A mass transit option for solo game players

[billmallon 0]

Now that busses are available in solo game mode (thank you, Monte Cristo), is there a tutorial, handbook, manual or download available that explains how to use this option. I would appreciate any advice, suggestions or help that the community is willing to offer.

[mentarman 14]

There is this article on their web site, maybe it will help?

http://www2.citiesxl.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&cid=40%3Asupport&id=303%3Athe-bus-system&Itemid=76〈=en

[billmallon 0]

Thank you for this information. It is exactly what I was looking to find. Very helpful. Thank you.

[mentarman 14]

No problem, I remembered they posted that when the buses came out for PO, glad to see it is still there and wasn't lost in the site update, but they should probably have made it easier to find since there is now a new wave of people able to use buses for the first time.

[kiwispanker 1]

does cxl buses allow for transferring - like if you have two lines at a cross, can the citizens easily change bus lines or does the simulation take into account walking and waiting times?

[slickster79 0]

Originally posted by: kiwispanker

does cxl buses allow for transferring - like if you have two lines at a cross, can the citizens easily change bus lines or does the simulation take into account walking and waiting times?quote>

Yes citizens will transfer between bus lines if bus stops are close to each other and the transfer to another bus line will not take them too far off their route. Remember that unskilled citizens will walk and travel on the bus further than $$ or $$$ citizens will.

It takes a little experimenting but you can get some huge boosts in traffic by building an effective bus line.

[billmallon 0]

on the subject of efficient bus lines....i have attempted my first bus line to serve the perimeter of a low density 'unskilled' workers residential area and through the neighborhood of a medium density 'skilled' workers area to serve a nearby industrial development. the entire line is about 7 km. and uses typical urban style busses (medium by CITIES XL definition). stops are roughly 2 'blocks' apart. the route is costly to maintain and ridership seems to be unappealing. any thoughts on ways to improve service and operate more efficiently would be appreciated.

[slickster79 0]

Originally posted by: billmallon

on the subject of efficient bus lines....i have attempted my first bus line to serve the perimeter of a low density 'unskilled' workers residential area and through the neighborhood of a medium density 'skilled' workers area to serve a nearby industrial development. the entire line is about 7 km. and uses typical urban style busses (medium by CITIES XL definition). stops are roughly 2 'blocks' apart. the route is costly to maintain and ridership seems to be unappealing. any thoughts on ways to improve service and operate more efficiently would be appreciated.quote>

Does your bus line run in a loop? or does it have a return route along the same path as the outbound route?

[billmallon 0]

the route is mainly a loop....only the closer it gets to the terminus, it runs briefly on the same road from which it departed. i switched to the 'mini-bus' and that made a significant change both in the operational cost and the average occupancy.with some of the  costs saved, the streets department 'upgraded' some of the major  roads on which the route travels. don't know if that will speed-up trip times or just add more automobile congestion. maybe the citizens just need some time to adjust their lifestyles.....i also want to experiment with running the smaller size busses 'through' the small roads of the residential areas rather than 'around the perimeter 'of the neighborhood  to encourage use of the bus. i would greatly appreciate any advice from more experienced players.

[slickster79 0]

Loops generally don't work as well as straight lines. For example how are your citizens going to get home quickly if they have to go all the way around your bus route. The most effective routes are those that return over the same path as the outbound journey with bus stops on both side of the road in the same location. You should be able to double-click at the end of your line and it will automatically calculate the return route - this can be a bit fiddly at times but does work.

[mentarman 14]

Hmmmm thanks for the info, I too did some loops so will try out some straight lines. If you do the double click thing, will it put bus stops on the other side of the road of where you put them going out?

[slickster79 0]

Its supposed to yes. Like I say it can be a bit tricky to get it to auto trace back the route - sometimes doing the first few stops manually does the trick.

[kiwispanker 1]

mentarman: bus stops on both sides of the street will only be plopped automatically if you make a line route. to make the line route, you can't just double-click wherever, but after you've made a small loop near the end of the bus line's route; once the small loop in reconnected to the main line, then cxl will prompt you to double-click and auto-complete the straight-line route.

also, special note: if on any part of your line you went down a one-way street, the game cannot autocomplete back to the depot. you'll have to retrace along the same bus stops you've already created and create stops there.

i did experiment with a simple city with unskilled up north, factories back east, and some second bus depot in the middle. i had one bus line (from the first depot) going only south. i then had a second bus line (from another depot (out west) going east (and back). the people in the north, wanting to get to work in the east, were forced to transfer in the middle. the experiment did work for 3km, 6km, and 10+km bus routes. it just took some time for the unskilled workers (and even the skilled ones) to stop using their cars and take the bus (and transfer).

[billmallon 0]

kiwispanker: your 'experiment' to test the concept of citizens transferring between bus lines was an interesting read on how you resolved that question (# 1689844 on 2-26-10). do you create (and  then delete) cities to test your ideas or do you apply them in a 'functional' city ? As a new 'mayor' to game play, I have difficulty maintaining a 'budget' (providing the costly 'services' that the citizens need) and often become frustrated if I 'build' these but end up deleting them because I can't 'maintain' them. I am also trying to understand if there is any value to adding a bus line to a 'congested' street (as identified by 'color codes'....using the economy/traffic filter) if traffic is 'flowing freely' (as indicated by hovering the cursor over the color dot on the information 'panel') of a particular 'length' of a roadway. Any thoughts or suggestions ? Thanks also to slickster 79 for the comments and advice contributed to the original post on this topic....very helpful.

[jazyje 1]

I do a lot of transit planning in 'real life' and can attest to the fact that bi-directional (inbound/outbound using the same exact route) bus routes usually work better (and are preferred by transit agencies) than loops --- but gaming is (or could be) probably much different.... Satellite transfer points are always a plus as well.

[patriotizzy 0]

I'm coming back to Cities XL after a few months away, so this thread is really helpful. Thanks guys.

[toprock 0]

Something coming up regarding trams, check at cities xs for deets

http://www.citiesxs.net/forum/index.php/topic,1376.0.html