unemployment/long commute

[timmie 988]

Dear all,

I know there are dozens of other topics with probably the same titles, but somehow my problem seems different.

I intended to create a region with a large capital city, with lots and lots of commercial jobs so that I could create a large suburban region with people travelling to the capital to work.

Alas, for some reason, Simcity 4 doesn't let me do that. I have NAM, and the census repository tool clearly shows that there are enough jobs available for every residential wealth level.

For some reason, however, my residential buildings (in the suburg) always show the no job-zot and dilapidate (and then are replaced by a new building), ALTHOUGH the jobs are literally just over the city border! (For some reason, a part DOES commute, and another part doesn't...)

There is an avenue neighbour-connection and there is a subway too. My sims, however, don't seem to appreciate the infrastructure... When these neighbour connections are demolished, they are however prepared to use the RHW to get to the capital, although it is on the other side of town and thus a longer commute. There is no unemployment if the highway is the only possibility.

It.

Makes.

Me.

Mad.

What am I doing wrong? What can I do to make those lazy bastards cross the border and get a job? Thank you so much in advance!

  Edited April 14, 2012 by timmie  

[N G T 3]

Well, as I saw in your city, your commercial is somewhat distanced from your resedential areas. an avenue connecting it.

Solution:

Zone all your commercial in the same area as your resedential area. It isn't industry, and residents dont mind if they live near shops and offices\

Public Transport

Your PT is somewhat lacking in your city, build more rail subway(if you have the$), bus stopsand thats it. Dont try to build monorail and elevated rail unless you are reall confident. It does get annoying in a lot of cases.

Peace

[timmie 988]

Commercial and residential are not that far apart, I think:

As for transportation: there are bus stops everywhere in my cities, and there are subways with P+R-facilities.

Thanks for replying!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

While this might not be exactly what you are looking for (I used it to illustrate another point), this city grew like topsy and has three separate business/residential districts. Would you believe this started with the installation of the port?

What I generally do is select an area to be a business district then start with single occupancy lots in blocks of 2 x 2 x 2 (4 x 4 squares) because eventually big office buildings like to be on corners. You can have two or four of these juxtaposed to make the street separation you like. I put housing in 2 x 1 lots in close packed streets on both sides of this leaving the ends open for expansion. You may need some more 2 x 1 growables. In this case I suggest looking at Paeng and madhatter106.

You simply let this grow, keeping an eye on your demand, and upgrading zones as needed. I keep the areas around my seaports as industrial, and if you want to avoid pollution there over the rest of the tile, put them in another tile. This particular large tile has a railroad that runs through the entire region in a giant U with bridges as needed.

The main point here is to keep your residential in the same tile as your commercial initially. Suburbs can grow naturally as demand for more Sims increases. Demand is regional.

In this region, I have one set of commuters using my rail system to commute across the entire region following my U-shaped rail from one end of the region to the other, which is about the distance of double the width of the region. But this was the work so several weeks to get this into final shape. I am now working on a new region, and have not finished populating all the tiles as yet, but this approach works well. If you have a lot of water, put in a ferry system. It produces good revenue. My present one has two big rivers down one side of the region.

  Edited April 14, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[WannGLondon 2,237]

This is my region;

As you can see, I have a large, central business district and a lot of suburbs. The population is over 1,500,000, but there is no dilapidation. I am not sure, but I believe this is because of the traffic simulator setting I selected [Z-Ultra (European)]. Commute time is long for almost all of my sims, but all wealth types of residences are still built. You can select a certain type of setting by changing it on the traffic simulator tool that you should have installed when you installed the NAM. Hope this helps.

  Edited April 14, 2012 by WannGLondon  

[Tramwhet 53]

As you can see, I have a large, central business district and a lot of suburbs. The population is over 1,500,000, but there is no dilapidation. I am not sure, but I believe this is because of the traffic simulator setting I selected [Z-Ultra (European)]. Commute time is long for almost all of my sims, but all wealth types of residences are still built. You can select a certain type of setting by changing it on the traffic simulator tool that you should have installed when you installed the NAM. Hope this helps.

Woah, is there ONLY residentials in your suburbs ? it looks like some of them are about 2 tiles far away from the central business district.

[WannGLondon 2,237]

As you can see, I have a large, central business district and a lot of suburbs. The population is over 1,500,000, but there is no dilapidation. I am not sure, but I believe this is because of the traffic simulator setting I selected [Z-Ultra (European)]. Commute time is long for almost all of my sims, but all wealth types of residences are still built. You can select a certain type of setting by changing it on the traffic simulator tool that you should have installed when you installed the NAM. Hope this helps.

Woah, is there ONLY residentials in your suburbs ? it looks like some of them are about 2 tiles far away from the central business district.

No, I do have some "main street" kind of commercial areas and I do have some large, commercial suburban offices.

[timmie 988]

This is my region;

As you can see, I have a large, central business district and a lot of suburbs. The population is over 1,500,000, but there is no dilapidation. I am not sure, but I believe this is because of the traffic simulator setting I selected [Z-Ultra (European)]. Commute time is long for almost all of my sims, but all wealth types of residences are still built. You can select a certain type of setting by changing it on the traffic simulator tool that you should have installed when you installed the NAM. Hope this helps.

What exactly do you mean with the traffic simulator you selected? Did you select the 'ultra' unified traffic simulator when installing the NAM or did you build your own simulator using the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool, with 'mass transit usage' set to 'high (European)'?

[WannGLondon 2,237]

This is my region;

As you can see, I have a large, central business district and a lot of suburbs. The population is over 1,500,000, but there is no dilapidation. I am not sure, but I believe this is because of the traffic simulator setting I selected [Z-Ultra (European)]. Commute time is long for almost all of my sims, but all wealth types of residences are still built. You can select a certain type of setting by changing it on the traffic simulator tool that you should have installed when you installed the NAM. Hope this helps.

What exactly do you mean with the traffic simulator you selected? Did you select the 'ultra' unified traffic simulator when installing the NAM or did you build your own simulator using the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool, with 'mass transit usage' set to 'high (European)'?

I built my own traffic configuration using the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Rather well done, what? Congratulations.