Traffic Noise

[Bouben 0]

The question is simple. How to deal with the traffic noise - how to eliminate it? How to build new zones in order to get them as quiet as possiblee? Is there any rule that can be successfully used to deal with this problem - for example distance?

Please, share as much info as possible.

Thank you very much.

[TFM1874 4]

Highway walls certainly help, get them on the STEX. Obviously distance will play a factor, keep experimenting and you'll suss it......hopefully!

[Jasoncw 11,839]

Traffic Noise and Customers are the same thing, they're both basically the volume of traffic. To reduce traffic noise, reduce the traffic infront of the zones. Traffic noise can really affect how things grow, but I've built cities where decent sized buildings still grew. If you can't get rid of the traffic, and residential isn't developing to your satisfaction, convert that street into commercial and they'll like it.

[Cob92 360]

Traffic noise = traffic volume. It is directly proportional to the number of cars traveling on the road, and the only way to reduce it is to reduce the traffic on that road. Generally, the best way to keep neighborhoods quiet long term is to have a suburban-esque system of small streets joining large arterial roads. It keeps traffic noise levels down in the neighborhoods, but of course forces Sims to rely more on car travel than with a denser layout.

[airman15 4,111]

Try building Mass transit. Mass transit like Bas Stations, Subway Networks, and Rail Networks. Mass transit will cut back on traffic volume on road networks and it will also reduce congestion. There also a few ordinances that will work because Less Vehicles=Less Traffic Noise.

[z1 566]

Traffic noise = traffic volume. It is directly proportional to the number of cars traveling on the road...

More specifically, traffic noise is proportional to the total number of cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians traveling on road networks, excluding highways.

Traffic noise is much more of a positive for businesses than it is a negative for residences. I've done many experiments with traffic noise and residences, and even for R$$ residences where the noise is "High", there is rarely any effect at all. I have found that in practice, it's not something you need to worry about. This is especially true if other desirability factors around the residences in question area good; I've never seen traffic noise have any effect in those cases. On the other hand, getting enough traffic around your businesses is very important.

  Edited April 7, 2011 by z1  

[Bouben 0]

Guys, thank you very much for your answers.

So, does anyone know how far (in grid squares) is enough to eliminate effect on a single residential house? 3 - 4 squares? Can it be said like that?

[z1 566]

Here's the definitive answer, courtesy of Trias over at SC4D:

I've done some more testing on the range at which traffic noise is calculated. It appears that the map is divided in a 4 by 4 grid for the purpose of calculation traffic noise. The traffic noise in one such block is determined by listening to the traffic up to half a block away. That is, if you consider the picture below:

The blue block will listen for traffic in any of the red or blue squares. From these it will supposedly the pick the tile with the highest morning traffic and the tile with the highest evening traffic and add those. (And probably multiply those by the customer/traffic noise coefficient, more on that later.)

Thus far most my test has been done by using small zones. For 1x1 zones, the zone will get the traffic for the block in which it is located. For larger zones that have tiles in multiple blocks, the traffic appear to be taken as the traffic get for the middle tile of the zone. In the case of even number of tile in the zone, the tile to the south of the middle is taken

So, as you can tell from the picture, a distance of four tiles from the center of a building is sufficient to eliminate the effects of traffic noise. Later experiments showed that as this model implies, buildings 8x8 or larger never hear any traffic noise, since the distance is measured to the center of the building.

  Edited April 7, 2011 by z1  

[Bouben 0]

Amazing.

Thanks a lot.

Community around this game is simply excellent.

Cheers, guys.

[airman15 4,111]

Amazing.

Thanks a lot.

Community around this game is simply excellent.

Cheers, guys.

Feel free to ask questions anytime. This community really helped me get a start on making my own mods.

[EyeofMobius 27]

I have found that residents are not particularly bothered when I run a road beside the house but are annoyed when it is in front of the house. I suspect from the diagram above this is just a method of reducing the volume but I have met with success in keeping my residents happy.

When I am however zoning major high wealth residential towers I will create a private driveway for the buildings and build parks around the outside sometimes 2 tiles deep from an avenue. and this helps me with the noise and property values at the same time. Also this enables me to mix residential towers in core business districts. Reducing cars elsewhere but maintaining the traffic of the core that the commerce likes.

[Bouben 0]

I have found that residents are not particularly bothered when I run a road beside the house but are annoyed when it is in front of the house. I suspect from the diagram above this is just a method of reducing the volume but I have met with success in keeping my residents happy.

When I am however zoning major high wealth residential towers I will create a private driveway for the buildings and build parks around the outside sometimes 2 tiles deep from an avenue. and this helps me with the noise and property values at the same time. Also this enables me to mix residential towers in core business districts. Reducing cars elsewhere but maintaining the traffic of the core that the commerce likes.

Could you show us some of these in your cities for inspiration?

[EyeofMobius 27]

I do not currently have any metro areas or even high density BATs currently so I whipped this up in a sandbox as a demo.

For Mods I use the NAM with the SAM and TuLePs visible here. I built assuming I wanted 4x4 footprinted towers but when the shapes are not all the same to make perfect grid then I really enjoy making the parks in between the buildings. The Park pieces you can see in this photo are all from the BSC Trails and Parks system. It can be very useful to use the Ped malls from the NAM as well as some of the transit options that work with the ped malls. The NAM Flexible underpasses somtimes work very well for ducking under the avenues. If you are working towards functionality. I used the SAM Streets to make the private driveways off of the avenues.

  Edited April 9, 2011 by EyeofMobius