Effective Road Layout

[fpdlskf 5]

Seems to work for me.

 

 

Note the use of utility roads for oil.

 

 

[Errant318 0]

I think it's a good layout that works for your specialization. Do you also bring in many visitors?  I have a lot of traffic problem with my University city (240k+ pop).  There is only 1 motorvehicle entrance to the University building (front-right parking lot), which inevitably causes traffic.  Worst part is the Uni is designed to open 4 classes throughout the day, (6 AM / 9 AM / 12 PM / 3 PM) but most students spawn for the first two classes and overload its capacity, while the 12/3 PM isn't being used efficiently.

[Cob92 360]

I think it's a good layout that works for your specialization. Do you also bring in many visitors?  I have a lot of traffic problem with my University city (240k+ pop).  There is only 1 motorvehicle entrance to the University building (front-right parking lot), which inevitably causes traffic.  Worst part is the Uni is designed to open 4 classes throughout the day, (6 AM / 9 AM / 12 PM / 3 PM) but most students spawn for the first two classes and overload its capacity, while the 12/3 PM isn't being used efficiently.

 

I find that the 6 AM and 3 PM classes get the worst attendance while 9 AM and 12 PM timeslots are always overcrowded. As for getting more people into the university, only way to do it is to have multiple pedestrian entrances and heavy mass transit access. 

[Zpike 79]

Don't train stations work for students?  I would think an avenue down the middle with a central regional bus station side by side with a shuttle bus station, lots of bus stops, and two train stations on either side of your university would solve your problems?

[perafilozof 143]

As far as I have managed to find and test the best road layout is when you take the 6 lane avenue from the city entrance make a full run around the map, make curved corners so they aren't intersections, then connect that 6 lane avenue to an inside smaller 6 lane avenue run by medium density streets. It creates a no light stops environment in which you can segment the traffic so that the whole city can't go straight for the city exit through the heart of the city but has to go round the edges.

 

Overpasses and tunnels from one side to the other also help greatly.

[tnobles 38]

As far as I have managed to find and test the best road layout is when you take the 6 lane avenue from the city entrance make a full run around the map, make curved corners so they aren't intersections, then connect that 6 lane avenue to an inside smaller 6 lane avenue run by medium density streets. It creates a no light stops environment in which you can segment the traffic so that the whole city can't go straight for the city exit through the heart of the city but has to go round the edges.

 

Overpasses and tunnels from one side to the other also help greatly.

I have just built a 240, 000 population using this strategy (kinda/sorta). I used a grid layout and + avenues with "T" intersections. No mass transit, yet and no bottlenecks.

Server: North America West 1

Region: Viridian Woods

City: Traviata Knoll

[tnobles 38]

Overpasses and tunnels from one side to the other also help greatly.

How do you build overpasses & tunnels?

[fpdlskf 5]

 

I think it's a good layout that works for your specialization. Do you also bring in many visitors?  I have a lot of traffic problem with my University city (240k+ pop).  There is only 1 motorvehicle entrance to the University building (front-right parking lot), which inevitably causes traffic.  Worst part is the Uni is designed to open 4 classes throughout the day, (6 AM / 9 AM / 12 PM / 3 PM) but most students spawn for the first two classes and overload its capacity, while the 12/3 PM isn't being used efficiently.

 

I find that the 6 AM and 3 PM classes get the worst attendance while 9 AM and 12 PM timeslots are always overcrowded. As for getting more people into the university, only way to do it is to have multiple pedestrian entrances and heavy mass transit access. 

 

 

 

I have quite a number of visitors but it doesn't seem to be a problem inside my city even though the regional highway is backed up for miles.

[TuPhat 27]

Here are some screen shots of my mining/oil cities.

 

I have a systematic process to creating these specific cities.  The goal is to separate my production facilities from my city dwellers for the specific reason of keeping my traffic clear for my trade depot/port trucks.   The lifeline of mining/oil towns are the trade trucks so it is vitally important to keep these trucks moving without hindrance from other vehicles.   Traffic may get backed up inside my residential and commerical areas, but I really don't care about that too much.  The only traffic moving between the city and production areas are people going to/from work.

 

In the following images, notice the similarities of the city design.   From the main entrance, have a very long road that reaches the top of the map, then branch out and build city residential and commercial buildings.   All these residential and commercial buildings are contained in a specific area outside of my main production area to contain traffic.   My main production buildings (oil/coal/ore) are in a distinctly separate area so trade trucks have a short and traffic free route outside the city.

 

 

This screenshot of a coal mining city.

 

 

The following screenshot is of an oil city, which is transitioning into electronics.  Same functional layout with distinct city and production areas.

 

 

The next image was more difficult to separate due to the main highway running through the city, but the city traffic is still mainly contained outside my main production roads.  City residential and commercial is on the left and bottom of the map, with production being on the top right.

 

 

This additional screen shot below is from the same city as above, but to optimize traffic on the main highway so that it doesn't get caught up in traffic lights, you can use several tricks to keep traffic flowing.  Any six or four lane avenues that would intersect to the main road gets converted down to a non-avenue medium density road (no street lights).  Any high density roads (bottom of map roads) get converted to a medium density road right before it interects with the main avenue, again to prevent street lights.   This keeps traffic moving on the main highway.

 

[perafilozof 143]

 

Overpasses and tunnels from one side to the other also help greatly.

How do you build overpasses & tunnels?

 

 

you have to use different elevation for the starting and ending points. there are also lots of tricks for placing building onto roads that are not on even ground and then using the ground those building dig up or pile up. Just google the IGN video for tip and tricks about roads. I also found one trick for the creation of tunnels you can see it here: 

[Grimhood 1]

TuPhat, I like your layouts. I made an oil city last night using your design and its working very well. Traffic is quite light even at 60k population so far.

Question - could you connect your residential and industrial roads on the north side of the map? It seems that would aid in getting people to work in the refineries and oil rigs without affecting your trade connection on the south end.. I was thinking of trying this on my city, just wondering if that is something you tried already yourself.

[TuPhat 27]

TuPhat, I like your layouts. I made an oil city last night using your design and its working very well. Traffic is quite light even at 60k population so far.

Question - could you connect your residential and industrial roads on the north side of the map? It seems that would aid in getting people to work in the refineries and oil rigs without affecting your trade connection on the south end.. I was thinking of trying this on my city, just wondering if that is something you tried already yourself.

 

I understand your logic and what your asking.   It does work yes, but I ran into certain scenarios where it's bad.     Let me explain.

 

For the most part I don't care if my traffic is backed up in my residential area, or the long road leading into my residential.  Maybe I'm a terrible mayor, but my mining and oil towns are built for specific reasons, usually to supply great works.   If you manage to keep the population down, traffic isn't usually a concern, but for some of my oil/mining towns I let the population build too high resulting traffic being backed up into the town on the long main road.   This is where having a road on the north part of the map causes problems.

 

Once traffic starts to jam up on the long main road into the residential area, having the north access road creates an alternate route for vehicles.  Traffic from the south entrance point start taking the alternate route through my trade areas which can cause problems with my trade traffic.  Not good.  That is why I usually don't have a north entrance.   But, if you aren't having traffic issues, I sometimes have a north entrance.   It's up to you!    Usually by the time traffic starts to become an issue, I have a trade port setup so my crucial shipments are done via rail or boat, so traffic in my trade area isn't so much of a concern at that point. 

 

I guess part of the key concern of the design is that if you let all your city zone up to high density residential, you will have traffic issues inside your city.   I tend to only zone up to high density as needed, keeping on eye on jobs/workers.   Its not the most efficient traffic design possible, but it is efficient on keeping your key trade moving.

[Mxlppxl 2]

I've got a residencial/commercial only city with 90k people...traffic is absolutely horrible but it makes money to send to other cities