quality image editor than you. I do wish I had the patience to make a map like that.

[U3D 6]

I build my highways in as Im building the city. I have a plan of what I want but I don't put it in stone. I somewhat base my layouts on what I read about how American highways were designed as routes out of the city in times of war during the 50s and/or 60s. I connect major areas like downtown, seaport, airport, etc., and then the highways just radiate out in different directions to the edges of the region. I also try to make the highways weave into the landforms and try to avoid creating parallel highways and loops only when it looks right. And I also try to not put a highway to closely parallel to an avenue unless I think it would look like a high volume traffic area.

I kinda do the same with avenues, but instead of connecting places 3 city tiles apart, they connect everything within those 3 city tiles with each other and the highway. Like one area of commercial and residential to another one or industrial.

And then roads kind of fill up the rest. Connecting local neighborhoods, etc.

I sure do sound like a paid city planner, don't I?

Here's that represented visually. Oh yea, that dotted line....its where I was planning on building the highway, but ran out of money.

[Bombshoo 3]

I think I'm leaning much more towards a system like UD3. Where I live, we basically have the outerbelt, then a couple of big branches and then some smaller ones....BTW does anyone know if there is a mod that makes the rurual highways show up on transportation map?

[City2TheMax 3]

As my cities grow, so do my highway systems. At the same time though I kind of plan ahead. For example, in my current region, I have a coastline running along the North side, and a little further inland I have a mountain range, running parallel to the coastline. I am building my cities between the mountain range and coastline, and because of the geography, I am building two main highways from East to West, parralel to the mountain range and coastline. This makes the highways feel natural, provides good transportation along the length of my Los-Angeles style region, and makes them easy to plan and build.

So generally I build highways following geography, but if I don't have much geography, then I add highways as I see fit, without much planning.

[SC4BOY 20]

I've played it both ways and have fun doing either way. I started out initially with a "city spot" that I perceived as "natural looking" and expanded crossroads, to settlement, to village to town to city to metropolis from the ground up.. In retrospect I find that to be way too naive.. Now I may not place the key roads (though when layiing a city center out I find that it helps out a LOT and forces you to think about it) but I always give a LOT of thought to the transportation before making the first zoned area. I think traffic flow is absolutely the crux of successful evolution of good cities.. far more important than any of the zones, etc.. also laying out the civic services so that they cover the residential efficiently without wasting for example schools on industries and commercial is nice.. But I am sooooo painfully detailed in my building.. i think that is really my "fun" .. that it is pitiful... haha.. I may spend 10 minutes because I think a street is too steep.. .. JUST HAVE FUN and do anything you want to get to where you want to be.. the game is soooo openended (ie you set your own goals) that it is hard to give others advice on how to play..

The region I am playing now was designed with a backbone of HSRP (High Speed Rapid Transit) and a highway system and am adding population tile by tile where i want in support.. I probably did this because previously I rarely ever used a city design with either highways or monorail/hsrp so this FORCED me to learn about it.. .. I'm having fun here too.. WOOOT!

[politicman 1]

Very cool It's so COOL !!!

[politicman 1]

I Have another message to tell you, you will do all of your highway planification, place also your green lines !!