City of Dickson

[jazyje 1]

I'm actually a transportation engineer/planner in the 'real world,' so if I could offer a suggestion, would be to go easy on expressways in general as they tend to separate neighborhoods, increase noise levels and rarely mitigate congestion -- this said, this is a simulation, so I would build BOTH your proposed expressways, - the maroon one I would build as an elevated expressway -- alternatively, you could also extend it southbound -- toward that park -- it could be a tunnel underneath the park etc and would make a complete downtown loop (see Charlotte NC for instance for ideas of how it would look like / function).... The blue expressway -- I would probably connect it to the maroon one at some point + build a bit more east of where you plan it --- perhaps through your farms -- it would require less reorganization and provide another outer expressway loop.... Just my 2 cents... KEEP AT IT!!!

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Actually the farms are going away soon - I am in the process of relocating all of the farming to the opposite side of the lake and then import the rest that I need. I was going to try the "sunken highways" that Delor315 posted about here but the Wetlands map is all at ground level and I cannot go down any lower with the bridges to make it work. It would have worked perfect around downtown!! Oh well - I'll try it some tonight and post the results... if any.

[jazyje 1]

Can't wait to see it....

BTW, I think I'm using the same map for one of my cities -- do you happen to have problems with FUEL???? I overbuilt and can't find any fuel --- buying it is not an option since I overbuilt and am running negative monthly budget (but still over $10 million+ cushion).....

[Jaybyrd05 3]

I'm using the Solo Sandbox from CitiesXS - so the resources are altered and cover the entire map. I also have the Omnicorp prices set slightly in my favor to help with profits since I am placing quite a bit of leisure lots all over town. I think I have 4 fuel depots and then the +40% (might be 45%) bonus building and then buying some from Omnicorp to supplement.

I am more interested in building the city and working on the looks of the city.... not dealing with the budget or planning around resource placement. I deal with financials all day at work - don't want to see more numbers and such when I get home

btw @mentarman - that building you inquired about earlier is the Large Law Firm..... low rise high density commercial building.  It's in a L-shape and has the parking lot in the back.

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Here are a couple quick teaser pics for tonight.... no time to upload everything!

[johannesut 1]

I was really looking forward to this update... So wonderful pictures.... We want more!!

[Damastius 5]

Nicely done man!

[jazyje 1]

So no full update?

[Jaybyrd05 3]

It will be later tonight..... it's really nice outside today and I am in and out of the house a lot. I have a bunch of eye-candy pictures and also some pics of new areas of town.

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Overview of the added suburbs and some pics from around the area - it includes lots of residential areas, shops and offices along the main roads, high tech parks, and a new Conservation Center with research institutes. 

Here are just some shots around the inner-city suburbs of low wealth and the start of a river front mixed use area (thanks to Jazyje for the discussion and ideas!!)

A current overview of the city proper - you can see in the upper right corner all of the main roads that lead to the industrial zone.

[jazyje 1]

WOW -- simply amazing!!!! I'm going to have to look over these new update photos one more time ---- these photos are too good NOT to be true, know what I mean!!!

[Raceman95 4]

can we see traffic overview and may i suggest a highway tunnel that connects the undeveluped south to the road on the other side of town going to the industrial zone ( the intersection)

like this:



Blue: surronding roads
orange:tunnel/highway
pink: if you want a stop close to downtown then bring the tunnel up(requires destroying some buildings ) then
put it back down into the ground to continue

If you can't see pic:

[YannickSHE 0]

Very nice CJ ... excellent realistic work! Do you plant those trees and they've always been there. I never noticed in my own cities. Great great work!

[jazyje 1]

Your first 2 images after you say: 'Here are just some shots around the inner-city suburbs of low wealth...' REALLY remind me of Philadelphia... Incredible!

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Thanks for the compliments

@YannickMtl - if you are referring to those trees and green lawns around a lot of the houses - those are plazas from the Plazas Mod from CitiesXS. They fill in a lot better than the standard one in-game that only has a few trees and shrubs.

@Raceman95 - I'm still working on a route for some highway loops and stems. I actually was never planning on this city being so big and it grew faster than my transportation network did. So now, like in real life, I have to go back to figure out the best route with least impact around town haha.

Next couple days are going to be busy so hopefully afterwards I can do some major updates and such. My next plans are to finish extending the downtown and inner-city suburbs to the river/lake and do some final fill-ins. I'll be ready at that point to start work on other parts of the map (think smaller bedroom communities with their own downtowns). I am also going to work on a limited access highway system around town... somehow....

[jazyje 1]

Geez, looked at your huge city again, this thing is sooooooo huge -- haha, good luck trying to place/fit a network of limited-access expressways without a major uproar from your residents/businesses --- after all, they don't want to be relocated out to the boonies, know what I'm saying?!? LOL

[Raceman95 4]

if you use my idea above then it could be an underground highway and that would be limited to a few highways in a loop

original:

now new loop form:

same key as above but black is newly built roads

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Problem is.... the map is mostly just at ground level - you cannot build tunnels under the ground water level, I've already tried unless I was doing something totally wrong.

[jazyje 1]

You can build elevated expressways though with limited damage to surrounding areas -- I'd go for elevated and maybe a tunnel section right in the CBD --- to make it more realistic as no real city would build a huge tunnel unless no other alternative would be possible -- even Boston's Big Dig was really just less than a mile long and cost was extremely high... Now, I know you don't have to worry about financing the project, but at the same time your aim is to be realistic -- so I'd go easy on tunnels --- your city has - what around 1million residents --- I can't think of any city that size in the world with a huge network of buried expressways... Now, sunk expressways would be great, but again looks like Cities XL has limitations in that regard.... Could you use the terraforming tools to lower the elevation and dig valleys for your sunken expressways?

[Stef42 0]

You're city is just amazing

[jazyje 1]

I'm ready to move in.

[Jaybyrd05 3]

I could possibly lower the terrain but I think I am right at ground level and don't know if I can go any lower. I will have to test it later and see.... Otherwise it's going to be something else like bridge sections or something.

[Jesse Swiss 6]

great job! im making a realistic city like yours right away

[johannesut 1]

JESUS I really wonna move in to this City!!! The realism is simply amazing... compared to Huge simtropolis creators... I vote this city for the most realistic city i have ever seen in these Journals... Once more, GREAT JOB DUDE! Really amazing! Keep it UP!

[jazyje 1]

Shhhhh... keep mixed-use a secret....

[patriotizzy 0]

Awesome. I tried downloading the tree mod from citiesxs but when I use it, it creates hills and ends up ruining my roads. Is it only usable on flat surfaces?

Anyways, I can't wait for further updates. You've got the most awesome city ever.

[Jaybyrd05 3]

Thank you all again for your support and great comments!!

Quick update for the night - I started a raised road around downtown to try and help some traffic. It's just a small avenue for the moment.... like a test to see if I can make this work. Please let me know what you think.... pros and cons or any ideas you may have. I do feel as if it is going to segregate certain areas of town and will require going back in and hand placing some buildings to make it fit in better. I can already tell looking at a few of them that I need to go in around the "mid-town" area and intersperse some more offices with the medium density residential. Anyways... here is what I did really quick tonight. May be closer to the weekend before anything else major is updated due to real life taking precedent for the next few days.

[johannesut 1]

A road is used to get someone from point A to point B, if not fast, fast enough to be satisfied. This is not a regular road its a raised road without any ground connection. Plus the fact, that this raised road leads away from the city. My guess is that this investment will help you very much in future plans to expand your city's borders, but not to reduce traffic in downtown at the present time. PERHAPS you will see some things getting better in traffic, but not much (that's my guess). If you could provide us some more details on the traffic congestion problem around downtown...(?) Perhaps we could help with specific projects.

[Stef42 0]

Very nice, I like it

[Jaybyrd05 3]

@johannesut - actually I guess I should have taken a closer pic. If you look in the overview pic where the road "ends" near the bottom close to downtown, it goes it does connect to a large avenue. That avenue then connects to several main arteries near the major low wealth center of the city, and the majority of the workers for the industry. The point of the road was not to bring more traffic downtown - it's fine there - it's purpose is to give a straight shot out of town and to the industry for certain sides of town with no traffic stops.

I may eventually do the "ring roads" around town, but for now I am trying to get people to their jobs from distant parts of the city and relieve traffic on the local roads. I'll grab a quick, updated traffic overlay tonight and you can see.