Highway Blues

[JakeMD 107]

yeahread the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

[kiwispanker 1]

yes, but interstates in america are/were funded (mainly) by the federal government to help support interstate commerce, starting in the '50s. some interstates even run through small towns with less than 100 residents. the federal government rarely cares about getting people from the suburbs to their downtown office.

even though i agree with your initial point, I think you'd have to provide evidence of municipally funded freeways. personally i can't think of any. even in LA, which appears to be an entire freeway web, all freeways are either federal (interstates and US routes) or state (state routes). i know in Las Vegas they have county built freeways, but they are still supported by federal funds - i'm talking about the beltway (not sure about it's number; 215?). i'm also sure that in most other countries that freeways are federally funded and are built to navigate to and from major cities while only running through minor cities.

planning is everything.

[Rigwald 0]

Originally posted by: zwr100

I find it realistic that it's difficult to build highways and forces you to de extensive planning.

 .....

Extensive planning isn't a bad thing, but the type of planning you have to do for highways seems unrealistic.quote>

Planning is essential, no doubt about that.  Putting a freeway through a city, demolishes a lot of buildings, because normally cities are not planned from their inception to contain freeways.  In city builders, we have that luxury to think about that and plan accordingly from the onset.  I, for one, placed an avenue where I planned the future freeway.  I then left the equivalent of 2 high density buildings on either side, followed by what would become a "frontage road".  Enough space there for me to eventually put 2 expressways (side by side) with room to spare.  When it came to put in the freeway (aka highway), there was plenty of room for the actual roadway (despite it weaving some since there is no option to place it straight).  Where the issue came was the way to get motorists onto the freeway.  Without simple on/off ramps, I end up clearing even more land to use interchanges that are best suited for connecting freeways to one another, not to local access roads.  

Perhaps this is a result of European freeway construction.  My experiences in both Poland and Germany have been that the exits tend to sweep through wooded areas to block sound from the freeway.  Perhaps the simple on/off ramps and the trench cut placement system isn't as often used and, therefore, not implemented in the game.