Traffic noise

[lhrob 213]

Anyone have any tips on how to reduce traffic noise?

[Bdub01 201]

Enact the car pooling ordanance, use shuttle services ie busses, trains subways. Also turn roads into avenues. That may help if not then turn the volume down

[yayaya1 22]

two words:mass transit

[z1 566]

Enact the car pooling ordanance, use shuttle services ie busses, trains subways. Also turn roads into avenues. That may help if not then turn the volume down

 

The car pooling ordinance actually does nothing at all.  Buses do not reduce traffic noise, nor do turning roads into avenues.

 

In general, you don't want to reduce traffic noise - you want to increase it.  The number of customers a commercial building has is directly related to traffic noise (which is the amount of road traffic going by the building).  Traffic noise increases the desirability of commercial buildings.  It reduces the desirability of residential buildings, but by a much smaller amount, and I have never seen this reduction make any difference.

[lhrob 213]

I thought residential buildings dilapidated because of traffic noise.

 

??

 

[Turjan 1,048]

That's most probably a pollution effect. Planting a few trees or shrubs might help. I see this when I "paint" the monorail tracks with small shrubs that the buildings next to my work get renewed.

[lhrob 213]

I have no pollution, I have tons of trees and parks, I use air purifiers, I have bus stops and subway stations, and still the queries of my residential buildings tell me there is high traffic noise.

[Turjan 1,048]

Ah, air purifiers.  Yes, those are very powerful (a bit too powerful in my opinion, so I decided not to use them in my game).

 

But really, I it's only a problem in residential areas, and there's the simple solution not to build those at roads that have any traffic going through.

[z1 566]

I have no pollution, I have tons of trees and parks, I use air purifiers, I have bus stops and subway stations, and still the queries of my residential buildings tell me there is high traffic noise.

 

Yes, none of these things will block traffic noise.  Trees do increase desirability, though, and that does help residential buildings.  But just because your residential queries say that you have high traffic noise doesn't mean you have a problem.  Traffic noise really has very little effect on residential buildings, and planting even a few trees will more than offset any desirability loss.

[Cyclone Boom 16,852]

Generally, high traffic volume is directly linked to traffic noise, meaning it can be quite hard to control in a developing city. Traffic noise can sometimes negatively affect residential desirability, particularity on low density zones. It's also not related to other forms of pollution, thus placing trees or parks won't have a noticeable effect in reducing it. A good idea is to check your traffic data view for residential areas with high traffic. One way to reduce its effects is to build a range of mass transit options. Link the residential areas with transit stations, connecting them to the high density commercial districts.

It does help to have a well-structured road system. Think of highways and avenues as the trunk of a tree, and roads and streets as branches, which should in turn connect to the low density housing. Remember, commuters will always try to use the quickest route available. Since avenues have a higher capacity, they will attract a higher traffic volume. Building low density RES near avenues is therefore not really advised.

In most cases, as z1 said, the effects on desirability are often insignificant. But if you notice a highly congested RES area with a reduction in desirability (again check the data view), it may be worth replacing them with commercial zoning. Unlike low density RES, commercial zones flourish from high traffic volume, since this equates to more customers.

Overall, I wouldn't be too concerned about high traffic noise. As long as it doesn't have significant negative impacts.

[Cefien 361]

In summary, traffic has a negative effect to Residential but will give a positive effect to Commercial.

[lhrob 213]

So it would be better to make all residential zones along streets, not roads or avenues...is that correct?  What I mean is, I should face the arrows toward streets, right?  I think that might have been part of my problem.  The majority of all my residential buildings were facing roads and avenues that were heavily travelled.

[Cefien 361]

You can zone your residential in any type of roads you want. Streets will even get congested faster than roads or avenues, and you can't avoid the noise if that happen. In the end, you will be forced to upgrade the streets because of the lack of capacity.

[lhrob 213]

Okay...seems like I'm not going to win this battle.  I'll just tell my Sims to buy earplugs.  lol.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Try a few traffic calming strategies.  Keep your residential broken up into cul-de-sac (street) pockets without through roads, use buses or other rapid transit at the entrances to these, and don't place any lots on the through roads.  You can surround these through streets with parks, trees and other amenities -- schools for instance.  Creating a few quiet culs should help this quite a bit.

 

With a little thought and some use of diagonal streets, you can make some very attractive residential areas.  This will probably become R$$ or R$$$ single occupancy lots if you hand-lay your lots.  Try a few 2 x 2, 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 lots at the ends of the culs.  Think in triangles.

[lhrob 213]

Thanks, Nonny.  The cul-de-sac thing is basically what I meant when I asked if I should make my R zones face streets.  I meant that I should create subdivisions like the ones you mentioned.  I get too rushed with this game sometimes, so I really need to play it more slowly so that I can properly place my zones and such.  One question....can you post a screenshot of what you mean by triangles?

[Cefien 361]

I'll just tell my Sims to buy earplugs.  lol.

 

Yeah, that will work too i guess.  :kitty:

Oh and you can always activate your "Commuter Shuttle Service" ordinance to encourage your sims to use public transport and therefore relieve your high traffic problem a bit.

[Turjan 1,048]

There was a topic regarding how to do this in one of the other subforums, and I tried it in one of my test cities. You have to make the roads unattractive for through traffic without increasing commute time for the people living there too much, which is a bit tricky. I used the "zones" view to make the streets (and ped malls) visible. Note that very high density buildings require roads.

 

 

Here a zoom of one zone.

 

 

With buildings you don't see much. It's a pretty wasteful way of building if you go for high density, but it looks quite nice in the end, I think. The buildings on the right edge required roads.

 

[Jim14409 448]

I found that allowing four tiles free of traffic as a buffer to roads and avenues can lower traffic noise to medium from high, sometimes to low.

 

I design my residentials with no through streets. I use the letter F or E shape with a leg for many of my residents. Also when they leave their neighborhood I try to direct them through or near a commercial district since as has been noted by several, this helps it to grow.

 

These steps help but some Sims complain even if a busy street is nearby and since they have to be connected to street, road, or avenue, some will therefore complain no matter what you do for them. I got tired of hearing them whine) so I put my hand over their mouth.

This does the job.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Here is what I usually do, at least wish for.....

 

Once in your city tile make sure that you are above the problem area in view 4, put the game on Pause and go to ------> Settings

then choose ----> Direct Communications

and there click on the -----> Talkbox, a small window will open.

Type *Close Your Windows*, without the asterixes (*) , -----> wait about one week/month of gameplay and the problem should be solved. Sims will stop complaining about the traffic noises. If this doesn't work, try again. You will need RH or Deluxe for this

 

If you want other tricks like this, let me know, I have tons. Have fun.

 

Oh, btw, I forgot that this doesn't exist yet, sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

 

mrb

[Linoa06 1,374]

Try a few traffic calming strategies.  Keep your residential broken up into cul-de-sac (street) pockets without through roads, use buses or other rapid transit at the entrances to these, and don't place any lots on the through roads.  You can surround these through streets with parks, trees and other amenities -- schools for instance.  Creating a few quiet culs should help this quite a bit.

 

With a little thought and some use of diagonal streets, you can make some very attractive residential areas.  This will probably become R$$ or R$$$ single occupancy lots if you hand-lay your lots.  Try a few 2 x 2, 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 lots at the ends of the culs.  Think in triangles.

 

Yes, this works pretty fine, and keeps the traffic on the main roads. In the end, though, downtown residential high density areas will get noise no matter what, still. They can just invest in better buildings.

 

Also, "cul" is an offensive French word, so seeing it alone here made me giggle. :3

[z1 566]

I'll just tell my Sims to buy earplugs.  lol.

 

Yeah, that will work too i guess.  :kitty:

Oh and you can always activate your "Commuter Shuttle Service" ordinance to encourage your sims to use public transport and therefore relieve your high traffic problem a bit.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, that ordinance does absolutely nothing.  If you look at its internals, you see that all it does is charge you money.  It does nothing to traffic, pollution, or anything else.

 

And really, don't worry about residential noise.  Controlled experiments have shown no impact of high noise, even in high wealth districts, where the Sims would be most sensitive to road noise.

 

On the other hand, traffic noise is essential for your commercial districts.  And for the record, the only thing that generates traffic noise is road traffic - cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians.  (Highway traffic doesn't count.)  Nothing blocks this noise - not trees, not buildings, nothing.  And trams, subways, and other forms of rail are silent as far as traffic noise is concerned.

 

You can find a full discussion of traffic noise (complete with graphs) in A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator (that's the SC4D version).

[Turjan 1,048]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, that ordinance does absolutely nothing.  If you look at its internals, you see that all it does is charge you money.  It does nothing to traffic, pollution, or anything else.

 

Sometimes, Simcity 4 is just like real life .

[lhrob 213]

Oh, btw, I forgot that this doesn't exist yet, sorry. I couldn't resist.

 

 

mrb

 

You should have waited until April 1st to post that.  You could have had a lot of fun fooling people! 

Also, "cul" is an offensive French word, so seeing it alone here made me giggle. :3

Since "cul" means...um, er...well, a** in English, and "cul-de-sac" literally translates into "dead end", I guess when you really get down to it, another way of saying "cul-de-sac" in English would be "deceased butt". HA!

[Cefien 361]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, that ordinance does absolutely nothing.  If you look at its internals, you see that all it does is charge you money.  It does nothing to traffic, pollution, or anything else.

 

Oh, i'm sorry but, i remember you said about "Car Pooling Ordinance" not "Commuter Shuttle Service". They are different aren't they? Just curious.

[z1 566]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, that ordinance does absolutely nothing.  If you look at its internals, you see that all it does is charge you money.  It does nothing to traffic, pollution, or anything else.

 

Oh, i'm sorry but, i remember you said about "Car Pooling Ordinance" not "Commuter Shuttle Service". They are different aren't they? Just curious.

 

You're right - my mistake.  The Shuttle Service actually does something - it reduces air pollution by 2%.     But like all other standard ordinances, it has no effect on air pollution produced by vehicles.  It also increases the chances that Sims will use mass transit by 5%.  However, if they simply switch from cars to buses, which is most likely if you have a bus system, this has absolutely no effect on traffic noise.

[memedoug85 36]

What about Highway Walls? Put them bordering avenues with roads/streets as veins... When this gets too much start adding highway/RHW and wall start looking nicer... Walls stop pollution so i assume they would "contain" the noise as well

[Jim14409 448]

 

I'll just tell my Sims to buy earplugs.  lol.

 

Yeah, that will work too i guess.  :kitty:

Oh and you can always activate your "Commuter Shuttle Service" ordinance to encourage your sims to use public transport and therefore relieve your high traffic problem a bit.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, that ordinance does absolutely nothing.  If you look at its internals, you see that all it does is charge you money.  It does nothing to traffic, pollution, or anything else.

 

And really, don't worry about residential noise.  Controlled experiments have shown no impact of high noise, even in high wealth districts, where the Sims would be most sensitive to road noise.

 

On the other hand, traffic noise is essential for your commercial districts.  And for the record, the only thing that generates traffic noise is road traffic - cars, buses, trucks, and pedestrians.  (Highway traffic doesn't count.)  Nothing blocks this noise - not trees, not buildings, nothing.  And trams, subways, and other forms of rail are silent as far as traffic noise is concerned.

 

You can find a full discussion of traffic noise (complete with graphs) in A Guide to the Operation of the Traffic Simulator (that's the SC4D version).

I don't know that I agree with all you say here. I have had R$$$ dilapidate or even abandon and when I check the residence I see traffic noise is high. Why then do occupants return and R$$$ level return when I move and reconfigure street paths putting less traffic near the home?

 

I believe traffic noise does affect R$$$ and can be manipulated to a slight degree.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Try a few traffic calming strategies.  Keep your residential broken up into cul-de-sac (street) pockets without through roads, use buses or other rapid transit at the entrances to these, and don't place any lots on the through roads.  You can surround these through streets with parks, trees and other amenities -- schools for instance.  Creating a few quiet culs should help this quite a bit.

 

With a little thought and some use of diagonal streets, you can make some very attractive residential areas.  This will probably become R$$ or R$$$ single occupancy lots if you hand-lay your lots.  Try a few 2 x 2, 3 x 3 and 4 x 4 lots at the ends of the culs.  Think in triangles.

 

Yes, this works pretty fine, and keeps the traffic on the main roads. In the end, though, downtown residential high density areas will get noise no matter what, still. They can just invest in better buildings.

 

Also, "cul" is an offensive French word, so seeing it alone here made me giggle. :3

Oops.  And I knew that too.  Sorry if you were upset.  Cul de sac is "bottom of the bag" but cul is just "bottom" in a vernacular sort of way.

[Linoa06 1,374]

No worries at all ^^