Is there a way to make traffic to/from airports realistic?

[poshbakerloo 186]

Is there a way to make traffic to/from airports realistic? 

 

I have a city (1 large tile) with 700,000 sims. The region has a population of over 2 million, A large airport with 2 runways and a big terminal building...But only 600 sims travel there! A busy airport normally has very busy roads and railway lines, but in SC4 a single road will do. Is there a mod to increase traffic to/from an airport to more realistic levels?

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Airports are not part of the Sims commute, so only employees travel there.  I shouldn't expect any passenger travel to/from airports since they only provide jobs, not transport.

[Compdude787 916]

I think roads that access airports are places that are ripe for some traffic generators. Although traffic generators are usually unnecessary (especially in a big city where you have enough traffic on your roads anyway), the way the game is set up such that airports have fairly little function means that you need traffic generators to get a realistic amount of traffic to create a busy feel to the airport.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

And what would be the impact of such generators?  The airports are real duds, and do not represent any realistic airport.

[Compdude787 916]

Well, mainly for making your airports look like they actually have lots of car traffic when you take screenshots of them. But that's about it.

[poshbakerloo 186]

Well I'm not into random eye candy, and I know the traffic in SC4 is commuter/freight only, but its just always bugged me that the roads arounf Heathrow are jammed, and the roads around....."Alexandria Skyharbour" are dead

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

I generally build a lot of commercial buildings along the sides of airports.  Just don't stick high buildings off the ends of the runways.

[JimC 159]

^Indeed. I stick a Casino, some hotels (like some of SimGoober's, the Hilton, etc.) and so forth near the airport. Kind of like how LAX is set up. That's kinda realistic and it generates real traffic..."near" the airport.

[Prophet42 1,503]

Also you could try putting some mass transit stations around the airport.  Along with some commercial zones as A Nonny Moose suggested, this may increase the amount of traffic around the airport.

[hey zeus 6]

I like putting in big box and warehouse type stores near my airports

I don't know exactly what you do airport wise, whether you plop a prefab one or take the time to build one from scratch using the SCAG stuff.

I'm a real life pilot myself with an instrument and commercial rating so I like to spend lots of time making realistic airports with realistic runway lengths and whatnot.

Anyhow, I usually will have a few different parts to airports I build depending on whether it's a small regional airport, a general aviation airport, or a sprawling commercial hub. A few CO$$ buildings near the terminal can be 'admin buildings' and the same goes for the GA side of the airport. A couple small single story CO$$ buildings can function as an FBO or an executive terminal. Warehouses near the cargo part of an airport serve a similar function

The whole idea here is that you are using functional buildings that provide jobs, increase traffic and contribute to an all around realistic airport.

I can think of a few buildings in particular I always use at airports from spa and Ill tonkso

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Now that, I understand.  I am a coastal pilot (boats) and have an affinity for nice seaports.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

Might be worth it to edit the terminal building to provide several thousand jobs. An international airport and all its services would certainly be a huge employer. Then you would have a large volume of traffic going to it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Good point.  Take a look at the web sites for the big guys and see if they post their employee counts.  If you count in the security people who are probably on contract, it can get to be quite an amazing number.

[Tarkus 6,934]

The game inflates population figures to a certain degree, anyway--look at the absurd number of residents in some of the houses.  My theory is that this is designed to create an "ambient population" that simulates the behavior of additional trips beyond the simple commute that the game is programmed to simulate.

 

And yes, airports employ a lot of people.  Getting them in on the ambient population should do the trick. 

 

-Tarkus

[spokelips 21]

I ALWAYS have an avenue running in front of any type of airport I select.  Plus, I ALWAYS add 2-3 bus stops and subway stops right by the front "gate".

[poshbakerloo 186]

I ALWAYS have an avenue running in front of any type of airport I select.  Plus, I ALWAYS add 2-3 bus stops and subway stops right by the front "gate".

Thats basically what I do, or route a motorway past it...problem is, only about 100 sims use it, should be 1000s

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

Commuters don't use the airport.

[Nesral Sredna 62]

Thats right, only those sims who actually work at the airport will travel to it, the number of passengers is a made-up number based on how many sims who lives in your city totally. If you have NAM installed, wich you imo should, you can change the number of automata(vehicles) spawned, but automatas is only a visual effect, wich has no effect on the actual simulation.