Commuting to neighbor cities takes a long time?

[Zades 7]

I started my city off by itself, setup a very good public transit system, I soon finished zoning the entire city and the city developed (it's on a big tile) and I found that the average commute time of my city is, 0.6. Yes, 0.6, this was awesome, I get no abandoned due to commute time problems, ever. However, when I start to develope neighbor cities and connect them to my main cities, the commute time jumped up. In the main city it went from 0.6 to 16. Adding back in the subway network on the neighboring city brings down to around 12.

This is all fine and dandy if the city I made had jobs (industrial and commerical sector) on the far side of the city. But that wasn't the case, the city was a small tile and completely filled with industry (mostly IM and IHT), and furthur more, its right across the border. I route queried a few buildings to see commute time. I picked buildings near the edge of the city. Buildings that have to commute to the other side of the my main city to go to work get commute times that are short. However, those that have to go across the border to work (either by bus,car,or subway) all showed up as long.

This leads me to conclude the commuting across cities is either set a long time or have a default time set. Is there a mod that fixes this or is there a way to make it not so?

[His Divine Hand 244]

Yes, commuting to neighbor cities is automatically a long commute. This is because the game does not know where jobs are in the neighboring city, just that they are there. Maxis created the transit simulator with too short of a commute time expectation.

I have never seen a mod that fixes this particular issue.

[Zades 7]

Well this is dumb, made a lot of comercial jobs in other city in order to raise demand in residental in this city, which worked, but it gets abandoned very fast.

Is there any solutions to this?

[Silur 3,308]

I think - may be You can try something with NAM with ADDons ...

  Edited June 18, 2012 by Silur  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Which version of the game do you have? If your build level is 1,1,638 or greater you should use the NAM.

[z1 566]

This leads me to conclude the commuting across cities is either set a long time or have a default time set. Is there a mod that fixes this or is there a way to make it not so?

The commute time graph is broken in a way that we cannot fix. You shouldn't use it; it gives various incorrect results in various circumstances. One example is that the more intercity traffic you have, the longer the commute time will show; it's possible to show a commute time of many hours on this graph this way, even with cities that function perfectly well.

As has been pointed out earlier, the game automatically classifies all intercity commutes as "long".

To check on the health of your traffic system, it is much better to rely on the Route Query Tool and the Traffic Data Views.

[Zades 7]

Which version of the game do you have? If your build level is 1,1,638 or greater you should use the NAM.

I am using the NAM, but I don't think it fixes intracity commute.

The commute time graph is broken in a way that we cannot fix. You shouldn't use it; it gives various incorrect results in various circumstances. One example is that the more intercity traffic you have, the longer the commute time will show; it's possible to show a commute time of many hours on this graph this way, even with cities that function perfectly well.

As has been pointed out earlier, the game automatically classifies all intercity commutes as "long".

To check on the health of your traffic system, it is much better to rely on the Route Query Tool and the Traffic Data Views.

Although I can just rely on the route query tool, doesn't the game determine 'abandoment due to commute' from its commute time (short to long)? Is the idea just to ignore the in-game commute time as well as the commute time posted by residences and instead only rely on data given by the route query? And even while using the route query you can only know which path sims take, not time.

Or am I simply missing som important mod?

On a side note is there any mod that removes low/medium/high for school/health grades and actually puts in solid numbers, along with the other things.

[z1 566]

Although I can just rely on the route query tool, doesn't the game determine 'abandoment due to commute' from its commute time (short to long)?

Despite what the name would seem to imply, the answer is 'no', at least when using the NAM traffic simulator. Abandonment due to commute time means that the Sims have been unable to find appropriate jobs within the allotted time. In the NAM traffic simulator, the only way this can happen is if such appropriate jobs do not exist, or if there is not sufficient rapid transit in the city. (Neither of these conditions can be changed by us, and the second one is the reason I recommend saturating your cities with subways if you want to totally eliminate abandonment due to commute time. The bigger the city, the more important this is.)

Is the idea just to ignore the in-game commute time as well as the commute time posted by residences and instead only rely on data given by the route query?

Yes, as well as the Traffic Data Views.

And even while using the route query you can only know which path sims take, not time.

Time is actually irrelevant; with the NAM traffic simulator, Sims can take the time they need to get to work; this is much more like RL than the default behavior.

Or am I simply missing som important mod?

No; once you have the NAM traffic simulator, you have all the tools you need. Using them optimally can sometimes be tricky, though.

  Edited June 18, 2012 by z1