Highways, General Planning.

[dimdubble 0]

Hey guys, My City is pretty big.. Just reaching 615k Residents. I would really love to put in a Highway System, However.. I'm not exactly sure on where to put it?. I have a lot of Avenues, and most of my Bridges are Avenue Bridges, with Stree Birgdes next to them to handle the heavy Traffic.. How would I go about Putting in a Highway System? Here's a Pic to show my Layout.

(These 2 Pictures are the same city, I had to get 2 since the City is so huge. >_<!

[Jack³ 291]

You should probably make them on the avenues with the most traffic. Probably going to the center of the city or the downtown. But highways are expensive and if your city does not need them yet, then you should wait until it does. But with a city that big you probably will need highways.

So you should make them going towards the center of the city... I hope this helped!!

[Jazzmaster 716]

Hey, welcome to Simtropolis.

I have a feeling you might find what you're looking for if you post questions here [link].

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

It's rather hard to say how to start your highway system, as you do have some important space limitations. As a start, I'd say the avenue bridge leading to the airport should be a highway, and rearrange the avenue in front of the airport so that the intersection becomes a T-interchange, to then send two highway stubs to the island CBD. Change as well the north-south bridge connecting the island CBD with the southwest corner of the map. If you're OK wiht some sizable demolition, continue the airport highway, as an elevated way, all the way to the border. Demolish as needed (you won't have any budget limitations) and change all avenue-avenue intersections to 4-way intersections (cloverleaf if only using the game content, stack interchange from the NAM would be better if available). As for how to connect the roads and streets, you will have to run one-ways parallel to the highways on the built-up areas, leaving a 1-tile space between the one-way and the roads. You'll then have to add off-ramps that connect the highway with the one-ways. Have all streets and roads intersect the one-ways and go below the elevated highway.

[Tysons4 68]

Upgrade your busy avenues to highways. Another thing to do would be implement a subway system, or some other form of mass transit, at the start and end of common routes; use the route query tool. Use parking garages close to home for mass transit, unless you are using passenger train.

[Samness 104]

Also, just a tip for future cities: If you're planning to build a large city, construct the highway first, and then the city around it.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Or reserve the space for the highway. A third option would be to build the highway network on par with the city (this has been my style more recently).

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Also, just a tip for future cities: If you're planning to build a large city, construct the highway first, and then the city around it.

Yes, I agree. I find it easier when you do that. Welcome to ST!

[poshbakerloo 186]

Change the Avenue bridges to highways, and also make some inner city highways where the avenues are, where the buildings are not facing on to them (if they do face onto them, then they will loose their road connection). Its best not to have too many urban highways as they do cut your city up a lot...

[dimdubble 0]

Thanks for the welcome guys!!!... I think I may Re-Zone a bit too, The Central Island is pretty much my Downtown. So I think I might go to the Residential Island, and Re-Zone the Middle Commercial, and put Highways throughout.!

[FreewayofFlight 41]

You should also consider connecting your avenues, I noticed your aves are here and there. You could build your freeways with c/d one ways (collector-distributer) in your denser areas. Toll your bridges heading into your downtown area and develop a bus/subway network. You'll make fast cash with tolls and lighten the road load!

[dimdubble 0]

I Re-Did my Bridges, and put them from Ave Bridges to Highway Bridges.. I also connected a subway system to my Downtown Island, That made the commute go wayyy down. Not too sure If I need a full Highway system just yet. Lo, THis might be a bit off-topic.. But can someone help me find a Hospital that can carry a LOT of people? Like, 8k or 10k People? It's to the point where I have to put a Hospital on every single block >_<!

  Edited March 21, 2011 by dimdubble  

[Tysons4 68]

use clinics and hospitals together. Clinics take a lot (a lot) of the burden off hospitals that are over used. My build pattern usually goes clinic, clinic, clinic, hospital >repeat.

your average age will be higher, your health quotient will soar, and you'll have plenty of space to plop parks or other civics.

  Edited March 21, 2011 by Tysons4  

[cammo2003 20]

As far as the hospitals, there's a few on the STEX. Ill Tonkso's St. Addieline's Hospital I believe has quite a high capacity (not 100% sure on that; I may have modded it for personal use). There are a few other high capacity hospitals by other folks as well, but can't remember their names, but you should find a few by searching 'hospital' on the STEX.

I noticed you have large treed areas near the edges of the area; these could be used for your highways:

. The one going across would require some demolition, but this is actually fairly commonplace in real-world cities, and it wouldn't be too much, especially given I read you were going to rezone some of that area anyway.

I've also given a few other ideas here as food for thought; I'd relegate that island to industrial uses and move the commercial that's there onto the main area (in cyan above). The avenues in yellow should have regular bus and subway stops along their length; the orange lines are just to give an idea what you could do with one-way roads through the inner areas. Keep the airport where it is; being oriented away from the main area in the above image, you shouldn't have too many troubles. Do you have a region shot? It'd be helpful in providing further advice.

The round things are highway-highway junctions, I missed a few, sorry about that.

Just some food for thought.

  Edited March 21, 2011 by cammo2003  

[dimdubble 0]

As far as the hospitals, there's a few on the STEX. Ill Tonkso's St. Addieline's Hospital I believe has quite a high capacity (not 100% sure on that; I may have modded it for personal use). There are a few other high capacity hospitals by other folks as well, but can't remember their names, but you should find a few by searching 'hospital' on the STEX.

As far as the freeways/highways plan, the positioning of everything is a little bit off in this image, so you'll have to forgive that, but something like this could work when it becomes needed (you should get the general idea):

(the round things are highway-highway junctions, I missed a few, sorry about that). I noticed you have large treed areas near the edges of the area; these could be used for your highways. The one going across would require some demolition, but this is actually fairly commonplace in real-world cities.

I've also given a few other ideas here as food for thought; I'd relegate that island to industrial uses and move the commercial that's there onto the main area (in cyan above). The avenues in yellow should have regular bus and subway stops along their length; the orange lines are just to give an idea what you could do with one-way roads through the inner areas. Keep the airport where it is; being oriented away from the main area in the above image, you shouldn't have too many troubles. Do you have a region shot? It'd be helpful in providing further advice.

Just some food for thought.

Thanks for the pic!! Much appreciated. Here is a Cut-Pic from my Region View.. Labeled with RCI for your convenience

  Edited March 21, 2011 by dimdubble  

[dimdubble 0]

any other suggestions? ;3