Highways and Abandonment

[DreamSong 0]

I recently put a nice system of highway through my town.  I had to destroy several buildings in the process.  However since then things have gone downhill.  Many of my buildings have been abandoned and more have been reduced in wealth.  Why is this?  How can I fix this problem?

And is it the highway's fault, really?

[Abuja 0]

Was it mandated? like did you actually need to put it because of congestion or did you put it there for kicks

[Faded Glory 13]

Well, if its residential thats dilapidating, its more than likly the traffic noise. try downloading this link. https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=2433

As you can see (if you go to it) its a sound wall, and it drastically reduces the traffic noise. Hope this helps.

P.S. It probably is the highways fault....really.

[DreamSong 0]

Eh, I put it there because of commute times.

And do the sound walls work on elevated highways...?

I may just tear the highway down. Should I?

[Jamonbread 222]

Well try the sound walls first, they help me on occasion

[DreamSong 0]

But does it work on Elevated Highways?

Eh, should I just not build it near the rich parts of town? But then how will the rich get around (they don't really use mass transit, do they?)

[Faded Glory 13]

Well the highway isn't considered mass transit, and to the best of my knowledge, they do work on elevated highways. Ask the creator if it seems it doesn't.

[Abuja 0]

I play a regular game for the most part. I don't have all the extra stuff and downloads like the soundwall. I built one city, nothing but avenues and streets. Then when I had enough money I just plopped a beltway in it with downtown accesses it was the largest city tile. It's like atlanta freeways system but like a box instead of a circular oval blob. Some places have no use while others carry close to 5000 cars. The problems I had were 1)forgeting to put highway onramps and 2)rezoning destroyed lots. Lot accesses get cut off when highways are put down. plus the streets that access the highways can get so crowded that homes in the residential area become abandoned because of commute time. The only thing I thought to do was put avenues with onramp access to the highways or put subway lines with stations and ajacent bus stops. somebody else might have better tips

[DreamSong 0]

I'll try the sound walls.

And eh - I have no avenues in my city. They kind of ruin my layouts, but are they important?

Also, can somebody tell me how hi-wealth people commute to work? From what I can tell they're too high-class to use subways/etc.

Also, now my main problem is lack of customers. Pretty much every commercial building I have is either low/medium customers, and the businesses are really hurting, how do I fix this?

[LKMarcus 3]

You should put some avenues in your city...or you can try with alternating one-way roads. Your commercial is suffering from a lack of residents in your city, try to attract residential development in your city and that should solve the problem. As to abandonment, why not check the desirability of the area(s) that are being abandoned? It could be the area has low desirability to live in due to factors like, crime, commute time, traffic noise and others. Hope this helps.

[Faded Glory 13]

another way you can increase customers is to direct traffic through a commercial area. The more traffic on a *commercial* road, the more customers come in. I think I saw a thread a while back about this, lemme look real quick.

Edit: I couldn't find the article.... Whoops.

[shtyrayum 0]

To answer your question about high wealth sims, they really like monorail.

[jmusacha 2]

^{I agree that is probably the highway's fault that this abandonment started.  In real life putting a highway through an established, built-up neighborhood can result in the neighborhood becoming blighted then why shouldn't it happen in the simulation?  Take for instance, Overtown in Miami which became a ghetto after the highway was contructed through it.}

[Faded Glory 13]

I was thinking more about just the traffic noise, but jmusacha you make a valid point as well.