Apartment blocks keep abandoning due to "commute time"

[hiddentemple 18]

I'm trying to revitalise one of my biggest cities with apartment blocks from Bixel (the HK-style ones). The city I'm trying to revitalise is quite cookie-cutter and planned out. Whenever I try to plop a Bixel building in a residential area, it always keeps abandoning because of "commute time" and other nonsense. I even tried doing one of these apartments next to commercial areas, even right next to the central business district, and it still said "long commute time" and became abandoned. This is very frustrating. Can anyone help me with this? I'll take a picture of my situation when requested.

[z1 566]

The #1 cause of abandonment due to commute time is using the Maxis traffic simulator.  Are you using the NAM?  If not, the first thing you should do is to install it.  It even has an option for "Traffic Simulator Only" if you don't want the rest of the NAM.

[cartracer5 3]

Also, plopping residentials usually doesn't work, at least for me. You'd have to let the buildings grow for them to stay inhabited.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Yeah, I'm sure a two-year member has the NAM.  The problem is indeed that you're trying to plop residential.  Occasionally you can get it to work if you plop a building over an existing building with a similar number of inhabitants, but for the most part it just doesn't.

[Snugies 91]

What is you demand at? is it mid-income residential? if you demand is not there for the buildings then they will abandon. I tried plopping high income commercial office, and then caused a significant drop in demand, and some that I had plopped abandoned.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

As has already been stated, residential plops don't work for very long.  The path finder can't get to them.  Your best bet is to rezone the properties as 4 x 2 , x 3, and x 4 high density residential and let the chips fall where they may.  If you have sufficient desirability the tall residentials will grow.

 

Plopping buildings (commercial) in general works but should be used sparingly because of the effect on demand.

 

If you really want to get this program to work properly, lose any mods you may have that skew demands, and learn to play.

[infamousjbe 592]

If you build it, does not mean they will come.

 

There are some techniques to motivate the larger buildings to grow however. Make sure to raise the land value on/around the location you want the building to grow. This can be achieved by placing parks/plazas around the area, if you have the room without destroying other buildings.

 

You can continually place/delete/place the park lots to further increase the desirability of the location. Keep in mind, this technique will also effect the existing surrounding buildings and will most likely  cause them to upgrade themselves if you don't lock them in place with the "Make Historical" function.

 

But the bottom line will come down to making sure you have the proper demand to call for such buildings, and to keep them from abandoning. Plop with caution, if you do, make sure to allow the simulation to run for a while before plopping others. This will give the game some time to adjust for the sudden availability in that particular employment type. To much and you'll crash your demand and the result will be ugly looking buildings all over the city.

[mattias333 3]

Looks a similar issue to what im having. My lovely looking apartments consisting of $$ or $$$ people keep abandoning due to long commute, despite there being jobs literally on there doorsteps. Or at least it appears to me. I dont disagree, there comutes are extremely long, but there is demand for there jobs and there right there on the doorstep. Frustrating. Surely something im missing but cant get my head round it.

[Turjan 1,048]

As all the usual solutions have already been posted, just a heads-up that there are quite a few park lots that are not correctly modded available for download. Some park lots from the exchanges have a strong negative desirability effect on R$$$. If you are through with all the obvious solutions, like providing proper public transport, take a look at the desirability graphs.

[infamousjbe 592]

Here's another mod that might help a bit more with your abandonment issues.

 

[tyronejones1 0]

How do you uninstall the maxis trafic simulator?

[z1 566]

How do you uninstall the maxis trafic simulator?

 

You can't.  You simply install a different one, and that will automatically override it.

[Sims21 2]

How do you uninstall the maxis trafic simulator?

You can't, that's in the game itself.

[AlbertanFireFly 1]

I'm getting a handfull of buildings that are abandoned due to long commutes, but I've just started a new map and have quite a small little suburb going. And when I look at the commute time graph, it shows commute time as between 0.5 - 2 (minutes?) How do I fix this? Can't get much of a short commute! lol

 

[timmie 988]

I think you shouldn't use the graph at all, it's broken. Do you have the NAM installed? If so, if a building has a 'long commute', it means there are not enough (right) jobs available, and the cause of the abandonment is unemployment. You should have a good mix of the different levels of commercial and industrial buildings.

[Prophet42 1,501]

Old thread.  Please don't bump.  If needed you can start a new thread.