Scale in Sim City 4?

[TM 0]

Hi, long time player of the game, and just recently got back into the world of sim city. 

Planning on starting a whole new region, but my goal will be to be as realistic as possible-- which I know a lot of you strive for.

It has come to my realization that much cities/ regions in the U.S. are gridded way more than the average eye sees.

One such major aspect of this network of endless square is the way in which most farmland is laid out.  According to most satelite images I've seen iva google maps, the farmland is perfectly laid out in 1 square mile squares with small roads bordering them.

My question to the public here is, how can I determine what equals a square mile in the game?  Is it set up to where the maximum area I'm alowed to develop agrictulture is a square mile?  Is there some kind of landmark I can use to determine the length of a mile in the game (back to back empire state buildings etc)-- or is there just a number of squares on the in-game terrain grids that equals a mile?

Sorry if the question has previously been covered, but the forum's search option seems a little out of whack currently, saying any word I type in is "common and deleted."

[gio10469 24]

Each individual unit on the city grid measures 16m x 16m...hope this helps

[TM 0]

thank you! I did the math and it's basically 100 city tiles for a mile.

[gio10469 24]

No problem, 100 tiles? good to know...I'll keep that in mind.

[astronelson 339]

Keep in mind, a small city tile is 64x64 tiles, so for the farms you have in mind, you'll need at least a medium tile.

[TM 0]

Wow the default regions are small then. By the looks of it, for the sheer magnitude I want, I'll have to install a custom region off the stex. If I have any trouble with that, I'll consult the mac forums on simtropolis.

[tungston 19]

The default region is equal to 16x16 small cities, 8x8 medium, or 4x4 large cities.

[Joetropian1 1]

You're lucky, Dedgren talks about that topic to some length in his 3RR thread on SC4D! You can check it out for exact measurements, it would be a big help.

[TM 0]

could I get the link to that topic?

[tungston 19]

It's not a real mystery, as mentioned above the tiles are 16 meters on each side. 

Small city = 64 tiles each side. [1024 meters]
Medium city = 128 tiles each side. [2048 meters]
Large city = 256 tiles each side. [4096 meters]

1,000 meters = 1 kilometer =  0.621 mile
1 meter = 3.28 feet
1 mile = 5.280 feet
1 mile = 1,609.7 meters

[CheshireDragon 13]

Sims are complaining about a 30min commute time in a 4²mi city?!  I live 5mi from work and there is no way it is taking these sims 30+min to get there.  Are they riding bikes or walking?  I am using sumulator Z Ultra and I still get abandonded buildings due to commute time.  I have avenues and freeways. but it is extremely difficult to get to 200K people for me, gets to about 100 to 150K and stalls :/

[SC4BOY 20]

If you have to use the ultra version, your problem is almost certainly that you have the wrong mix of residents (or looking at it from the other side, the wrong jobs) .. Ultra I believe allows 4 hour commutes.. this tells me that you have for example R$$$ looking for jobs which already have the $$$ jobs filled and they have no where to work.