Does mass transit help even if traffic isn't an issue?

[enchant 2]

I was going to post this a s a followup in the  How do external train connections help thread, but I think it's far enough off topic to create its own.

I've been playing the game lately as a traffic simulator, creating soulless grid-upon-grid cities and seeing if I could keep the traffic moving with roundabouts on multiple levels and whatnot.

My question is...  If the traffic is heavy but moving well, is there a benefit to adding buses and metro stations?  Even if there is not a traffic problem to resolve, does this make the city more desirable, attracting more people?

[ethansprang 41]

Buildings need "more services" to upgrade.  One of those services is "Transportation", so bus stops, metro, and train stations all contribute.  So building a bus route will help level up the buildings within a few blocks.  This effect is pretty strong, but leveling up is not a problem in the vanilla game.  If you play "hard mode", it's more important, especially for offices to get to L3.

The other thing is, even if all the traffic is "moving", you need to make sure it's moving fast enough when your city gets large.  If your cims are in stop-and-go traffic on slow streets too long, they may not complete their missions and that will lead to abandonment.  Running buses in dedicated lanes or digging metros allows your cims to get around a lot faster.  The bus lanes can also be used by emergency vehicles, so that can also prevent problems.

There are a few unique buildings that require you to build some transportation assets to unlock.

Cims will walk a VERY long way, and always seem to have a car in their pockets - even tourists. So while mass transit helps tourists, it's not necessary for them.

But other than that... no.  You don't need mass transit.

ETA:  relatedly - keep in mind that the game is hardest between about 15K and 60K people.  Much beyond that, and the agent limit and vehicle limit start to reduce the average traffic on the street.

  Edited October 11, 2015 by ethansprang  

[Turjan 1,048]

Yup, you can easily build cities without public transport. You just get different problems. If your population is too educated, they don't want to work in industry that isn't upgraded. Of course, you can just keep unemployment high enough so they have to go at some point. Tax income is much lower, but expenses are equally lower.

Sometimes, I have the feeling that the game doesn't really properly simulate the economy. If you don't do really stupid things, the game seems to always adjust the income slightly higher than the expenses, no matter what you do. So go ahead.

[BlakeMW 84]

Strictly speaking you don't need mass transport for transportation, but it would be quite challenging to reach higher building levels without mass transport service, it's especially worth considering that bus stops are *by far* the cheapest way to provide transportation service. I don't recommend brainlessly spamming bus stops for this purpose, but having blanket coverage of bus lines will do wonders for building levels and assist in transportation of cims, and the best thing is once you've purchased the bus depot it is completely free and requires no maintenance.

 

Another thing tangentially related to mass transport is transport-less transport, highways act as pedestrian barriers, so bridging intra-city highways with roads with footpaths and/or pedestrian paths will let cims walk/bike over the highway. Without this option they are forced into a car.

[Turjan 1,048]

I mostly use trains because I want to. I'm happy that the game lets me do this.

Blue Line is the oldest one and connects mostly smaller towns/villages and tangential suburbs. I may move two or three stops of the line at some point, now that we have elevated stations.