Efficient city build

[borgisme5 0]

Suppose I'm a tad new here, eh? Anyways:

I am not a newb to the game per say, as I've made several successful cities that make good  money and have lots of people, good jobs, well developed, etc. I generally start out with having a central, scuzzy "New Jersey" city  as I call 'em, the one city that I put all the garbage, coal plants and dirty industry into, and have the Sims in the next city commute to and from.

I am trying to make a efficient city in terms of the ground work. Here is what what the general plans of an upcoming city will be, albeit a smaller section. The red lines on the roads represent where my water pipes will be. As few pipes as possible to reduce wasted money on odd pipes. And yes, they will all be connected =p

Each of the zones between the roads in this picture are 6 x 13 ( if you split in half, you'll have two 6x6  areas. I don't know if you can tell, but the small buildings are bus stations. Is it worthwhile to add in a subway system later on, or to replace the buses with subways?

I plan to have a beach cover the south end of the city, so I showed it here. Note that I plan to have another residential zone in that area. This will become the "rich" side of town and it is where the private schools will be located, along with the country club and other things that boost land value like the mayor house and statue.

What I am concered with is that I might have too many road intersection and traffic could become a problem with it backing up, but I hoping with a full bus system in, this won't happen. In addition to this, I don't know how I should add in highways, as they aren't as convient at avenues, but can move a whole bunch of sims at a time and works really well with the bus fleet. I am thinking that if continue this patterner, I should go down three avenues, and then a highway. The avenue that is between the other two would have a 6x13 commerical strip, while all the others would have 3x13. Meanwhile, every other avenue going to the right is a highway instead?

Man, I hate having OCD! Makes trying to not build by grids very hard to do. If this is wayyy to much, I can cut it down and try to summerize, i just want to be thoural.

~Thank You!~

[ewd76 2]

I have never seen anyone advocate replacing bus stations with subway. It might work, just a new concept to me. Most people say to add subway if it becomes necessary in addition to the buses. Depending on the size of your city and how well you place the bus stations, it might not be necessary to add subway. From what I understand, buses can stop anywhere, whereas a subway obviously is limited as to where it can stop.

[Jamonbread 222]

With that layout, because the commercial and residential areas are so close and mixed a highway would just be eyecandy. Also, there is a nice looking 1 by 1 lot that services buses subways and trains which might be an option if you want busses and a subway system. Again, because of the short commute distance, a subway system would be a waste of money I think. If you really want a highway use it to break up the grid. Send it winding through the city as an interesting feature, just either demolish buildings when the time comes or leave an open route which you could add it later when congestion starts becoming a problem.

[_alphaBeta_ 6]

Originally posted by: ewd76 <snip> From what I understand, buses can stop anywhere, whereas a subway obviously is limited as to where it can stop.quote>

 

Negative, buses can only load and unload passengers at stops. You may see some glitches from time to time, but this is the general rule.

I would never remove the bus stops. Buses are affected by congestion, but do not add to it, which makes them almost magical. If you have a road that has 1000 car trips on it, and successfully implement a bus system such that 500 trips are now bus and the other 500 car, only the 500 car trips will count against congestion. The 500 other bus trips essentially can travel the road, but do not count as traffic on the road. Very powerful. In addition, buses travel slightly faster over the road than a car (for simulator purposes), so this further reduces commute time.
(None of the previous paragraph applies if you're using Simulator Z of the NAM).

Buses also have a hidden use by extending the walking distance of commuters in the workplace sector. You put up a monorail from the your residential area to your work area. The commuters will drive (remember the parking lot) or walk to the monorail station, board the monorail and leave their car behind. For them to have even done this, there needs to be a monorail station within walking distance of their job (since they already left their car behind). Unless you put monorail stations everywhere, the amount of people to use it will be less (which means more congestion on the roads).

Now what happens if you put a bus stop next to the monorail station (in the workplace sector) with other bus stops sprinkled about? You'll see an increase in monorail usage since more sims will be able to get off the monorail, and still have a way to travel to work (that's outside the 7 tiles they are willing to talk). In a way the buses will extend the service area of the station in the workplace sector). Residents can drive to the monorail station, leave their car, ride the monorail, get on a bus, and arrive at their destination. Bus stops are easier to fit than en entire monorail station.

Subway stations are the same size as the bus stop, but I still wouldn't replace them. If you have a very congested subway line, the residents may opt to take a bus to another part of the subway that isn't so bad and ride from there. Leave the possibilities open!

[Argon Vex 1]

As far as the subway is concerned, you could go and download the MMTS. It contains a 1x1 lot that functions as a bus stop, subway station and rail station. There are also 2x1 and 4x1 lots with a higher capacity if you need them.

[ewd76 2]

Originally posted by: _alphaBeta_

Originally posted by: ewd76 <snip> From what I understand, buses can stop anywhere, whereas a subway obviously is limited as to where it can stop.quote>

 

Negative, buses can only load and unload passengers at stops. You may see some glitches from time to time, but this is the general rule.

quote>

I'll take your word for that, I read it somewhere. I don't know how we are supposed to know this stuff. A lot of the stuff in this game does not work the way one would reasonably expect it to if realism is an objective.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that most of what we "know" about this game is in our minds.

[quikling 0]

Well since you have OCD then go with it. Grids Are GREAT!!!! In my book. Just remember to add lots of demand busters. And no matter how perfect the city gets

[borgisme5 0]

Alright, so don't replace buses, add subways to 'em.

When I get to the point where I can afford to add a subway system, would it be better to add the stations across the street from the bus stops, or right next to them? I've heard that if you put certain things next to each other, Sims won't use them because they have to walk at least one tile to get to it; transferring from bus to sub, not just walking to the sub and taking that. I do have the NAM, so I'm not sure if that fixed it, or is still a problem, or simply not true. I've rarely gotten a city that could truly support a subway system, so when I get around to building it, does having the subway tunnels intersect a lot like my roads cause subway congestion? Note that I will only have them cross each other at subway stations.

As for the bus thing, that is why for any given commute route on bus, the bus route will go between many different bus stops then?

And the highway is for speedy buses, as when the city gets really big, the buses will be able to drive far across town. And not everyone will take the bus, and I'm sure the bus stations will eventually get to capacity.

I'll zone up another area to illustrate.

[borgisme5 0]

Well, I don't feel like putting up another picture, heh.

But basically, will this basic road layout create efficient commute times and jobs for commercial businesses.