Can you do it without cars?

[Jedimarine 119]

Just something I started thinking about as I stared at the gas prices.

I started thinking about how society would change without heavy automobile use.

and then I started wondering if i could build a city to reflect.

Is it possible to build up a large and thriving city on little or no no streets?

Is it possible to get 80 or 90% of traffic to be mass trans or pedestrian?

If so, how?

Has anyone done it?  I'd love to see your city!

thanks.

[spacecadet77 0]

In the original version of sim city it was perfectly feasible to build a city without any roads. The residents would love it too as there would be no congestion or pollution.

I tend to build a lot of public transport into my cities and get a large majority of the sims onto buses and subways. Can't remember the exact percentage, will have to have a look when I get home tonight

[waiyeap90 0]

Hmm funny though. I have never thought of it. I guess not cuz i have never seen it myself. If you are ever going to creat a CJ like this TELL ME. I would love to see it.

[Jedimarine 119]

Is it clearly stated anywhere how pedestrian traffic works?

How far they will walk...if that distance is over an entire commute or just from one transit type to another?

Do things like the nam ped ways add distance to that or attract ped traffic?

What about police/fire...without airborne units, are you hosed?

is there any idea how much traffic a single track of rail can handle vs. a road, ave, highway?

does the inclusion of ANY road instantly cause traffic chaos (in other words...the game is designed to search road routes first for ease of travel, and finding even simple streets, will select it...and thus jam even a small street between mass trans systems?)

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

Any type of building will work on ped malls. So if you wanted too you could make a city without any roads at all.

[josue 0]

Sims ONLY can go out from residential lots to roads or streets but theorically it's possible to design a city with a big use of the public transport. For that it´s necesary to have absolutely separated comercial and industrial zones from the residential zones. It's posible to communicate them by any kind of transport, but at the roads routes that connect residential and "jobs zones" are necesary "car blockers".

Also new NAM can help a lot, it includes different traffic controlers and simulators that force sims to walk longer distances or to leave car in a parking.

[Schulmanator 5,793]

I have been doing all sorts of workarounds in my CJ and have created virtually roadless areas. But, residential will never survive in SC4 without some sort of street or road connection. NAM pedmall tiles will suffice for commercial and industrial.

[Flyboy1212 12]

well in my city i have a strong mass transit system plus nam and one of my nerboring indrestys has only 10 car going to it but over 10000 trains from my city with a pop of over 500,000

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

It's "easily" possible...I have done it. You just have to make liberal use of the traffic blocker lots to allows only bus and truck traffic. Plop them EVERYWHERE! You have force the sims to use transit. I've gotten nearly all of my city using transit (mostly bus, they still haven't figured out the rail system!).

[diamonddog_74 32]

I've been trying to make this happen in my cities. I really despise car traffic. By "traffic blocker lots" do you mean RTMS lots? I've pretty much put bus stops or subway/bus stations on every corner to discourage car traffic. Sometimes it works, but the moment you have rich Sims move in, the bus ridership collapses. I really would love to hear more ideas on this.

[diamonddog_74 32]

Oops, I meant RTMT (Roadtop Mass Transit) lots. Cheers, all. Let's keep this thread going. I would love to hear more of what's working for everyone. Cars suck. Cities are for people.

[Schulmanator 5,793]

Roadless City Tutorial

Have you ever wanted to have a city without traffic? No cars, no buses, no trucks? You know you have. But, Sim City doesn't seem inclined to let you get away with it. But, now, you have free, unsolicited advice on how you can create a historic city and have it vehicle free. And, as we know, free advice is definitely worth twice what you paid for it. So, let's see how to make this happen.

First, we lay out a fake road. This is actually Jeronij's rural embankment (straight shown here... diagonal used elsewhere). The residential embankment, shown above, could work too, but it has the fence line on one side, so you probably want to stick with the rural. The rural looks more authentic as a street as well.

Be sure to use the home and end keys to orient the street in the proper direction. This will be a T intersection.

Using the diagonal embankment pieces, you can get off of the grid and get some angled roads. You have a upper diagonal and lower diagonal angled lot from which to select. As you can see, the balance of the tile is covered with trees. So, you probably will want some sort of greenery at the turn instead of having a building facing out and having its entrance obscured with trees.

The diagonals are only half of what you need for the road, so you will need to rotate the lot and plop another set alongside to finish the road.

When finished, your road will be 1 tile across, but the extra trees will make the construction take up 2 tiles across. Note how the trees sort of stick out in a zigzag from the road. You will wnt to soften that with other lots in your final product.

After a while, you create more of an old world looking free-form pattern of cobblestone roads. But, these are technically parks, so they are not transit enabled and growable /ploppable RCI lots will have a fit! How do we solve this? And, how do we get some Sims to their jobs via a non-useable eyecandy transit system? Observe!

If you are placing commercial or industry, try pedmall tiles from NAM to provide transit access. Hook those up to a subway station to allow for transit between pedmall segments.

The sub stations will be quite unhappy without the pedmall lots, found in the roads menu. You can use the sandstone or grass lots as effective camouflage and they also have pedestrians, providing movement in an otherwise static cityscape.

Landmarks, such as these timber framed houses, do not require transit access and be placed just about anywhere. You can save the pedmall tiles for lots which truly need access. Note the path between subway stations in grass tiles. That's a pedestrian mall... counts as a road, looks like plantings.

See the movement on the grass... gives more life to it as well as needed access.

The transit system is in place and my ploppables are going in.

All of this is connected by subway. Commute times are tolerable and cars avoided.

Commercial businesses will grow if they can touch the pedmall tiles.

I start filling in the blank areas with trees to smooth out the diagonal road jaggies . Foot traffic gives life to the town, which would otherwise be very quiet.

Will it work? Yes! Residential will not grow in this will nor will it work if you plop it. But, commercial and industry are fine with it.

The beauty of the pedmall set up is that the Sims think they are in cars, but they are not.

Following these steps will net you a traffic free neighborhood - full of old world Schulmania charm. Try it sometime... the Supreme Wirdle will purr for you.