Congestion vs. Volume

[tipexcom2 2]

Can someone explain the difference between the two?

For example with the latest NAM I have all of my subway under 100% volume but some areas are bright red under congestion....

[z1 566]

Volume is pretty intuitive - it's just the total number of Sims traveling on a network. Congestion is essentially the amount that this volume exceeds the capacity of the network.

If you have multiple networks (e.g., a subway under a road), the congestion displayed in the Traffic Congestion Data View is the congestion of the most congested network.

Notice that the colors in the Traffic Volume Data View do not necessarily correspond to congestion. There are two reasons for this. First, the Traffic Volume Data View shows only one of the two commute periods, and therefore the color scheme is based on half the network capacity. But traffic volume may be asymmetrical across these two commute periods, in which case congestion may be very different from what is implied by the colors here.

Second, the maximum volume displayed on any network is 65,535 (0xFFFF), although actual traffic volume can be higher. So that the full range of colors can be used, the color display for the Ultra version of the traffic simulator is compressed, so that the maximum volume shows up as bright red. But this doesn't imply congestion; you need to use the congestion view to determine that. A warning to this effect is included in the Readme file for the NAM Data Views.

I hope this answers your question; it wasn't clear from the wording which (if either) of these cases applied.

Finally, sometimes the Traffic Congestion Data View is just plain broken in places, but this is rather rare.

[tkuelker 2]

The more volume the more congestion. When there is more things don't flow quickly and smoothly.

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: tkuelker@gmail.com

The more volume the more congestion.quote>

Only to a certain point.  Due to the way the game is built, congestion no longer increases once traffic speed has fallen to 30% of the nominal network speed.  This means that, in effect, the real capacity of all networks is actually infinite.

[cheeseman 3]

also, with the new NAM, intersections and the two tiles before intersections become more congested than normal networks

[tipexcom2 2]

Originally posted by: cheeseman

also, with the new NAM, intersections and the two tiles before intersections become more congested than normal networksquote>

Why is this?

[Jezus53 18]

It allows the game to be more realistic. When you come to an intersection and the light is red you have to stop, and so does everyone going in the same direction. In SimCity, you can't tell the game to replicate that. The game just makes paths, it doesn't really draw out each path from each places to it's destination each time. This means the game really doesn't take intersections into account. The only way to replicate that is to decrease capacity. It's kinda complicated. Hopefully someone can refine what I said.

EDIT: I found this at sc4devotion

"Improved intersection effects.  Despite the appearance of stoplights at intersections, Sims don't actually stop; they don't even slow down unless congestion is present around the intersection.  the NAM Simulator provides much more congestion around heavily-traveled intersections, thereby doing a better job of simulating stop lights and stop signs."

link: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=6812.0