NAM General Discussion Thread

[Dexter 40]

Download the 'Network Addon Modd' here . It also includes many other transport related things (including overpasses).

[+Guest]

has anyone ever thought about widening the highways because when u pass the trucks your car blows up it reminds me of I-40 in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina does anyone know how to do that? It is anoying

[shasta 1]

Hey Chozo, do you think you could post an update on the freeway interchanges you've been designing?

[longhorn 25]

Is there a way to add different tiles to the pedestrian walkway or to give those properties to different lots in ilive reader?

Thanks

[Tropod 144]

Is there a way to add different tiles to the pedestrian

Yes, but it requires a certain methology.

walkway or to give those properties to different lots

This stuff has nothing to do with Lots. I've said it time & time again. You could do this with Lots, but I doubt the same effect could be obtained.

 in ilive reader
Yes & no; I say this because it requires a certain methology that involves using the BAT as well.

Once a tutorial that is currently being written [by redlotus], is released main stream, well I'm sure quite a number of you will find it of much use.

[+Guest]

i know but can u widen the lanes on highways it is very anoying

[shasta 1]

I76 has a point. That's happened to me too. Also, would it be possible to create a wider freeway in terms of more lanes? Most freeways in the world are not your standard 6-lane freeway. A 10-lane freeway makes more sense in major metro areas than 6.

[Dexter 40]

At the moment we cannot make new networks. There is the 'ANT Network', but it is only 1 tile wide, and even with 2 tile wide networks it is not enough to fit in 10 lanes ( I76 said the lanes were too narrow now).

 

Once somebody said that Maxis said it is difficult to make networks 3 tiles wide even for us (Maxis).

[a11eria 3]

dexter thats ok once the DN stuff starts coming out.  Someone could make a 6 lanes wide per deck double decker highway.  With no median the lanes should be somewhat wider and, both I76 and shasta will be happy.  However like everyone else they will have to wait.  No pressure on tropod or anyone else invovlved. 

[+Guest]

Ok then well start in the morning working on this

[builderman 3]

Tropod is on break, so is Chozo. I'm doing other stuff. At the moment, no one is working feverishly on this. These things take time. Patience is a virtue, and will be rewarded as such.

[Mr. Beer 12]

If Maxis says that a 3 tiles width is too much difficult to creat, why not to build'em like the one way roads? Each direction will have four casual lanes plus an emergency lane, or a fourth lane.

So, if we do that, we must to redesign all the overpasses, interchanges, etc... (it remind me an another post I've posted in this thread few weeks ago!)
my rabbit says hello!

[+Guest]

cn u make lanes sepreat for the truck so they wont ben= in the cars way

[builderman 3]

It's not possible. I use freight rail to ship my goods out of my cities.

[subedei 3]

Well you can try building a road from your industry directly to the neighboring city without making  it connect to any res/com zones. That may have only trucks on it.

 

 

Subedei

[+Guest]

Now how were going to make interchanges and such on this double decker highway for roads and avenues 2 ramps from the top deck 2 from the bottom deck the double decker highways will have to be elvated so streets can go under as for highway interchanges well have two half cloverleaf on top of another and i want seprate lanes for the trucks if anyone has any other ideas tell

[builderman 3]

Truck lanes aren't possible.

As far as the DN stuff goes, we have something up our sleeves.

*Tropod, check yours, mine's empty.

[Daeley 46]

Date:8/9/2004 3:11:29 AM
Author:shasta

I76 has a point. That's happened to me too. Also, would it be possible to create a wider freeway in terms of more lanes? Most freeways in the world are not your standard 6-lane freeway. A 10-lane freeway makes more sense in major metro areas than 6.

quote>

 

maybe where you live, but certainly not in europe. I've been to quite a few countries and over here most highways are 3 lanes each direction. Some urban beltways are wider, but some highways in less dense areas are only 2 lanes in each direction. 10-lane highways are VERY rare over here.

[+Guest]

Well then we must start on the double decker highway and lane widening now

[builderman 3]

Do you have whips and chains to make me and Tropod work? As it has been repeated before, Tropod is on break, and I'm starting school Wed. and have stuff to take care of.

[shasta 1]

Now that's a great idea - a double-deck freeway 6 lanes wide! Smart thinking, but I'd hate to have to design the interchanges!

P.S. - I thought someone was already working on the double-deck freeway?

[+Guest]

No those were just pictures

[dominohobbes 27]

Date:8/9/2004 5:35:51 PM
Author:Daeley

Date:8/9/2004 3:11:29 AM
Author:shasta

I76 has a point. That's happened to me too. Also, would it be possible to create a wider freeway in terms of more lanes? Most freeways in the world are not your standard 6-lane freeway. A 10-lane freeway makes more sense in major metro areas than 6.

quote>

 

maybe where you live, but certainly not in europe. I've been to quite a few countries and over here most highways are 3 lanes each direction. Some urban beltways are wider, but some highways in less dense areas are only 2 lanes in each direction. 10-lane highways are VERY rare over here.

quote> 

I live about 450 miles north of Los Angeles, there's like 16 lane (total) freeways there. Even so, I went 30 miles in 2 hours there in the awful traffic, you'd think that the wide highways would help the traffic a bit   Anyways I, too would like to see wider highways or a tool that lets you choose how many lanes you want after building the highway.

[nta565s 0]

Date: 5/15/2004 1:25:58 PM
Author: ardecila
All shall reply to this post . . . .

For I have created the STACK!




Do you guys have any comments? I still need to add supports, and connect the ramp structures to the main highway structures. Can anyone possibly help me with creating a texture for the area where the the ramps merge into the main traffic? Any help here is mucho appreciated. Thanks.

quote>

That looks awesome. The deacceration and acceration lanes should be lengthed though. too look more realistic.

[d2f 4]

Seriously, though, some Americans are spoiled kids. More freeway lanes directly translates to more land waste, pollution, and congestion, with none of the benefits of resolving girdlock.

I've been to Japan last year. Think of this for a moment: a typical intercity highway may have only two lanes for each direction, three lanes tops, and traffic speed is limited to a bit less than 50mph. Highway tolls are literally on every major onramp and sometimes the offramp. Furthermore, having a car there means an incredible amount of money is spent on tolls alone, more if you commute from the suburbs.

The major benefit from this design is that there is much less congestion. The reduced speed does reduce the accident rate on highways. The sheer number of toll booths encourage people to use mass transit instead of the car.

In many American and Canadian cities I've been to, many of them have very bloated and unwieldly highways, while mass transit infrastructure is lacking and occasionally crumbling very slowly. Except in some highways, there is no such thing as a toll booth, so people tend to take these for granted.

http://printerboyweb.net/images/shalena.jpg

The City of shalena, as shown, does have highways, but most of them do not actually connect to neighboring regions. To reach those, the residents must pass through primary toll booths (not shown) that connects the local and inter-regional highways together. Practically the only way to make these highways thoroughly congested - the top reason for widening them - is to not have any other inter-regional transit systems in place (airports not included), and not putting a one-tile-wide buffer between the highways and the zones.

[a11eria 3]

d2f

 

In the states if you dont live in a major city you dont have mass transit and outside of New York Boston Sanfran DC Chicago LA and their suburbs or if you live near the trains that go up and down the east coast, other then buses and cabs you dont have any other options.  Where I grew up the only busses in the entire state outside of Omaha and maybe Lincoln were yellow.

 

Yes there are small penny anny mass transit systems like atlantas marta which is really nothing more then an easy way ( cuz of parking ) to get to the airport, to the stadiums, and downtown. 

 

There are 2 reasons why this is the way it is.  Cuz WE partially paid for and helped rebuild most japans europes tracks after WWII.  This gave a large percentage of the developed world new track built for the future.  While ours are prolly around 100 yrs old and will be replaced over time however the curves were not made for high speed trains.

 

The other reason is the sheer space between major cities except for in the east cost is typically very long, and the cost to replace the tracks now when stuff like mag trains are being worked on would be sheer idiotcy.  I agree that streches of track should have been replaced decades ago, and we are working on trains that can go at high speeds on old tracks and sharper turns.  However we have had 6 wars to fight in the last 100 yrs.  And that money for fixing europe and japan i believe was a loan

 

Another thing we prolly have all of the top 10 largest cities in land mass when you include the metro area.  The burbs here can be very sprawling. 

 

Also i believe one of the great things about the SimCity series is the flexibilty it gives you to build your own city.  Not a cookie cutter city.

 

Sorry for the long message hopefully that gives you guys a reason why things are the way they are. 

 

[Casper3141 60]

Larger Laned highways dont resolve gridlock? that may be true but in an american city Like Los Angeles with 14 million people spread out so far to where many commute 45 min to there jobs or longer would you rather have a 10 laned highway or 16 laned highway over a 6 laned one? and the Reason Japan and Many European Countries are like that is cause they are so small and dont have the room plus many European Cities have Wall to Wall housing so some cities arent even that spread out, unlike America which has Plenty of Free Space to build Gargantuan Freeways and we have toll boothed Freeways on the East Coast

_________________________________________________________

Tropod do you think it would be possible to make Streets and One Way roads able to Connect to Other cities?

[d2f 4]

Date: 8/10/2004 3:29:43 AM
Author: Casper3141

Larger Laned highways dont resolve gridlock? that may be true but in an american city Like Los Angeles with 14 million people spread out so far to where many commute 45 min to there jobs or longer would you rather have a 10 laned highway or 16 laned highway over a 6 laned one? and the Reason Japan and Many European Countries are like that is cause they are so small and dont have the room plus many European Cities have Wall to Wall housing so some cities arent even that spread out, unlike America which has Plenty of Free Space to build Gargantuan Freeways and we have toll boothed Freeways on the East Coast

quote>
Seriously, more lanes do not resolve gridlock, and it's not just because of common sense. More lanes simply encourage people to use the highway, and therefore the car, more. Adding lanes might resolve gridlock, but as anyone can tell you, the effects are only temporary. A highway with lots of lanes also shows a more pressing issue: the existing mass transit infrastructure is a joke, which only further encourages people to use highways to get around. It's a neverending vicious cycle.

As for toll boothed highways on the East Coast, yeah right. I hardly see any toll booths outside the East Coast. Worse, the toll system here only applies to transitions, such as a bridge crossing. In Japan, the tolls are located not just at the transitions, but also at most exits leading to smaller towns, villages, and other expressways. The Greater Toronto Area's Highway 407 comes closest to the Japanese implementation, with tolls at each and every entry point.

Your argument about having so little space for highways is just plain wrong. Have you ever set foot in Tokyo, let alone Japan? They have multilane highways, double-stacked highways, and underground highways. Heck, there is a one-way highway right on top of a low-density shopping establishment in Ginza.

[d2f 4]

Date: 8/10/2004 3:29:20 AM
Author: a11eria

note: truncated text

In the states if you dont live in a major city you dont have mass transit and outside of New York Boston Sanfran DC Chicago LA and their suburbs or if you live near the trains that go up and down the east coast, other then buses and cabs you dont have any other options. Where I grew up the only busses in the entire state outside of Omaha and maybe Lincoln were yellow.

Yes there are small penny anny mass transit systems like atlantas marta which is really nothing more then an easy way ( cuz of parking ) to get to the airport, to the stadiums, and downtown.

There are 2 reasons why this is the way it is. Cuz WE partially paid for and helped rebuild most japans europes tracks after WWII. This gave a large percentage of the developed world new track built for the future. While ours are prolly around 100 yrs old and will be replaced over time however the curves were not made for high speed trains.

The other reason is the sheer space between major cities except for in the east cost is typically very long, and the cost to replace the tracks now when stuff like mag trains are being worked on would be sheer idiotcy. I agree that streches of track should have been replaced decades ago, and we are working on trains that can go at high speeds on old tracks and sharper turns. However we have had 6 wars to fight in the last 100 yrs. And that money for fixing europe and japan i believe was a loan

Another thing we prolly have all of the top 10 largest cities in land mass when you include the metro area. The burbs here can be very sprawling.

Also i believe one of the great things about the SimCity series is the flexibilty it gives you to build your own city. Not a cookie cutter city.

Sorry for the long message hopefully that gives you guys a reason why things are the way they are.

quote>
That is precisely why it's a problem. My mom used to tell me this line: if you don't have a car, you're effectively a disabled person. There are virtually zero incentives for people to take mass transit more often than the car. Some people are very happy spending thousands after thousands of money in gas guzzlers and complaining about high gas prices, while at the same time not giving a damn if the local transit authorities go bankrupt.

The suburbs make an already nasty congestion issue worse because it's all low-density housing, encouraging the use of the car and discouraging any form of mass transit. Mass transit, just like internet connections, is most effective with medium- and high-density zones.

Yes, USA did spearhead the recovery process in Europe and Japan after WWII, but that's about rebuilding local economies. Part of that included rebuilding railroad tracks that were destroyed in the war. Were those modern? I think not. USA did not help build the tracks that are meant to be used with high-speed trains; instead, they're meant mostly for freight.

As for your comment regarding six wars in the span of one hundred years, I disagree. Only four wars - WWI, WWII, and the Cold and Korean Wars - were necessary. The rest were a total waste of blood and lives.

[a11eria 3]

i think i created a firestorm with that double decker highway.  Im sure that someone had thought of this and mentioned it b4.