Dealing with a traffic challenge

[Ramona Brie 121]

(sorry if the 929x511 image is a little wide)

I am dealing with a traffic challenge in this suburban city. The Sanriku Springs area is now the subject of a traffic survey.

Here's the problem: suburban commuters need to go south. They really should be using Knoxville Avenue, a TLA-5 that continues north as an RHW-4 out of town, but they've chosen Chapel Flat, and I've responded by upgrading Chapel Flat's speed limit. Sanriku Springs is a limited access road fronted by Minami and Valley View. Valley View is the drainage route for the homes in the top left (and beyond). The green numbers everywhere are traffic counts.

I need to make this not so awkward and congested. Seriously.

I want to do the following: reduce traffic on Chapel Flat, push traffic to Knoxville, and fix the issues I'm having with congestion on Valley View from 16th to Chapel Flat. Minami Lane is very quiet (19 cars right before the intersection, then it has none farther west). Compare with the intersection of Chapel Flat and Sanriku Springs.

Got any advice?

[Superbacon 380]

Commuters will automatically chose the nearest roads to where they are to get to where they need to go, completely regardless of road capacity. So what I recommend you do is cut off the southern connections. That should force the commuters to take Sanriku Springs and onto Knoxville. Or if you don't want to do that, another option is to redesign the layout of the neighborhood and turn Chapel Flat into a main road like Knoxville.

[zakuten 8]

I believe some of the simulator fixes will weight congestion at a higher or lower degree, but that's not my area of expertise. I think that purposefully congesting Chapel Flats by reducing it to a road may help; you'd just have to wait for them to get sick of it. In my experience, crash animations come far before the gridlock, so...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Since you are using the NWM anyway, think about setting up some OWR circuits to make the traffic go where you want.

[Travismking 5]

maybe try adding a tollbooth on Chapel Flat Dr, will add commute time, maybe just enough to convince people to drive the extra few tiles to knoxville ave

[z1 566]

Commuters will automatically chose the nearest roads to where they are to get to where they need to go, completely regardless of road capacity.

This is not correct; since the NWM is being used, we can assume that the current NAM traffic simulator is also being used. Therefore, commuters will always choose the fastest route. As roads become congested, or even just more heavily traveled, the speed of all vehicles on them drops. Traffic travels exactly at the speed limit only when the road is exactly at 100% of its nominal capacity.

I've responded by upgrading Chapel Flat's speed limit.

I assume you've done this by upgrading Chapel Flat from a street to a road. If your goal is to reduce traffic on Chapel Flat, as you said, the upgrading will be counterproductive, as it will make Chapel Flat a more attractive route for the Sims.

Personally, I like A Nonny Moose's solution of using one-way roads; they're very effective at making traffic go where you want.

[Jazzmaster 716]

The first thing I'm thinking is that they are taking Chapel Flat drive because it's closer to where they are than Knoxville Ave..

I'd try the toll booth, or the one way road traffic directing suggestions previously stated above.

[eggman111 8]

First off, I really like the use of NWM! Are you planning to put some shops along the TLA?

Since TLA uses the same base network as the roads, the speed limits are identical. That means that it's going to be quicker for the Sims to drive on the road than to go all the way out to the TLA.

If you don't want Sims to use Chapel Flat Dr, then downgrade it to a street. The lowered speed limit will make it more attractive for Sims to go to the higher-speed TLA.

Other traffic-calming measures could work. If you put a couple curves in Chapel Flat Dr or simply cut it off, the Sims won't have much choice.

Using OWR-1 would look a lot better than the standard OWR, should you choose to use that option.

A picture south of what you've shown might also help.

[Ramona Brie 121]

First off, I really like the use of NWM! Are you planning to put some shops along the TLA?

Yes. I plan to extend the commercial strip up Knoxville. I have a really nice one at the southern edge of the city on Castle Avenue. I've used most every NWM network by now – I have MAVE-6 in one city, MAVE-4 for the main street in another, TLA-3, one stretch of ARD-3, OWR-4 in one city, as well as a little OWR-3. This city also has some unique OWR-1 loop roads.

@Travis: Can't do that, not with homes lining the entirety of Chapel Flat.

I thought the best solution here is to downgrade Chapel Flat and cut off the southern connection. If there's still significant traffic (>450 cars) on Chapel Flat, it'll stay as is without the connection to Sanriku Springs. Because of the way I've done this, that northern section of Chapel Flat will be renamed "9th Avenue NW". (IRL I'd put a sign on Sanriku Springs: "NO ACCESS TO CHAPEL FLAT" – or cut access to Chapel Flat in the direction of commuting.)

My issue with use of Chapel Flat is that it's a residential street. Realistically I think most commuters would use Knoxville, but this is SC4.

One other concern: I don't like the congestion on Valley View between 16th and 9th/Chapel Flat.

Austin, the city I've shown here, is actually a really nice city. I originally wanted to do something in layout kinda like Show Low, Arizona, but Austin has since taken on its own character. Lots of suburban sprawl, but very neatly organized with gridlike streets and very few bends. A quality park system. And a lot more.

OK. SC4 crashed, but it was intact, so here's the before/after:

On Chapel Flat: B 733 / A 43 (Chapel Flat returned to being a neighborhood street)

On Valley View: B 554 / A 356 (and they're using Knoxville)

Springs W of 9: B 736 / A 653 (fickle commute)

Springs E of 9: B 618 / A 1293 (a more than doubling, which clearly absorbs most all of the commute traffic that went on Chapel Flat)

The people buying all the new commercial zoning on Knoxville Avenue will be really happy. Knoxville gets about 1400 cars a day now, making it properly used. (It'll be mostly big box stuff though.)

I have a Maxis block mod, but the Coit Tower is a popular boutique in the city. I want it to stop!

  Edited March 16, 2011 by Tracker  

[Gringamuyloca 47]

but the Coit Tower is a popular boutique in the city. I want it to stop!

RippleJet created a Coit Tower blocker... it can be found if you scroll down to the bottom of reply 970 in this thread here

have fun... don't forget to back up!....