Monorails - Zero Use

[Samfordia 0]

I have a city that is sliced up into four squares. Two of these are residential and the other two are industrial and commercial.

I have a monorail with a station in each zone with the aim to get residents to their jobs in a short amount of time.

For some reason there has not been a single commuter on the monorail at all and I can't work out why.

All stations are close to several bus stations and are situated right in the heart of each zone. I have thought about putting car parks near them to encourage park and rides but with the fact that there has been zero commuters on them I figured there must be something wrong.

Any ideas as to possible solutions?

I'm sure it would help if I had screenshots but I haven't a clue how to do this so instead of learning how I wondered if the solution would be obvious to the more experienced player.

Thanks.

[armpit43 172]

Yes Post some screenshots!

[Samfordia 0]

I'm not entirely sure how to post screen shots but I'm hoping this first effort will be OK.

My link

[Mickolas9 4]

Based on the picture, I'd build more roads/streets to the actual station than just the one road. If people are going to walk, they're not going to walk far. Also, when I do mass transit like a monorail (which is rare because I think it's a hassle compared to subway/bus), I put multiple stations on the line to entice more people to use it. I don't look at mass transit as a money maker; I look at it as a traffic congestion easer.

[SLagonia 68]

One thing I've learned over the years is that mass transit is definately a reactive industry. You can't really predict whether or not people will need the mass transit that you build, or if they'd consider using it more than their cars. Yet, when you're in a situation where you can clearly identify a need, those sims will always use it. Have you ever considered that maybe they're not using it because there's no need for it? Sims would much rather use their cars and will only use mass transit when they need to.

[Unassigned 23]

Do you have bus stops adjacent to the monorail stations? Try that, and also provide parking at the stations in the residential areas.

Another reason for your issue could be if you're not using the NAM, then Sims will pick the shortest, not the fastest route to work (iirc).

Run the simulation for a couple of game months after changing any of the above to allow the traffic sim to update.

  Edited June 3, 2011 by Unassigned  

[armpit43 172]

Yes, the nam and bus stops are important. But also the monorail stations only serve a small part of your as maybe a rail network with multiple staghound is the ansewer instead. I find in sim city sims don't like circular railways, as they can't deem to understand why they can't get from point a to point c without going via point b.

.check nam

. Build bus stops next to stations and perhaps more stations

. If all else fails tear it down and build normal railways

[zahrul3 472]

Being experienced in this, I tried the monorail and it didn't work like what happened to you. So far, I use sorts of alternative NAM networks, like el rail/GLR on road/avenue. You could retrofit them on top of roads, as well as having an an advantage of saving space. It doesn't come with the stations, so you need T-RAM, and the latest version of RTmt, as well as SFBT Tram-in-street stations.

Also, sims prefer the most direct/technically faster route on the NAM. Since walking is slow, try to reduce the walking distance of sims.

[Samfordia 0]

Thank you very much for your replies.

I shall experiment with all the ideas you have mentioned.