Advice please - 21k Sims city not growing

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Hi everyone, have some issues on a small city that I hope someone some advice on.

I built this city on the smallest section of the region (pics are below). There are no major road congestion, crime, education or health issues that I can see but the city population is stuck at 21k Sims. The city is about 65 years old so the city is indeed very much stagnant.

Question 1: Could someone please help me understand why the city is not growing and what I can do encourage growth.

Zoning info:

-All the zones are of the high density type.

-Industries are on the sides and have been separated with access only through highway and light rail.

Question 2: I have a neighbouring city from/to which a lot of traffic flows (through the highway). Though I have noticed that a few of my bus stops have far exceeded capacity (300% + ). These particular bus stops are near the the Side pass Onramps (pic below - with two bus stops circled in blue). How can I solve this over usage issue?

Question 3: The highway ramp has become congested recently. How can I fix this?

This is the first time I have used buses, highways and light rail so any additional advice is welcome.

My previous cities (some greater than 100k population) were completely congested. So I was surprised that my first city without any *apparent* problems is stagnant.

Thanks in advance for your help & comments.

Regards.

  Edited March 29, 2012 by Harmless Carrot  

[jacksunny 741]

1. What has most likely happened here is that you have hit a R-$$$ Demand Cap. The demand cap is basically the highest amount of that density type that can grow in a city. Once you hit the demand cap, no more will be built. To relieve it, build parks.

You also mentioned you only zoned high wealth. This is not good. You have to start with low wealth residential and gradually build up, it is also a good idea to keep a little bit of each. Eventually, your city's citizens will come of old age and you will have to attract younger Sims. Low wealth residential will do this. By zoning only high wealth, you are preventing this from happening and your city will eventually "die."

2. You could build more bus stops. You could also build some type of mass transit line. Do you have the NAM?

3. You could try making a bypass so Sims don't have to use it. For example, lead a road away from that area to a different interchange.

[Moskva 75]

Hi everyone, have some issues on a small city that I hope someone some advice on.

I built this city on the smallest section of the region (pics are below). There are no major road congestion, crime, education or health issues that I can see but the city population is stuck at 21k Sims. The city is about 65 years old so the city is indeed very much stagnant.

Question 1: Could someone please help me understand why the city is not growing and what I can do encourage growth.

Zoning info:

-All the zones are of the high density type.

-Industries are on the sides and have been separated with access only through highway and light rail.

Question 2: I have a neighbouring city from/to which a lot of traffic flows (through the highway). Though I have noticed that a few of my bus stops have far exceeded capacity (300% + ). These particular bus stops are near the the Side pass Onramps (pic below - with two bus stops circled in blue). How can I solve this over usage issue?

Question 3: The highway ramp has become congested recently. How can I fix this?

This is the first time I have used buses, highways and light rail so any additional advice is welcome.

My previous cities (some greater than 100k population) were completely congested. So I was surprised that my first city without any *apparent* problems is stagnant.

Thanks in advance for your help & comments.

Regards.

1) As far as i can see, your city is good, already pretty dense. How's the RCI? I've seen no parks, add some, not just empty terrain with trees, often that's less appreciated compared a nice park. What's regional population? If it's too small it could take more time to build, i think. Perhaps you don't have enough jobs? You can always trying to drop 3x3 tiles high residential zones holding ctrl. Also it is important to check you have enough electricity and water to support growth, and check if your education/health department is a bit overfunded, that's good to do if you expect growth. Also making some ordinances can boost RCI.

2) Uh i hate side ramps, are way less efficient compared others. This overusage issue is perhaps cause by the fact you don't have enough jobs in you city and many go the other bordering city. Just expand in your region, make the other 3 cities on the border, with more jobs if you want the central city, Small Hub, to get bigger. So traffic problems would lower, with sims going in different cities to work.

3) To fix a congested highway ramp, or you do some nice "T" intersections, or you go straight with an avenue an do a cloverleaf or avenue ramps, there are various solutions.

A 100k city in one small tile is impressive and way too congested-like, don't be surprised by traffic jams, you kinda asked for them . I'd try playing on medium and larger tile cities, that's way funnier in my opinion.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

JS is right. In addition, you probably have some Sims retiring (soon). Check your population by age graph. See if it is skewed to the right, and if so, you have to attract more new Sims, who will be R$ and need places to live. $$$ zoning should produce R$ high rises, but if you don't have any, you'll have to work on that.

Your population has to be balanced. You only need about 15% R$$$, and remember that in a hierarchy like this there will be more R$ than any other types. Check your jobs and population graph, turn off all the jobs, and look at the population ratios. You can read the numbers off the graph and calculate the ratios.

On a small tile, you need to keep on top of pollution. If you have a lot of pollution all but the R$ will flee.

[Harmless Carrot 0]

1. What has most likely happened here is that you have hit a R-$ Demand Cap. The demand cap is basically the highest amount of that density type that can grow in a city. Once you hit the demand cap, no more will be built. To relieve it, build parks.

You also mentioned you only zoned high wealth. This is not good. You have to start with low wealth residential and gradually build up, it is also a good idea to keep a little bit of each. Eventually, your city's citizens will come of old age and you will have to attract younger Sims. Low wealth residential will do this. By zoning only high wealth, you are preventing this from happening and your city will eventually "die."

2. You could build more bus stops. You could also build some type of mass transit line. Do you have the NAM?

3. You could try making a bypass so Sims don't have to use it. For example, lead a road away from that area to a different interchange.

1. I have no idea there was any such thing as a Demand Cap. The RCI graph seems maxed on several points (R$, C$, I-M and I-HT).

- I added a radio station this morning. Read elsewhere that it is supposed to raise the Demand Cap.

- I thought that density does not affect wealth and that the game auto builds as per requirements and surrounding environment / land value. I will try building different R zone types in new cities.

2. I used to have one bus stop at one exit point, then i changed its location by one tile and added in one more bus stop across the road. Before the single stop was around 300% but now both stops are around 300%.

- From what I read elsewhere, over capacity of a bus stop does not increase congestion but only increase time for Sims to board / exit a bus. Does this significantly affect commute times? Current commute times are around 80 mins.

- I have a rail network system running with 8 stations in the city. 1 station is running over capacity while others are moderately used.

- I dont have NAM (only recently heard of it). I plan to do some reading up on mods and hopefully install NAM and simoncrie's mods in the next few days.

3. I will try to change fix that issue.

Thank you.

  Edited March 29, 2012 by Harmless Carrot  

[Moskva 75]

In fact the density of the zones has no influence on the wealth... Of course, if your high wealth demand is low, it is unlikely you'll see high wealth skyscrapers being built. At the beginning are more likely the low and then medium wealth stories. The busses actually do increase congestion, just less compared cars. Don't worry about overused stations, of course try to solve the problem but i don't think they affect too much the grow. However now perhaps i know what's your problem. You actually just have 4 ways connecting your city with the rest. That's bad, even if they're freeways, it's just too less, for sure you're getting congestion. Make also the standard roads and avenues have connections with the rest of cities, and develop more the bordering cities too. However i don't get why you would have even more sims there, you want it to be a cluster, don't you?

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Hi everyone, have some issues on a small city that I hope someone some advice on.

I built this city on the smallest section of the region (pics are below). There are no major road congestion, crime, education or health issues that I can see but the city population is stuck at 21k Sims. The city is about 65 years old so the city is indeed very much stagnant.

Question 1: Could someone please help me understand why the city is not growing and what I can do encourage growth.

Zoning info:

-All the zones are of the high density type.

-Industries are on the sides and have been separated with access only through highway and light rail.

Question 2: I have a neighbouring city from/to which a lot of traffic flows (through the highway). Though I have noticed that a few of my bus stops have far exceeded capacity (300% + ). These particular bus stops are near the the Side pass Onramps (pic below - with two bus stops circled in blue). How can I solve this over usage issue?

Question 3: The highway ramp has become congested recently. How can I fix this?

This is the first time I have used buses, highways and light rail so any additional advice is welcome.

My previous cities (some greater than 100k population) were completely congested. So I was surprised that my first city without any *apparent* problems is stagnant.

Thanks in advance for your help & comments.

Regards.

1) As far as i can see, your city is good, already pretty dense. How's the RCI? I've seen no parks, add some, not just empty terrain with trees, often that's less appreciated compared a nice park. What's regional population? If it's too small it could take more time to build, i think. Perhaps you don't have enough jobs? You can always trying to drop 3x3 tiles high residential zones holding ctrl. Also it is important to check you have enough electricity and water to support growth, and check if your education/health department is a bit overfunded, that's good to do if you expect growth. Also making some ordinances can boost RCI.

2) Uh i hate side ramps, are way less efficient compared others. This overusage issue is perhaps cause by the fact you don't have enough jobs in you city and many go the other bordering city. Just expand in your region, make the other 3 cities on the border, with more jobs if you want the central city, Small Hub, to get bigger. So traffic problems would lower, with sims going in different cities to work.

3) To fix a congested highway ramp, or you do some nice "T" intersections, or you go straight with an avenue an do a cloverleaf or avenue ramps, there are various solutions.

A 100k city in one small tile is impressive and way too congested-like, don't be surprised by traffic jams, you kinda asked for them . I'd try playing on medium and larger tile cities, that's way funnier in my opinion.

Oh, the 100k cities were on the big tiles. I just wanted to test mass transit options and its effects on a smaller city.

1. The RCI graph seems maxed on several points (R$, C$, I-M and I-HT)..

- I put one small single tile park near each residential area when i first planned this city. I will try to build more in future.

- There is enough electricity and water supply. The population has been pretty much fixed so it was easy to get this right.

2. There was an increase in Small Hub population (by 6k Sims) when I built a neighbouring city. (It was earlier stuck at 15k Sims... lol.

3. I am going to try to upgrade that exit to an avenue exit. Hopefully I can fit it in and relieve the jam.

Thanks.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Have a care with transit stops and stations of all kinds. If any of them goes to 400% it will stop working until the next Sim-day, so I've been told. You can find higher capacity bus stops by looking in the STEX. Do you have the RTMT? It is hard to install, but well worth following the installation instructions carefully.

If you are really overloading your buses, think subway. Also try setting up alternate but equal routes.

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Some more pics hosted externally.

[Harmless Carrot 0]

  

  Edited March 29, 2012 by Harmless Carrot  

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Have a care with transit stops and stations of all kinds. If any of them goes to 400% it will stop working until the next Sim-day, so I've been told. You can find higher capacity bus stops by looking in the STEX. Do you have the RTMT? It is hard to install, but well worth following the installation instructions carefully.

If you are really overloading your buses, think subway. Also try setting up alternate but equal routes.

I dont have any mods installed but I will be reading up on them in the next few days; I only recently learned that there mods for SimCity.

I considered and desired to build Subways but they are unfordable in this city. The income is not enough presently.Thanks.

----------------------------

From the above population age chart one can see that the city population seems to be getting old and the city is 'dieing'. I think hospital costs have increased as well.

Will some lower density zones fix this?

--------------------

  Edited March 29, 2012 by Harmless Carrot  

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Hmmmm... well, I just read soldyne's excellent guide ().

I have learned quite a bit from it and will applying it to a new region.

Thanks everyone.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Beware of low density zones (single occupancy). If they are adjacent and enough, the game will consolidate them and build an R$$$ mansion. Lately I've been using 2 x 1 lots on streets that are only two grids deep. Set up a street of 2 x 1 (not 1 x 2) along both sides of the street, wait for them to build, then you can make the backs of them also more 2 x 1 lots facing the next street, and so on. Nice and tight, and you won't get any mansions. You can also make 1 x 1 lots after you have got a few lots built. You don't need lots that are 16 meters deep (2 grids). This is very large by todays standards. It is over 50 feet. The 2 x 1's have over 50 ft. frontage.

[Cob92 360]

1. You still have land available for development. You can't really consider your city stagnant unless you've got zoned land that won't build. For example, that mass of water towers is wasting land. Smash them and put in pumps instead, then you can pack in another highrise or two on the land that you free up.

2. Raising desirability with parks, transit stops, and civic buildings will help push the density up more in the developed areas. From what I can tell your city is seriously lacking in these kinds of amenities.

3. Make a subway if your buses are getting overloaded.

4. Also, the bigger you grow the rest of the region the bigger the buildings in this city will get. The buildings you have right now don't even come close to the size of the big residential highrises.

[Wiimeiser 434]

Replace the current interchanges with Diamonds (Removing the tollbooths in the process) and have at least the avenues connect to adjacent cities, and preferably the road that goes behind the building just south of the westernmost interchange (not the one that actually goes to the interchange, the one next to the nearby building). You'll figure out how to do it before long, look for empty spaces and gaps in the road network.

[Harmless Carrot 0]

Hey, so I recently got the Prima guide and have been reading it. Though there is somethings I dont understand about the RCI graph.

1. The RCI graph has a scale of 6000 to -6000 and this doesnt change from city to city (ie, irrelevant of population). So what do these numbers mean?

2. What does it mean when one of the bars on the graph has maxed out to 6000 or come close to it? I am trying out soldyne's tutorial and the R$ bar has maxed out. I put a ton of parks in the city and that hasnt made a difference ( current population 18k and monthly city beautification costs are about 1.5k).

3. ^^ Does the max out of the R$ bar mean Demand Cap has been reached? Or when the R$ has flattened to zero is when the Demand Cap has been reached?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hey, so I recently got the Prima guide and have been reading it. Though there is somethings I dont understand about the RCI graph.

1. The RCI graph has a scale of 6000 to -6000 and this doesnt change from city to city (ie, irrelevant of population). So what do these numbers mean?

2. What does it mean when one of the bars on the graph has maxed out to 6000 or come close to it? I am trying out soldyne's tutorial and the R$ bar has maxed out. I put a ton of parks in the city and that hasnt made a difference ( current population 18k and monthly city beautification costs are about 1.5k).

3. ^^ Does the max out of the R$ bar mean Demand Cap has been reached? Or when the R$ has flattened to zero is when the Demand Cap has been reached?

Thanks a lot in advance.

1. The numbers are the demand in Sims.
2. If the bars max, that means it is >= 6000
3. No. Neither.

If you want to see the full statistical picture there is a plugin by Ripplejet (BSC) called the census repository. I tried for it on the STEX, but I think you'll have to get it from SC4Devotion.