Demand and commute time - as always.

[Chesh 173]

Aloha

 

I started this region a couple days ago, and as it stands the regional population is about 390,000. It isn't huge, but it's probably the most successful region I've ever developed as far as not failing or starting over goes. Being the auspicious being that I am, the plan is to reach ever higher towards and into the millions - however, just as I was beginning to think 'the world is my oyster, I've so got this' all of a sudden I've developed this problem with demand and commute time. *shock horror! gasp! so authentic*. I've tried for the past two days to get things back on track so I can steam ahead, but alas I lack the sufficient knowledge, or skills, or both, and thus admit defeat.

 

The current developed region consists of a large tile (the centrepoint, and the problem area) surrounded by a multitude of smaller tiles, which provide a mix of all RCI types - minus I-Ag. My problem, in short, is that I'm getting abandonment and the 'no job' zots. I think this is due largely to commute time, with my avenues, highways and passenger rails being spectacularly congested (and as a side note - I always thought my placement of bus stops was helpful, but i checked today and citywide the usage is like 3%... what). I also think it might have something to do with the balance of R wealth types (which is what I've been playing around with to try and fix the problem - to no avail). I have a tonne of R$ and R$$ demand, and a tonne of C$ demand, and nothing else. I'm pushing R$$$ out of the main city and into neighbouring cities, which is fine, but the low wealth demand has me stumped. How do I follow the RCI graph when doing so will increase my existing abandonment problem? The city is at a standstill... minus the multitudes of angry drivers driving bumper to bumper down below.

The demand is extensive. I started a medium tile with a highway connecting to the large tile, zoned for R$ (thinking I was lacking the janitors for future commercial development) but no. 80,000 R$, not even a dent in the R$ demand bar, and one more super congested highway to add to the fun. And it didn't even effect commercial demand at all, haha - my troubleshooting: fail.

Oh, and I have the NAM installed. That's all, other than a little custom content here and there. I can't get the dynamics of vanilla right, so I don't want to add even more complexity.I realise I'm being vague - I'll post screenshots and see what you guys have to say. I want so much for this region to be a success

 

First image - The RCI graph.
 

Second image - Traffic density.
 

Third image - Commute time.

Forth image - Zones.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The commute time graph is broken (buggy).  Don't rely on it, but on building queries.

 

There is a propensity in the game to have drop outs like this.  Did you look at your population by age display (and the graph).  Your older population may have reached retirement age or even died and been replaced by young'uns.  Check your education coverage.  If you have several mature areas (blue of the age display) without museums and parks'n'rec you may have some unhappy older Sims which might account for your relatively low mayor rating. 

 

You've clearly got too many C lots and are short of low/medium density R lots.  The I-D demand is surprising for cities this size, and I suggest taxing them out of existence.  Set the I-D tax to 20% and harvest them while they last.  They will be replaced by I-M.  You should respond to the I-M demand and create some industrial parks out by the airport.  Don't forget to throw in some green space and plazas in your C and I areas.  They are cap busters among other things.

 

Check your pollution levels and your desirability displays.  R$ will live anywhere, but the higher the more picky.

 

To fix up the red paths, you may have to engage in a little urban renewal to increase capacity or add/double some subways.

 

One more thing comes to mind.  The ratio of Sims to Jobs should be 2:1 or thereabouts.  You can calculate this using the city opening dialogue where this is displayed or your can take up some real estate with one of the census facilities.

[Chesh 173]

Establishing the manafacturing industries near the airport seems to have fixed things. I had a 40K population increase, and while a few sims still can't find jobs it isn't as entensive as it was. I-HT, Cs-$$ and Co-$$ all have positive demand as well, so things can move forward. What's up with the through the roof Cs-$ demand though? I get that the sims need corner stores and all that, but I could zone a medium tile full of it and I'd still have demand left over. How do you deal with massive Cs-$ demand?

This part confuses me - you said I have too much commercial and not enough low and medium wealth residential, which is what i thought as well. There's huge demand for both low and medium wealth residential, which coincides with the above diagnosis, but if I'm already lacking these low and medium wealth sims why is the Cs-$ demand so high?

After a little consideration, I think the inter-city transportation is fine - the traffic is sufficient for the commercial development I have. The highways going through the city are the problem, so I'll play around with some more rail I think and see if I can lessen the load. The pollution wafting up from those cars is attrocious! As for the ratios: R: 171,436, C:73:340, I: 17,745. That's pretty much 2:1, not to mention other jobs in other tiles. Those red highways speak for themselves.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

More mass transit.  A city over 100k is going to need a lot of it to keep commute time and pollution down.

[APSMS 1,892]

I would also utilize the NAM TSCT (Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool) and add capacity to your networks. From what I can tell, you've showed us the traffic volume data view, which is useful, but only in a limited way as it can only tell us volumes based on the road capacity (let's say 5000/day) whereas Highway allows for around 3 times as many cars. The graph to pay attention to here is the congestion map, which is based purely off percentages of the whole (vs a fixed number) and thus gives a better indication of troubled areas. For instance, from the graph I can see that your highways are not quite at 100% capacity, because they are Red (300% road capacity) which is about par for a fully filled highway.

 

If you are using the default Maxis values, I would recommend switching at least to the NAM low default, as IMO the Maxis levels are far too low to be effective in any realistically sized big city w/o a massive public transit system. The low value is recommended in case you feel higher is cheating, but I run mine at medium high and don't feel any remorse. I have some very crowded main thoroughfares. Also, the Clean Air Act ordinance has been modified by the NAM team to actually reduce car pollution, so enabling that should help with CS$$/$$$ and CO$$/$$$ development.

 

When it comes to CS$ and R$, I've found that they're virtually insatiable demand-wise short of excessive pollution or radiation. I would focus on a strong middle class (R$$) as most buildings have the majority of their jobs in this wealth level, particularly for the mid and high wealth levels. I keep the R$ mainly for balance and mild aesthetic (I'd say my RL neighborhood is R$$, but only barely); the game is modeled after an idealized America, so the middle class will be the most populous, despite anything the demand graph says.