Questions about the game mid way through

[blueturnaround 0]

So I've been playing for a few months now, have a nice sized region, and have a few questions.

Whats the point of bus stations? I know they travel a bit faster....but they don't reduce traffic congestion.

Highways seems pointless (I don't have the Real HW Mod but use NAM). They encourage car use and the on-ramps always have high congestion. Why not use that land space for rails of various sorts?

Rails seem to be the best, walk to rail, walk to work. It seems like the best way to get car traffic off the roads and reduce congestion.

When using the rail to subway building, all the rail passengers turn into subway passengers. I have a problem at times because there may be 15000 rail passengers...which overloads my subway system. Any suggestions?

Why use elevated rail over regular rail? I know its a bit faster....but the sims seem to prefer regular rail over elevated rail.

I've learned how to get high tech industry in the city, but in that "utopia" city of the region.....there's a very high demand for low wealth residents. I come to a point where all my RCI demands are negative except for low wealth residents & low wealth commercial. How do I get low wealth residents to move into the "utopia" city? I zone, but they don't move in. And if they do, then they want dirty industry, etc.... I built an entire city of dirty industry + low wealth residents next to the utopia city and made the only access as rail....it kind of worked, but not really. Plenty of people in the slums. How do I get past this point of flat RCI across the board in my "utopia" city (taxes high on dirty & manufacturing industry). It seems there aren't enough poor people to take the menial jobs....If I build slums in the "utopia" city, then air pollution is a problem...even though it's isolated in one corner surrounded by forest.

One low wealth high rise (like the "Brown hi-rise" congests an entire avenue unless I put a rail station right next to it. Then half the people take rail, half drive. But a few high rises next to one another, and no amount of public transportation can seem to handle the traffic unless every other building is a public transportation building....that weird. Is this normal?

[eggman111 8]

Without the NAM, buses don't add to traffic congestion. With the NAM, their use isn't as immediately obvious, but it's still there. The biggest point is that buses will let Sims get to your other rapid-transit options without park-and-rides everywhere. Also, to a lesser extent, they reduce congestion on neighbourhood roads if people walk to their bus stops.

Highways can be useful or not depending on your style. The RHW ramps don't tend to get congested, so maybe you should give it a try. Highway speeds are also much higher than roads, so Sims will drive further along one.

You're absolutely right - commuter rail is great. The trick is setting up your city that way in the first place. Personally, I like a more "realistic" (read, North American) style so I don't make rail everywhere.

I'd suggest looking on the STEX and LEX for better station options. The default ones just don't have the right capacity for huge cities.

I believe that elevated rail is faster than regular rail, so that's one thing going for it. It also transitions easily into Subway with the connector piece. The main advantage is that elevated rail doesn't add to road network congestion in busy areas, whereas railroad crossings everywhere will.

I like to make my tax rates for low-wealth very low, and ramp it up with wealth levels. Something like 7/9/13 keeps high-wealth at a minimum. Still, the game likes to go for high-wealth. Probably the best way to keep people poor is to keep them dumb. If you take away education from certain areas, they will be more likely to stay slums, without causing pollution.

If you're having a problem with traffic capacities, you can try the different simulator options that come with the NAM Traffic Configuration Tool. I find "Medium" to be enough for most of what I do, but you may even want to go higher depending on your style. The default capacities just don't cut it for mega-cities.

[z1 566]

I believe that elevated rail is faster than regular rail, so that's one thing going for it.

It's actually not. In the vanilla Maxis traffic simulator, they're both the same, at 150 kph. In the NAM traffic simulator, el rail travels at 105 kph, while commuter rail travels at 140 kph.

The main advantage is that elevated rail doesn't add to road network congestion in busy areas, whereas railroad crossings everywhere will.

I've never seen such added congestion; I'm fairly sure it doesn't occur with rail crossing road.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you have the NAM you also have the option of building rail over road or road over rail bridges/overpasses, and I think you can do some underpasses as well. I've never really needed them so far.

[blueturnaround 0]

Ok, that all makes sense. SO:

Highways are useless. Rails are king. Buses are good if you only have access into a "area" via non-road access....then it forces sims to use mass transit to get to their job, then a bus to go a bit further if the "area" too large just for pedestrian traffic.

As for low wealth residents....I do keep them in areas without services....however, mid / high wealth still move into those areas. I check the desirability and the presence of civics is the difference between bright green desirability and dark green desirability....not a big difference.

I'm actually having more of a problem with this balancing act. The one between low & high wealth residents and then being able to provide jobs for them.

Do "industry only" cities work? I've built a few and they don't seem to reduce the RCI demand meter for low wealth residents. There's a ton of jobs for the low wealth residents, but the game still wants more of them!

[z1 566]

Highways are useless.

Highways are not at all useless in the NAM. They're faster than any of the rails except monorail/high speed rail, and Sims actually use them. People wouldn't be spending so much time and energy on the RHW project unless those highways got used a lot.

  Edited July 4, 2011 by z1  

[blueturnaround 0]

Highways are useless.

Highways are not at all useless in the NAM. They're faster than any of the rails except monorail/high speed rail, and Sims actually use them. People wouldn't be spending so much time and energy on the RHW project unless those highways got used a lot.

Well yes, but from my perspective....why use highways when a rail isn't much slower...or use HSR. Highways add congestion problems much more than rails. Why give yourself a problem when it can easily be avoided?

[Cob92 360]

Highways are useless.

Highways are not at all useless in the NAM. They're faster than any of the rails except monorail/high speed rail, and Sims actually use them. People wouldn't be spending so much time and energy on the RHW project unless those highways got used a lot.

Well yes, but from my perspective....why use highways when a rail isn't much slower...or use HSR. Highways add congestion problems much more than rails. Why give yourself a problem when it can easily be avoided?

Some people don't want to build rail. I usually have a grand total of one rail line in my cities, and it's only for freight.

[eggman111 8]

I believe that elevated rail is faster than regular rail, so that's one thing going for it.

It's actually not. In the vanilla Maxis traffic simulator, they're both the same, at 150 kph. In the NAM traffic simulator, el rail travels at 105 kph, while commuter rail travels at 140 kph.

The main advantage is that elevated rail doesn't add to road network congestion in busy areas, whereas railroad crossings everywhere will.

I've never seen such added congestion; I'm fairly sure it doesn't occur with rail crossing road.

Thanks, Z. I stand corrected. Was going off of memory there.

I was sure that I saw added congestion at railroad crossings... but that was a long time ago so that could easily be wrong.

EDIT:

To reply to blueturnaround:

Don't insult those highways! They're the best for long distances, for sure. Again, the RHW is where it's at for making high-capacity highways. If it's not your style and you want to make a highway-free zone, then that's up to you - but they certainly have their uses.

Industry-only cities do work, but it is tricky as you have to keep switching between cities and letting it run to get it to balance out.

A good way to boost demand for R$ is through agriculture. The new SPAM at http://www.simpeg.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=614 is a great mod that turns agriculture into a viable option at any stage of city growth. It would look weird to have it right next to skyscrapers, but you could try having a farm city a tile or two away from your main city. From what I understand, demand is region-wide, so it will still work if it's in another city. This is where highways would come in handy - commuter rail works to some extent but it's tough to walk/bus from a train station to a job on the farm.

I'm not sure how your region is set up or even if that's your style, but there are some ideas for you to think about.

  Edited July 5, 2011 by eggman111  

[EyeofMobius 27]

I personally find I have outgrown the maxis highways but I can still see them as being useful in Core areas for making bypasses away from busy avenues.

I use the RHW quite a lot right from the beginning stages of development since it makes excellent regional connections while being very affordable to maintain. Once the regions get more developed I can easily upgrade from RHW-2 to the size of my choosing. I only need to do major work when I am upgrading interchanges.

Rail is its own animal entirely and really isn't a straight replacement for highways. Rail is expensive and has more limitations in how it interacts with the terrain. Prepare to spend lots of money on tunnels, bridges and viaducts if you have hilly terrain and especially if you use a slope mod.