Cities set up with one long loop.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

I've found some success in creating cities which start at the regional access point, and have an avenue (eventually upgraded to streetcar) that makes a long wandering, snaking back-and-forth loop back to the starting point.  This way your mass transit systems can only go one way or the other and don't get stuck on side streets, and people actually ride them.  The clear(er) streets means the Police/fire/ambulences can get places, and they can't get lost or stuck in loops.  The residents can only go one way or the other to jobs.

 

The problems: Sewage doesn't like it at all.  Once you get a treatment plant it's better, but you need multiple pipes until then.  You really have to plan ahead on your roads.   You have to set aside some big space for future buildings with lots of snap points.

[Cob92 360]

I think you can pull it off best if you lay the avenues in such a manner to allow the potential development of back-to-back high density buildings within each U-bend. That gives you enough space for virtually anything.

[x_nemo 4]

Can you upload a pic.? I would really like to see what you are talking about

[TheSimsFreakx 2]

I see what you mean, using this design will get rid of the highway traffic to the moon and also allow traffic to flow very fast.

Only drawbacks of this are that if you have unbuildable spaces (such as sea) you may end up wasting space or having awkward turns where you dont want. It would also create the sewage issue, where the sewage could be travveling for so long it turns to ground pollution, may be solved with 2 plants at eaither end of the road but apart from that. a good system to use.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

Here's one of them.  This one was a spiral rather than a loop.

 

 

And here's a loop with a university I'm working on off to the (offscreen left) side.  (Population 145,742)

 

[shaamaa 2]

You convinced me. Sounds awesome. I'll do it.

 

Not a spiral though. Just a square spiral with smooth corners. I hope apple doesn't sue me for it XD (http://www.xda-developers.com/android/patent-system-fail-all-your-rectangle-with-rounded-corners-are-belong-to-apple/)

[shaamaa 2]

Done.

 

This is TERRIBLE.

 

Drawbacks:

-Bus stops get glitchy and literally stop your city.

-Any bug that leads to even a single car not moving also stops your city.

-many trucks/service vehicles may have to tour the entire city just to get across the street.

-good luck placing a train station or anything that needs and/or creates intersections. Traffic jam nightmare right there.

-the AI IQ just sucks and they don't understand the loop. Many fire trucks for example looped the city three times (skipping their destination) to get where they want.

-If there's a fire, the fire truck stops the street.

-Schools/Universities/Whatever cause traffic jams.

 

So, no. This sucks. Don't do it.

[Dashafrash. 34]

I play SimCity to simulate cities. I have never seen a city with one, large, continuous loop for a road, and I never plan to. It's not realistic. I don't care about traffic problems and the such. Real cities have traffic problems.

If it sounds like I'm ranting here, please excuse me. I just wanted to share my opinion on this "loop" idea.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

My streetcars like the loops, that has cut down traffic.

 

And it's something to try that is different.  Been giving me something to do as I wait for 2.0.

[Mxlppxl 2]

i'll give this a shot, although i have had major traffic issues with circular based maps.

 

they are fun to develop...will post pic later

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

I've still been tinkering with this concept.  Recently I've been working on building the cities with the same back-and-forth waves, but instead of square loops I've been using the curved tool so there are no U-turn spots.  (There are still a few - some buildings put a U-turn in front of them on an avenue). 

 

Traffic is surprisingly manageable (not perfect, though).  I'm not sure if it's because of patch 2.0 or because the agents have to keep cycling along straight until they find work/stores/home and can't get lost in loops like they do on "normal" layouts.  Emergency vehicles are having some trouble getting places, but I'm working on that.

 

Something interesting:  When I go to place a school or city bus stop the game lags badly.  My theory is that when you go to place a stop the game only renders the snap points between the two intersections on the selected road.  On my map, however, it's rendering snap points for the entire loop.

 

Picture:

[Buggi 685]

You can use the service road and pedestrian paths to help move people around too. Though you might have vehicles u-turning where those paths intersect the loop.