Mass Transit Placement

[Danlikebooks 6]

Hey y'all!

I was just wondering how you all place your mass transit (subways, rail, buses, etc.) in SC4 in order to get the most efficient ridership and relieve road congestion. No matter how I do it I hardly get any usage on the mass transit whilst my highways and back roads clog up with cars. :-/ Any help or advice (pictures would be lovely!) is appreciated!

[z1 566]

In your situation, the key is using the NAM traffic simulator, which is a part of the Or you can download the entire which contains the traffic simulator along with many new networks and features (highly recommended).

[arozarker12 51]

NAM is awesome! It really helps.

[CarrotCake07 3]

I used subway's an awefull lot. And I used the light rails form the NAM mod. If you don't have NAM you totally should!

[Prophet42 1,501]

I have NAM, which definitely helps, but did not solve all of my traffic problems. I found that in most of my cities (especially with populations over 100,00) that I had to place bus stops everywhere. Also what seemed to help is placing different types of mass transit close to each other. For example, placing bus stops near subway or train stations. This strategy seemed to increase the chances of the Sims using the mass transit system. However, even with 100's of bus stops, subway stations, el stations, etc... I still get some buildings 'Abandoned due to commute time', very annoying. I hope that Maxis has greatly improved the traffic simulation in SimCity 5.

[z1 566]

I have NAM, which definitely helps, but did not solve all of my traffic problems. I found that in most of my cities (especially with populations over 100,00) that I had to place bus stops everywhere. Also what seemed to help is placing different types of mass transit close to each other. For example, placing bus stops near subway or train stations. This strategy seemed to increase the chances of the Sims using the mass transit system. However, even with 100's of bus stops, subway stations, el stations, etc... I still get some buildings 'Abandoned due to commute time', very annoying. I hope that Maxis has greatly improved the traffic simulation in SimCity 5.

Well, you put your finger on it - the traffic simulator engine is hard coded, and there's only so much we can do to tune it. Knowing how the traffic simulator works, though, can be extremely helpful, and so I'd recommend reading if you haven't already done so. Basically, the traffic simulation is much simpler than RL. The NAM traffic simulator just tries to get Sims to work by the fastest means possible. Even differences of a fraction of a second in commute times matter here when picking a route. So typically you'll need a lot more mass transit stations than in RL if you want your mass transit usage to be high; otherwise, Sims will decide that cars are faster, and they'll just drive. Buses are roughly competitive with cars if you have enough bus stops, though this may require stops every block or two. But as described in the above-referenced Guide, the larger your city, the more you need a lot of rapid transit to avoid having buildings abandoned due to commute time. For larger cities, subways are the only form of rapid transit for which it's possible to provide enough coverage to be effective without taking up a huge amount of real estate. I found out long ago that with large cities, even with the traffic simulator tuned optimally, you still need subway stops on just about every corner if you want to completely avoid abandoned buildings. (Note to Moose: This is only for large cities! Smaller cities don't require such extensive coverage.) But if you implement this subway saturation, you should find that it works. In my Chicago region, I have six cities, each of which has close to two million Sims, and in all of these cities put together, there's just one abandoned building.

So is this subway strategy realistic? No. Is it effective? Yes. It is necessary only due to the design flaws of the traffic simulator, and even then, only in bigger cities.

Then of course, there's the question of where to put all these stations without making a total mess of your city. I strongly recommend (surprise!) a.k.a. RTMT. This package allows you to put stations on the roadway without requiring separate tiles for them. If you do install RTMT, be sure to install the as well, as it has a number of important bug fixes, as well as support for additional networks.

[jason w 14]

How do you get 2 million people in a city? The population growth seems to slow down a lot once reaching 200,000. Or are you talking about the region population?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

In a large tile and with the CAM you can get 2 million population. Considering you are doing this in a square 4Km on a side, you can expect them to stand on each other's shoulders or live/work in massive high rises.

You can get over a million without the CAM, without mods of any kind in fact. I did it in the original game when it first came out on a large tile that was 2/3 water. It just takes time and persistence.

Massive populations are no longer my bag.

[jason leo 485]

How do you get 2 million people in a city? The population growth seems to slow down a lot once reaching 200,000. Or are you talking about the region population?

I'm sure if 2 millions is the regional population because he says that he has 6 cities and the total population is 2 million.

I agree with z1, things that NAM do is great, the mod fix most of bugs and problems related to transportation system.

In a large tile and with the CAM you can get 2 million population. Considering you are doing this in a square 4Km on a side, you can expect them to stand on each other's shoulders or live/work in massive high rises.

You can get over a million without the CAM, without mods of any kind in fact. I did it in the original game when it first came out on a large tile that was 2/3 water. It just takes time and persistence.

Massive populations are no longer my bag.

Well, with CAM, the most populated region that i have only could reach 1,057,000 people and not more. However, the reason of few people that live in my region is i use most of the area as farmlands and just left 1/8 for the city to grow (However, 8/10 of all of the regional population live there). Now, my only interest is more and more forests and rural area, and not big cities.

Btw, since i use the same way as z1, the region that i play at this moment with 11 cities and the population is 443,000 and no building is abandoned because of long commute time. Although the subway system only installed in the main city (2/3 of the whole regional population live there, the rest live in nearby smaller cities), i found it as a pretty succesful and the total number of commuter could reach more than 5,000 daily.

The reasons of this subway placement strategy become very effective are because of put so many subway stations that could increase the possibility of commuters to use it and subway will not affected by rail and roads.

Advantages :

- less abandontment

- money (Those commuter will pay after using our mass transit)

- better commute time and a bit lower pollution (cars bring pollution and traffic jam when you have too many of them)

And i'm not sure if there is any disadvantages for this type of mass transit except a bit higher maintance cost compare to bus and train.

Yes, I do like subway, but without any bus stops your city transportation system is still unfinished and might be used ineffectively and they should be added as well.

Note: this transportation system is only for big cities, small cities will only need several rail lines that connect all cities and streets, or you may use subway system that will not used effectively.

[Fadoobada 0]

I place bus stops in almost every street. My neighbourhoods are planned around leaving green spaces where I can place bus stops without occupying residential zones (eg. for streets 4 tiles apart, I will place a bus stop, two empty green spaces, and another bus stop facing the adjacent street. Then cover the empty green space with trees, which will improve desirability and aesthetics. If the bus stop is in a busy location such as an intersection, or near any commercial zones, I will place a small 2 tile car park. In higher density zones I will place a multi story car park.

As far as subways go, I use the same tile system with subway stations, and I also place a bus stop next to every subway station to encourage bus usage. At interchanges of more than one subway line, I use a larger car garage, a two tile subway station and multiple bus stops facing different road frontages. Also, don't forget to provide overpasses and crossings for pedestrians.

My rail systems are complex and used quite heavily. I connect my rail lines and subway lines with a STEX subway-rail structure that takes ground rail underground. I also use gradual; transitions to improve realism, removing those annoying sharp bends. My cities have very few level crossings, which of course improves travel speed for road traffic. For rail lines with higher usage, I usually use two lines adjacent, providing a 'quadrupled' main line, with regular transitions to subways. Stations are placed at regular intervals, and each station is paired with a few car parking lots, and bus stops. Most stations will have a small park and a few small shops, which I think creates the centre of the neighbourhood.

Other transport I have used includes monorail. I use the same system as the rail lines, except monorail is elevated and cannot be connected to other Systems. Most major stations will have some sort of Public Transport Interchange to connect to bus, heavy rail and subway services. These public transport interchanges usually have a few pedestrian mall tiles, shop frontages, and green spaces, with connections between any transportation systems. Parking must be easily available.

[z1 566]

How do you get 2 million people in a city? The population growth seems to slow down a lot once reaching 200,000. Or are you talking about the region population?

I'm sure if 2 millions is the regional population because he says that he has 6 cities and the total population is 2 million.

No, it's the city population. As I said in my post:

In my Chicago region, I have six cities, each of which has close to two million Sims,

How do you get 2 million people in a city? The population growth seems to slow down a lot once reaching 200,000. Or are you talking about the region population?

In a large tile and with the CAM you can get 2 million population. Considering you are doing this in a square 4Km on a side, you can expect them to stand on each other's shoulders or live/work in massive high rises.

Actually, it's not very hard at all to get two million Sims on a large tile. As Moose notes, I'm using the CAM, which helps a lot. (I personally consider it the second-best mod after the NAM, although you can certainly play a fine game without it.) My zoning hews pretty closely to the actual city of Chicago (and to scale), subject to the limitations of the game. One of these limitations results in a typical 10:1 population difference over a real city, a figure that has been documented by others. Since my six cities are the core downtown area of Chicago, there are a lot of highrises. Typically, they're taller than the actual buildings in Chicago (and therefore more populous), but there's no way to fine-tune the size of buildings in SC4 beyond the built-in low, medium, and high density. Nevertheless, all the parks that are present in Chicago are present in these cities, and on average, about 75% of each one is zoned for medium density. High population was not a goal in any of these cities; a faithful reproduction of Chicago was, to the extent allowed by the game.

If you want to make a city with a large population, then on a large tile, using the CAM, it's not hard to get to 10,000,000 Sims, as a number of people have.

BTW, these cities contain no cheats, nor do they contain any plopped RCI buildings, with the exception of a few actual Chicago buildings that have been placed at their actual location.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Remember all that nice farm land can be rezoned piecemeal to be anything else you want. This is called urban sprawl. Since you are a god you can just up and zone anything on the fields you want, and you don't even have to bulldoze it first.

[Fatherted 129]

I place it freely and generously both for aesthetics, and for a lovely 33,000$.

[jason w 14]

What does CAM mean, and how can you get it?

[z1 566]

What does CAM mean, and how can you get it?

CAM - Welcome and Manual + Download

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Read all the documents carefully, and think about it. This is a step as major as the NAM.

[Hellken 1,658]

WARNING: The CAM is a big radical mod so you can't just go back after installing it! Please think first before installing.

If you want a non-radical mod (that you can uninstall easily and with few to no side effects) try this xxdita's XX Turbo Mod v1.0: http://sc4devotion.c...php?lotGET=2462

It just increases the cap to 50,000 and can be played with and without CAM.

  Edited October 15, 2012 by Hellken