Gettting residents to use the highways.

[Mike1814 0]

I'm having problems trying to expand the city and keeping the  residents employed.  A residential area somewhat isolated from the center main part of the city has no job zots everywhere and it keeps getting blighted.

There are plenty of jobs available for these people (40K workforce w/ 150k jobs), but they have to drive across a highway bridge to get to the center of it, which they won't. I think the reason is because the way the bridge was awkwardly set up,. but in other parts of the city, the residents don't want to use the highway either. Is there a way to at least get the people to use the highway?

 

ps. apologies if the first pic is too big. I spent an hour trying to upload it and I jsut pressed th wrong button.

[DCMetro34 577]

Well, make them were your commuters are going. Specifically, right beside where they are going. Then, it will be their number one way of commuting. Also, bigger residential areas like that tend to be prone to unemployment. Making commercial and residential zones smaller can help. Also, mass transit probably would help with the unemployment in the area.

[z1 566]

The choice of traffic simulator also makes a huge difference. Which one are you using?

[Mike1814 0]

Originally posted by: DCMetro34

Well, make them were your commuters are going. Specifically, right beside where they are going. Then, it will be their number one way of commuting. Also, bigger residential areas like that tend to be prone to unemployment. Making commercial and residential zones smaller can help. Also, mass transit probably would help with the unemployment in the area.

quote>

 Well the commercial zoning is pretty sparce (not extremely centralized). there are small businesses along every avenue in the city, so the jobs aren't in all one area, but i didn't want to undermine the centralized commercial area, which is particularly being underutilized. Plus I set up some industrial area (which wasn't need, it was something to keep the residents happy, at least a little), But I'll shrink some of the residential areas.

[Mike1814 0]

Originally posted by: z1

The choice of traffic simulator also makes a huge difference. Which one are you using?quote>

Well I'm using z ultra, but now I'm wondering if it's working at all.

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: Mike1814

Originally posted by: z1

The choice of traffic simulator also makes a huge difference. Which one are you using?quote>

Well I'm using z ultra, but now I'm wondering if it's working at all.

quote>

It's working, but you've got a challenging situation there, especially with so many streets and so few roads.  Based on your description of your city and your pictures, you should probably be using Z Low.  Also, I would strongly recommend using the version from the Simulator Z v2.1 release, which has many improvements, some of which are specifically targeted at situations such as yours.

If that doesn't help enough, check your residential demand - is it sufficient to justify your residential area?  If so, there's no need to shrink it.  If the problem is that everything is really spread out, then you're going to need to put in some mass transit for commuting to really work well.  That's just the way the underlying commute engine is built, and is independent of which traffic simulator you use.  Even upgrading some of the streets to roads would make the commute engine happier.

But first try the newer version of Simulator Z that I mentioned.  If you've got positive residential demand, it may be all you need to turn things around.

[DCMetro34 577]

Originally posted by: Mike1814

Originally posted by: DCMetro34

Well, make them were your commuters are going. Specifically, right beside where they are going. Then, it will be their number one way of commuting. Also, bigger residential areas like that tend to be prone to unemployment. Making commercial and residential zones smaller can help. Also, mass transit probably would help with the unemployment in the area.

quote>

 Well the commercial zoning is pretty sparce (not extremely centralized). there are small businesses along every avenue in the city, so the jobs aren't in all one area, but i didn't want to undermine the centralized commercial area, which is particularly being underutilized. Plus I set up some industrial area (which wasn't need, it was something to keep the residents happy, at least a little), But I'll shrink some of the residential areas.

quote>

Yes, that's a way to do it. Or just build more commericial. This is just me, and I don't mean to criticize you or anything....but I always have a brief idea of what my city is going to be before I build. Specifically, I make build highways and avenues and mass transportation before building residential and commercial. So, more or less, I choose my CBD and transit networks before the land gets developed, so all in all it is more organized and helps wit easy commuting in the long run.

[z1 566]

The thread that you would want to read is the Traffic Simulator Z Development thread.  There have been a number of releases of the simulator since the last NAM release; you can find them described starting in this post.  These releases include v1.2, v1.3, v2.0, and v2.1, which is the current release.  No additional releases are anticipated before the next NAM release, which will include v2.1.

I don't have msn; I would recomment asking your questions in the NAM Traffic Simulator Z and Data View Support Thread.  That way, others can benefit from the answers as well.  I'd also recommend reading at least the first post in that thread, as it may answer some of your questions.  I would then be happy to answer any remaining questions that you have.

[Ryan123220 18]

Thanks alot, ill look there to see if my questions have been asked already

[whiteshark365 563]

I have found that a very good way to get use out of your highways is to modify the traffic speed on them. The traffic cop program is good for this. I set my highway speeds at near 1,250, and it makes almost all residents take the highway to work.

[z1 566]

I would not recommend this approach, as it has undesirable side effects. Specifically, if almost all residents take the highway, you reduce the traffic past local businesses, which in turn reduces their desirability, customers, an ultimately their jobs.

[asd195 1]

is there any way to make a road or avenue intersectio with a street not slow down cars, when i llok at the automata then i see they slow down at the intersection then speed back up

please pm me

[z1 566]

They're stopping for stoplights or stop signs. In the near future I'll be releasing a configuration program for Simulator Z that will allow you to adjust this effect over a wide range, including turning it off completely. However, this affects all forms of road intersections; there's no way to have streets treated differently. Also, the configuration program will apply to the actual traffic; I'm not sure at this point what effect it will have on the automata.