Carpool Incentive Program Ordinance

[Cougar2004 127]

Does the Carpool Incentive Program Ordinance do anything good or bad in SimCity 4?

 

I had lots of traffic, so I implemented this ordinance and I couldn't really tell the difference.  Who has gotten it to work?  How?  And what effect does it really have on the city?  Thanks!

[z1 566]

Does the Carpool Incentive Program Ordinance do anything good or bad in SimCity 4?

No.  It does nothing at all.  Zero.  Nada.  Bubkes.  That's what you get for carpooling in SC4.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I use it as an aide-memoire before I start laying down bus lines.  Really too bad it doesn't do anything, but then neither do buses.

[Bdub01 201]

Really? I thought I read somewhere that it reduces air pollution by "X" amount. That isn't true?

Well if it doesn't do anything it has a placebo effect on me cause I thought it did do something!!!

[AcronShinra 60]

It really doesn't do anything. Proof from Reader.

 

 

Takes helluva of money each month and gives nothing in return. Just like Polish government.

One could for example add like in NAM version of "Clean Air Ordinance" new "Traffic Air Pollution Effect" property to ordinance to make it at least useful.

[AkemiAzula 280]

I use it as an aide-memoire before I start laying down bus lines.  Really too bad it doesn't do anything, but then neither do buses.

It is a pity. Then again I imagine without agent based simulation it wouldn't have much of a real effect anyway even if it did. Hard sort of thing to simulate without individual agents.

 

Btw on a side note I just had the honour of giving you your three-thousandth reputation point. Well done.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Thank you, I think.  I'll have to note it in the appropriate thread.

[infamousjbe 592]

Really? I thought I read somewhere that it reduces air pollution by "X" amount. That isn't true?

Well if it doesn't do anything it has a placebo effect on me cause I thought it did do something!!!

 

Same for me... After I checked that ordinance, could have swore the section of road that was "terminal", 'quited' down a bit........guess it must have been something else I changed with the traffic that caused the effect then.

 

Have to say, since it doesn't do anything, I'm surprised someone hasn't used it to create some kind of radical mod.

[AcronShinra 60]

Have to say, since it doesn't do anything, I'm surprised someone hasn't used it to create some kind of radical mod.

Some ordinance mods on STEX do change Carpool completely.

Well you give me an idea right now.

BRB with mod ;D

[infamousjbe 592]

 

Have to say, since it doesn't do anything, I'm surprised someone hasn't used it to create some kind of radical mod.

Some ordinance mods on STEX do change Carpool completely.

Well you give me an idea right now.

BRB with mod ;D

 

Well hell, can't say I'm good for nuttin'.. 

 

Can't wait to see what your spawning ATM.

[Cougar2004 127]

 

Does the Carpool Incentive Program Ordinance do anything good or bad in SimCity 4?

No.  It does nothing at all.  Zero.  Nada.  Bubkes.  That's what you get for carpooling in SC4.

 

 

That makes sense.  And I just found my Ordinance notes from back in 2008 when I played last. I used to log all my notes in forum posts - no body seemed too bothered by it.  (My 2008 Ordinance notes can be viewed here: )

 

Carpool Incentive Program  ($50/mo + $0.01 per resident)

     Benefit: Traffic congestion (volume) decreased by 20% (Experts say this does not happen at all so 0%.)

 

I'm thinking I agree with those of you who are not satisfied with a useless ordinance.  I am not in favor of a radical ordinance mod, but if no one else has already created a mod to put in the 20% Traffic Congestion Decrease we were promised, leaving the default cost attributes, then I think I'll make it.  Gotta search the STEX first to see if its there.  Thanks for all the answers on this.

[AcronShinra 60]

Can't wait to see what your spawning ATM.

 

Tell me what you guys think, if there's any flaw you see point it out.

 

[IljaS 54]

You work fast.

I have downloaded your fix and moving to test it in my sandbox region. Thank you.

[z1 566]

Carpool Incentive Program  ($50/mo + $0.01 per resident)

     Benefit: Traffic congestion (volume) decreased by 20% (Experts say this does not happen at all so 0%.)

 

I'm thinking I agree with those of you who are not satisfied with a useless ordinance.  I am not in favor of a radical ordinance mod, but if no one else has already created a mod to put in the 20% Traffic Congestion Decrease we were promised, leaving the default cost attributes, then I think I'll make it.

 

Knowing the way traffic volume and congestion works, I don't think this can be done in an ordinance, which is probably why the ordinance does nothing.

[Bdub01 201]

Can't wait to see what your spawning ATM.

Tell me what you guys think, if there's any flaw you see point it out.

Can't wait to download it and give it a try, thx!!!!!!

[Cougar2004 127]

 

Carpool Incentive Program  ($50/mo + $0.01 per resident)

     Benefit: Traffic congestion (volume) decreased by 20% (Experts say this does not happen at all so 0%.)

 

I'm thinking I agree with those of you who are not satisfied with a useless ordinance.  I am not in favor of a radical ordinance mod, but if no one else has already created a mod to put in the 20% Traffic Congestion Decrease we were promised, leaving the default cost attributes, then I think I'll make it.

 

Knowing the way traffic volume and congestion works, I don't think this can be done in an ordinance, which is probably why the ordinance does nothing.

 

 

Oh, I haven't studied that yet.  Isn't there another ordinance that reduces traffic?

 

Commuter Shuttle Service  ($20/mo + $0.005 per resident)

     Benefit: Air Pollution globally reduced by 2%

     Benefit: Mass Transportation use increased by 5% for R$, 14% for R$$, 33% for R$$$

     Benefit: Car Traffic reduced by 25% for R$, No change for R$$, 6% for R$$$

 

Why not just identify the property that reduces the car traffic by 25% for R$ and then then add it to the other ordinance ID at 20% instead of 25, and then perhaps extend it to R$$ or maybe to all 3 wealth types (although, R$$$ I wouldn't personally do because that sounds very unrealistic.)  Thoughts?

[z1 566]

 

Isn't there another ordinance that reduces traffic?

 

Commuter Shuttle Service  ($20/mo + $0.005 per resident)

     Benefit: Air Pollution globally reduced by 2%

     Benefit: Mass Transportation use increased by 5% for R$, 14% for R$$, 33% for R$$$

     Benefit: Car Traffic reduced by 25% for R$, No change for R$$, 6% for R$$$

 

This ordinance doesn't reduce traffic; it just shifts it around from driving to mass transit.  It modifies the same properties that are displayed in the "Mass Transit Usage" panel at the top of the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool.  And the documentation you quote is incorrect, in that it is not usage that is affected, but preference.  So instead of causing usage of mass transit to increase by 5% among R$, this ordinance causing 5% more R$ Sims to prefer mass transit over driving, but only if a trip by car would be no more than 72 seconds faster than a trip by mass transit.  Otherwise, these Sims will still drive.  Commutes in SC4 are typically only a few minutes, though, so these preferences can make a real difference.

 

Using the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool, you can also adjust the car preferences.  However, if Sims prefer driving over mass transit, they do so only if going by car would cost them no more than 6 seconds more than taking mass transit.

 

One final thing:  All car trips have a start-up cost of 24 seconds; without this, buses would be much less competitive with cars.

[IljaS 54]

 

One final thing:  All car trips have a start-up cost of 24 seconds; without this, buses would be much less competitive with cars.

 

 

I have been playing this game for 10 years with European mass transtit systems, but this number has allways escaped from me. Thank you for bringing it up.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Downloaded and installed.  Will observe effects.

[infamousjbe 592]

I'm no data man, but I'm pretty sure that after I plopped this baby in my plugins, my bus usage shot thru the damn roof. All of a sudden I had well over 1k+ of buses on a single stretch of road.

 

However, I didn't mind the increase in bus usage, and it actually inspired me to find out just why the bus usage was so heavy in that particular area. This lead me to find out that the freight station I was using didn't allow thur passenger trains. The result was a nice session redesigning and rebuilding the area for the freight and passenger lines. Now I have barely ANY buses on that stretch cause Sims can now get to the ferry on a shorter path. Even my commute time for the city was reduced more than half because of that damn freight station.

[AcronShinra 60]

If you do not fear SC4Tool you could fix freight station by yourself. If you want I can send you PM with instructions, just say a word D:

[Cougar2004 127]

If you do not fear SC4Tool you could fix freight station by yourself. If you want I can send you PM with instructions, just say a word D:

 

What do you mean by Fix the freight station?  Is it broken? 

[AcronShinra 60]

Maxis Freight Station is OK.

He was most probably talking about custom freight station.

[Cougar2004 127]

Maxis Freight Station is OK.

He was most probably talking about custom freight station.

 

Understood. Thanks. 

[z1 566]

I'm no data man, but I'm pretty sure that after I plopped this baby in my plugins, my bus usage shot thru the damn roof. All of a sudden I had well over 1k+ of buses on a single stretch of road.

 

Are you using the NAM?  Without the NAM, buses behave quite unrealistically; they don't contribute to traffic at all.  That means that the traffic simulator can stuff as many Sims as it wants into buses without increasing congestion at all.  (In the vanilla game, the buses are run by the Black Hole Bus Company.  The NAM fired them.)

[Cougar2004 127]

 

I'm no data man, but I'm pretty sure that after I plopped this baby in my plugins, my bus usage shot thru the damn roof. All of a sudden I had well over 1k+ of buses on a single stretch of road.

 

Are you using the NAM?  Without the NAM, buses behave quite unrealistically; they don't contribute to traffic at all.  That means that the traffic simulator can stuff as many Sims as it wants into buses without increasing congestion at all.  (In the vanilla game, the buses are run by the Black Hole Bus Company.  The NAM fired them.)

 

 

Is there any way to use the method or properties that eliminated the traffic in this blackhole way from the vanilla version, and apply it to an ordinance, say to decrease traffic by 20%? I read above that its not possible, but I'm still learning why it isnt.  I'm still trying to figure out if there is a way.

[z1 566]

Is there any way to use the method or properties that eliminated the traffic in this blackhole way from the vanilla version, and apply it to an ordinance, say to decrease traffic by 20%? I read above that its not possible, but I'm still learning why it isnt.  I'm still trying to figure out if there is a way.

 

Ordinances can only set properties that were specifically designed for them.  For example, in the Shuttle Service ordinance, the ordinance can't directly manipulate the balance of Sims who drive and those who take mass transit, even though a program such as the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool can.  Instead, the ordinance must use a specific property to do this.  In the case of the Shuttle Service ordinance, the property is called Travel Strategy Modifier, and allows the ordinance to do the same thing that the TSCT does.  But Maxis had to create that property, and it's probably used only in the Shuttle Service ordinance.  The way buses work is determined by the traffic simulator exemplar, and there's no ordinance property that can manipulate that.

[infamousjbe 592]

 

I'm no data man, but I'm pretty sure that after I plopped this baby in my plugins, my bus usage shot thru the damn roof. All of a sudden I had well over 1k+ of buses on a single stretch of road.

 

Are you using the NAM?  Without the NAM, buses behave quite unrealistically; they don't contribute to traffic at all.  That means that the traffic simulator can stuff as many Sims as it wants into buses without increasing congestion at all.  (In the vanilla game, the buses are run by the Black Hole Bus Company.  The NAM fired them.)

 

 

Well, let me downplay my statement just a bit. Didn't mean to make it seem like the game just up and broke. I was already 800+ buses on that road already, so the jump in users was not such an exuberant amount. Without doing actual math, that's only like a 10%-15% increase? maybe?? 

 

I'm currently still using NAM 31.1.   Have not gotten around to updating it yet.  My SC4 is also currently patched up.

 

And to add to my story, since I moved the freight station and added a new passenger station, I only have a hand few of buses on that stretch of road now, problem solved!! That's some of the best parts of SC4.....BULLDOZE, REBUILD!  

 

Maxis Freight Station is OK.

He was most probably talking about custom freight station.

Indeed it was a custom station. If I knew how to use the Tool, I probably would have kept things the way they were and just allowed passenger through on the station. Though I did enjoy having to figure out the solution to the problem with a better path for my Sims.

[z1 566]

Is there any way to use the method or properties that eliminated the traffic in this blackhole way from the vanilla version, and apply it to an ordinance, say to decrease traffic by 20%? I read above that its not possible, but I'm still learning why it isnt.  I'm still trying to figure out if there is a way.

 

Why do you want to decrease traffic?  If you have a certain amount of residents and a certain amount of jobs, that implies a certain amount of traffic.  Any less than that, and Sims aren't getting to their jobs, and you start getting abandonment issues.

 

If on the other hand, you just want to decrease congestion, the easiest way to do that is just to change to a higher-capacity version of the traffic simulator.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The basic problem with the game is that a bus is just a different kind of car without the start up penalty.  One Sim at a time does not a bus make.  Buses should have capacity for around 40 Sims, each with its own destination although some may be common.  This is far too complex for a game of this level, and would probably result in the buses travelling at 7 m/h. which is the rate for Toronto buses.  The only real saving with buses is the parking fees in RL.

 

SC4 buses have a capacity of 1.