Show us your Roundabouts & Intersections

[PaPa-J 778]

St. Williams Bay

The Center of Town

[kim026 298]

On 31/8/2017 at 2:31 AM, Haljackey said:

One of these slip lanes is not like the others

 

The longer slip lanes that "is not like the others" is MIS, right? It looks like avenue on and off ramps? please teach 

[Haljackey 17,306]

On 6/19/2019 at 4:27 PM, kim026 said:

 

The longer slip lanes that "is not like the others" is MIS, right? It looks like avenue on and off ramps? please teach 

That's the Avenue MIS connector. It's in the roads menu if you do a full NAM install.

-----

Couple big roundabouts around a public square in front of a rail station

[T Wrecks 10,209]

@Haljackey: Cool road layout!

And by the way, now that I see that railroad station again: I haven't forgotten about you. I did load it into GoFSH and try to get something out of the textures, but it wasn't much use. Toning down the highlights far enough to make the blinding white become an acceptable grey decreases contrast so far that it all becomes one undefined pixel porridge - even more so because the roof lacks any structure and texture. I've been doing a lot of recolouring lately for my upcoming plugins folder and I reckon I'm getting somewhat better at editing, so maybe I'll try my hands on this one again, but I'm not very optimistic, sorry to say.

[Simmer2 23,786]

Not a roundabout but close enough...

Simmer2

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Zamacentians are proud of their new roundabout landscaping!

 

֍ ROUNDABOUTS ARISING ֎
CITY OF ZAMACENTIA

 

Chelsea Court, courtersy of Twrecks:

Spoiler

 

 

Stubby tree, courtesy of SFBT Landscape Architects:

Spoiler

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2025

 

Towering tree, courtersy of SFBT Landscape Architects:

Spoiler

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2025

 

Valiant knight, courtesy of:

Spoiler

 

 

Flower circle, courtesy of yours, truly:

 

Pampas grass ring, courtesy of yours, truly:

 

If there's enough interest, I might create enough roundabout fillers of my own to post as a pack, volume 1 would feature props hailing from Maxis, future packs would feature custom props from other authors.

[Haljackey 17,306]

A collection of unique roundabouts and intersections in some cities I am working on

Around a rail station

Diagonal for a bit

6 to 4 lane transition between the bullet train

GLR bypass

Highway exit

One at each side

Rail station chaos

Public square

Around a park

Industrial station

Highway terminus

Triangle grid

Highway onramp

The climb

Drop off point

Underpasses

Left curve then right turn

Roundabouts surrounding the highway

Station access

At the edge of the world

One-way underpasses

[PaPa-J 778]

19 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

Zamacentians are proud of their new roundabout landscaping!

 

֍ ROUNDABOUTS ARISING ֎
CITY OF ZAMACENTIA

 

Chelsea Court, courtersy of Twrecks:

  Source (Reveal hidden contents)

 

 

Stubby tree, courtesy of SFBT Landscape Architects:

  Source (Reveal hidden contents)

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2025

 

Towering tree, courtersy of SFBT Landscape Architects:

  Source (Reveal hidden contents)

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2025

 

Valiant knight, courtesy of:

  Source (Reveal hidden contents)

 

 

Flower circle, courtesy of yours, truly:

 

Pampas grass ring, courtesy of yours, truly:

 

If there's enough interest, I might create enough roundabout fillers of my own to post as a pack, volume 1 would feature props hailing from Maxis, future packs would feature custom props from other authors.

I'm interested!!!!!!!

[Naomi57 2,985]

I do lots of tightly packed urban neighbourhoods, and I'm actually really very impressed with the FLUPs underpass roundabouts in the NAM.  I built these two in my sandbox region.  Surprisingly easy, and with this configuration, the north-south avenue has completely unimpeded traffic flow, while the east-west avenue has smooth traffic flow through the roundabout.

Downsides:

1. It takes up 16 more tiles than the standard roundabout, and 20 more tiles than an avenue intersection.
2. Commercial zones on the corner only pickup half the traffic commercial $$$ from the north-south arterial avenue.
3. The centrepiece of the roundabout cannot be replaced with a 2x2 park, library or other lot.

Upsides:

1. My sims have faster access to jobs along the busiest suburban arterial roads, meaning better employment levels, economic growth, and fewer No Job Zots.
2. Saves me from installing bypasses.
3. Assists with funnelling maximum traffic for more commercial C$$ and C$$$ wealth creation along the arterial avenue.
4. The intersection corners are square, making them ideal spots for 2x3 C$$ corner zones.

I've actually got a highway-roundabout interchange just like that one on the left, just a few suburbs away, in real life!  That's part of what made me interested in making one.

The Maxis Highway (L2 MHW) version on the left is more expensive, and uglier, but it should better encourage north-south traffic to occupy the centre lanes.  I noticed with the FLUPs roundabout, that a sizeable portion of the north-south traffic uses the slip-lanes and roundabout, simply because one way roads (OWR-2) have a higher speed limit than FLUPs avenues (AVE-4) do.

The post below contains instructions for construction, and a link to MGB NAM's excellent video tutorial on FLUPs:

FLUPs and high capacity suburban intersections

FLUPs underpasses are actually really easy, at about the same difficulty level as the old Maxis elevated highway interchanges ...

In my live city, Breezy Point, East New York, which has large sections of diagonal arterial avenue, I've gotten a little more creative with the layout, with the slip lanes intersecting the arterial avenue on the turn to diagonal.  Not really an improvement to the original, just part of the extra tile cost of diagonal city building.  

I'm on the lookout for compact high capacity suburban interchanges that will work on the diagonal.  This vanilla SimCity 4 beastie does the trick, but it's a tad ugly, and it's most definitely not a roundabout!  

[Naomi57 2,985]

Here's a cute one!  I didn't do this on purpose ... I just happened to need the fifth avenue for traffic flows when I put in through the simulator for 15 years.  I might swap the new north-east diagonal avenue for a one way road, but for the moment here it is.  It appeals to my sense of humour, somehow.  

[Naomi57 2,985]

Avenue Roundabout with bus-bays and super-powers!

This avenue roundabout with a Medium Park Green in the middle of it, just looks like an odd shaped roundabout on the surface, with curious little bus-bays sticking out of it, but the "northern" bus-bay on this roundabout has super-powers!

Notice that sims get off at the right-hand bus-stop, and then there's a tiny little magenta arrow, before another blue arrow heads "north" along the Maxis Highway?

That tiny little magenta arrow shows the sims heading down the escalator, to the Maxis Highway (MHW) tunnel bus-bay underneath, then ZOOM, "northward" bound on the bus travelling at 110km/h!!!     See the "northern" bus route take off underground, under the "northern" roundabout, and under the buildings, too.

Some of the sims only travel the MHW for 5 tiles before getting off at the bus stop at the other side.  Other sims travel from there 75 tiles underneath the city to the airport, with uninterrupted 110km/h  bus speed all the way.

Cross-city tunnel.  Only 1 car and freight entrance and exit, 6 more bus stop entrances and exits enroute ... picking up and dropping sims at similar 2x6 plops of tunnel, MHW and Bus Stops.  2 Bus Stops each time ... one for each MHW carriage-way.  ZOOM!!!   

And yes, I've discovered the 4x4 roundabout makes for ideal bus-bays, effectively transforming dual-carriageway avenue to single-carriageway interchange for maximum bus stop access across all four carriage ways ... north, south, east and west.  

Loving the roundabouts.  Thank you NAM team!!!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

See also Airport Tunnel Construction and Ingredients List, for instructions if these MHW tunnels are new to you.

[philforhockey51 4,211]

[reg 1,480]

Rotary in front of a typical station in a Japanese city

The rotary on the left is often seen in Japan.

The roundabout on the right is less common.

In the first place, at the intersection of Japan, rotary is not common and I have never seen it.
(It seems that it has gradually increased recently)

[Naomi57 2,985]

Interesting goodies under the RHW/AVE menu!          (NAM36)

On 31/08/2017 at 10:31 AM, Haljackey said:

One of these slip lanes is not like the others

On 20/06/2019 at 6:27 AM, kim026 said:

The longer slip lanes that "is not like the others" is MIS, right? It looks like avenue on and off ramps? please teach 

On 28/06/2019 at 9:26 AM, Haljackey said:

That's the Avenue MIS connector. It's in the roads menu if you do a full NAM install.

Mmmm, that looks yummy.  I didn't understand that comment from @Haljackey when I first read it six months ago, but now I understand.  Lots and lots of curious and interesting goodies to be found under the  RHW/AVE  menu item.  Here's some of them:

My mind immediately seized on that AVE-4 Type A1 piece, which is somewhat equivalent to the RHW-4 to MIS Type A1 ramp.   Can I use that in my Breezy Point city, to make one of my favourite suburban intersections more spiffy?  

Here it is in Zone data view, with a Bus Stop preview hovering to show you how the AVE-4 Type A1 (red on the right), takes up one more tile than the
equivalent AVE-4 x OWR-2 diagonal ramp (blue on the left).  Spiffy yes, but I begrudge the loss of even 1 tile.  

   

Interestingly, that same tile is available if we replace these ramps with true RHW-4 to MIS Type A1 ramp (notice the chevrons on the ramp showing that it's the RHW real deal), but then there isn't enough tiles to make the quick transition to L2 elevated Maxis Highway (MHW) over the roundabout.    

Besides, those MIS ramps don't provide RCI access, so those adjacent buildings would dilapidate and vacate ... so ... nah, let's not.  Maxis Avenue (AVE-4) is THE MOST FLEXIBLE road type in most situations, so it's no real surprise that RHW-4 can't compete on doing a quick to L0 ground to L2 elevated transition.

Nothing lost, nothing gained (yet), but the journey is fun.  

Click on the images to zoom in and arrow around.  As always, loving my concrete highways.

[Naomi57 2,985]

On 14/09/2019 at 12:19 PM, Lucario Boricua said:

If there's enough interest, I might create enough roundabout fillers of my own to post as a pack, volume 1 would feature props hailing from Maxis, future packs would feature custom props from other authors.

Yes, yes, YESSS, please!!!  

This would be truly awesome, @Lucario Boricua.  I've noticed it's hard to find roundabout filler packs ... you've gotta go searching, and searching, and searching for individual fillers.

While there's a fair few decent Maxis vanilla options for 1x1 roundabout fillers, the 2x2 Maxis vanilla options are, mmmm, a bit lacking.  

( can you spot the one roundabout filler that isn't vanilla?   )

One of the things that's lacking, too, is proper calibration of Park and Landmark YIMBY effects for roundabout fillers.  I could help you there (if you'd like help), as I've been learning about iLive Reader while beta testing Cori's Parks Aura data view.

1. Lucario's Roundabout Filler Pack #1 - Using Maxis props
2. Lucario's Roundabout Filler Pack #2 - Using third party props
3. Lucario's Roundabout Filler Favourites - Collecting, testing and calibrating fillers from other creators
   (with due credit and permission, of course)

I could also help you with contacting other roundabout filler creators for that third "Filler Favourites" pack, just an idea.  

Roundabout fillers will surely never be part of the NAM, so having centralised packs of them could be a godsend for relative newbies like me.  The only sophisticated roundabout filler pack I've seen so far is this one, by @Simmer2.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/32435-sm2-roundabout-sculptures-set/

 

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

@Naomi57

This could be a great project to conduct! I'm still very novice about creating lots, and have faced a lot of difficulty in getting the more elaborate software packs used for BATs, but have enough knowledge to do landscaping and park-like content (a bit of it I've already featured in my current region and city journal, the Kingdom of Rota). I also see a huge opportunity to create roundabout filler lots specifically for the medium roundabouts (the ones with the one-way road ring), and a first pack of them can definitely be made with Maxis landscape props. For the others, we'd have to start researching on a small selection of suitable prop packs to get a consistent look and manageable downloads.

At present, I'd rather wait a bit more before getting involved in such project, I gotta make sure my educational responsibilities ramp up appropriately this semester, such that I can finish my ongoing Master's degree.

[Naomi57 2,985]

5 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

This could be a great project to conduct! I'm still very novice about creating lots, and have faced a lot of difficulty in getting the more elaborate software packs used for BATs, but have enough knowledge to do landscaping and park-like content

Well, I'm a complete novice when it comes to iLive Reader, but I'm working on it.  Fortunately, I've loads of experience with understanding and utilising Park Effect and Landmark Effect to influence neighbourhood balance of wealth levels and economic effects.  One of my upcoming projects is to tweak and play with some downloaded park and landmark plops.

Sadly, I know almost nothing at all about BATting.  I want to learn, because there's a gap on the STEX for downloadable NIMBY plops, which could be rather more useful than it sounds.  There's already NIMBY growables on the STEX, which is really not my cup of tea ... I really don't want NIMBY effects erratically growing all by themselves, however realistic such a thing might be for real cities!

8 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

I also see a huge opportunity to create roundabout filler lots specifically for the medium roundabouts (the ones with the one-way road ring), and a first pack of them can definitely be made with Maxis landscape props. For the others, we'd have to start researching on a small selection of suitable prop packs to get a consistent look and manageable downloads.

I actually think it's good to create basic 2x2 roundabout fillers, too, just using the Maxis props ... they don't need to be fancy.  Almost all of the 2x2 roundabout fillers that I've spotted on the STEX suffer from an issue of being WAY TOO FANCY!  Now, really fancy can be great sometimes, but not all the time.

The problem with the 2x2 Maxis vanilla parks and 2x2 plaza, is that they simply don't have aesthetics that go well with a roundabout.  The Maxis props are great, just the vanilla position of those props is designed for squares, not curves, and the grassy ones need to match the grass texture of the inside edge of the roundabout.

8 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

At present, I'd rather wait a bit more before getting involved in such project, I gotta make sure my educational responsibilities ramp up appropriately this semester, such that I can finish my ongoing Master's degree.

It would be fun to chat some about this, and make a slow start, but I wouldn't want to distract you from your studies!

[Naomi57 2,985]

Well here's another pack of roundabout fillers, by @AndisArt, released just this month, 25 of them!  Wow! 

This might just keep me going for awhile.  

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/33415-avenue-roundabout-megapack/

    

     

 

On 03/02/2020 at 3:57 PM, Naomi57 said:

Roundabout fillers will surely never be part of the NAM, so having centralised packs of them could be a godsend for relative newbies like me.  The only sophisticated roundabout filler pack I've seen so far is this one, by @Simmer2.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/32435-sm2-roundabout-sculptures-set/

[Haljackey 17,306]

A well signed roundabout

[Haljackey 17,306]

Every odd angle intersection is a roundabout

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

     As a result of the latest road widening along Batey Baramaya, here's some new FTL intersections added to the mix!     

 

This one is to the south of Batey Baramaya, next to the river crossing before entering the urban area of Baramaya (left, beyond view):

 

With the new avenue alignment, the old route ended up as this slanted stub connecting to a new peripheral road skirting the urban area's south side:

 

The western entrance of the city was now re-designed to better accommodate all the growing commercial and agricultural traffic which intends to use the slightly re-aligned bypass route:

 

This other one features a clever road realignment to keep the avenue straight, replacing the original alignment the road coming from the upper right (resembled the frontage street in front of the rock cut) and adding a new access point closer to the urban area (left side of view):

 

[FireSka 20]

Some of my favorite intersections:

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Melon Grove

[jonnboy1976 218]

On 11/11/2017 at 2:04 AM, korver said:

The massive Grosser Stern roundabout and Victory Column in Berlin's Tiergarten.

More from this CJ update here.

 

This roundabout is huge and looks awesome!  Where can I find it to download?

[Haljackey 17,306]

Roundabouts are an excellent choice at odd-angled intersections

 

 

[Haljackey 17,306]

Here's a new roundabout build

 

[EffTheGrid 3,671]

What do you call these? Interchanges? Intersections? Traffic circles? Jersey junk?

Today I'm featuring some curvalinear intersections that have sprung up in developing areas.

Here I grappled with connecting the state highway (AVE-6) a grassy medianized boulevard, (which I've represented with 2 FA3 parallel roads) and a residential side road (MAVE-4).

Sometimes it's tough to get two larger capacity roads to intersect and function.

Unintentional lookalike -  Conduit Blvd NYC

These came out great, I think - even if I'm doing everything wrong.

The island provides green space within the void area and a good opportunity for parks, civics, or commercial development. Green space is a plus for res demand. And nice to look at.

I imagine that the NAM team will one day make us easy draggable OWR but until then I'm in no rush - just happy to lay the groundwork.

Here was another head-scratcher, where multiple networks came together in an ugly way:

We now have an orderly and realistic-looking traffic management scheme to build off of and orient the area around, rather than just straight roads.

Look at this example from elsewhere in the city, where two misaligned avenues created one of my favorite hood moments

It's not as pretty as some of the others in terms of functionality but it ties the area up nicely.

Sometimes it's hard to sneak a new highway or major throughfare into an existing grid. Especially one with complicated angles.

Eminent domain is the way to go!

Below, we lost a block of housing, but gained much better connectivity along the waterfront areas, and great civic space for parks and schools. The wider blocks along and near the boulevard also allow for enhanced development, like higher density housing and retail spaces.

All of these intersections provide vital links in a complicated road network - below, the junction serves as the entrance to the Connasequot bypass road, detouring traffic from Broadway and circumventing the city.

Just in this small county, these circular junctions handle numerous important connections along vital state routes and city arteries.

Talk about driving around in circles.

[EffTheGrid 3,671]

Cross-posted:

These are two roads in the foothills. The area is turning suburban and being heavily developed so these roads need an upgrade.

I didn't want to radically alter the existing networks because they both carry significant traffic to other neighborhoods nearby, and I like the way they traverse the topography.

So the I just used a simple piece of avenue to transform the intersection. Now it's a much better route for everyone.

Wasn't planning this - but I'm jazzed with the way it came out!

[EffTheGrid 3,671]

More creative intersections using NAM transitions!

Watch me build them, with commentary! 

 

[Haljackey 17,306]

A web