Help with congestion (traffic)

[ironjaw 54]

Hello and good morning,

I'm still new so please bear with me as it's been over 5 years that I've last played SC4 but I have been addicted since 2003 with SC4 and much before that with the original SimCity. I know so many things have changed with the NAM, and after an uneventful Mac experience these last couple of days, I dug out an older PC that I upgraded to 16GB of RAM and a GOG SC4 copy, so here goes: 

I'm building a small town, enthusiastically titled Martha's Vineyard. though I've never visited the US. I'm keeping things rural with the farms and a town feel and roads built and going to a neighbour on the left. I've been pestered with congestion and traffic (see pictures) even though I've had the NAM and Traffic Simulator Tool installed to Ultra and plenty of bus stations. So how do I reduce traffic without upgrading the road to an Avenue? Are there other possibilities? Cheers

[Lucario Boricua 7,048]

Hi @ironjaw! Welcome back to Simtropolis and SimCity 4.

Looking at your screenshots, you actually have multiple options available:

• There's various options to upgrade your road without needing more space. Try one of the Network Widening Mod options, in particular ARD-3, TLA-3, AVE-2 or NRD-4. These all provide a higher capacity and alleviate intersection congestion.
• If you're feeling adventurous, try the Tram-in-Road or the Tram-on-Road, maybe your town could use some rail-based options.
• I notice you have cross-streets intersections very close to each other, make sure to space them out some more. With the current traffic simulator, Simulator Z, the congestion effect at intersection approaches is quite strong, and a good network design practice with it consists of minimizing the number of intersections along your main routes. You might need to connect those neighborhood streets in some other way.
• I also notice you have a 2nd street running along roughly the same direction, opposite of the mansions. Maybe you could upgrade that one to a road and add a 2nd neighbor connection, or form a pair of one-way roads.
• Finally, you could brute-force a solution and instead opt for RHW-2. This network is a rural expressway road, with a much higher capacity and car speed, slower pedestrian traffic, and limited access to adjacent zones. Just be warned that residential zones facing it might have problems.

Hopefully one or more of these options works nicely for Martha's Vineyard!!     

[ironjaw 54]

2 hours ago, Lucario Boricua said:

Hi @ironjaw! Welcome back to Simtropolis and SimCity 4.

Looking at your screenshots, you actually have multiple options available:

• There's various options to upgrade your road without needing more space. Try one of the Network Widening Mod options, in particular ARD-3, TLA-3, AVE-2 or NRD-4. These all provide a higher capacity and alleviate intersection congestion.
• If you're feeling adventurous, try the Tram-in-Road or the Tram-on-Road, maybe your town could use some rail-based options.
• I notice you have cross-streets intersections very close to each other, make sure to space them out some more. With the current traffic simulator, Simulator Z, the congestion effect at intersection approaches is quite strong, and a good network design practice with it consists of minimizing the number of intersections along your main routes. You might need to connect those neighborhood streets in some other way.
• I also notice you have a 2nd street running along roughly the same direction, opposite of the mansions. Maybe you could upgrade that one to a road and add a 2nd neighbor connection, or form a pair of one-way roads.
• Finally, you could brute-force a solution and instead opt for RHW-2. This network is a rural expressway road, with a much higher capacity and car speed, slower pedestrian traffic, and limited access to adjacent zones. Just be warned that residential zones facing it might have problems.

Hopefully one or more of these options works nicely for Martha's Vineyard!!     

Thanks! I didn't know that you could upgrade without needing more space by using ARD-3, TLA-3, AVE-2 or NRD-4. What a brilliant piece of software the NAM is. I'm still learning and inching my way through learning the NAM (and watching Rob on Youtube) and all those different configurations. I will try your examples and see how it goes. You all have breathed new life in SC4! Amazing, work

[Pakistani890 122]

hi @ironjaw can u please tell me which mods did u used to make SimCity 4 look more realistic and also which UI mod did u used to make the UI look amazing 

[CorinaMarie 29,857]

@Pakistani890 (Welcome to Simtropolis.)

Btw, you can type the @ sign followed by the person's screen name and it'll start showing a list of members that matches as you type. Then select them from the list and it will put their name in blue and cause the beep (notification) that you mentioned them.

[ironjaw 54]

1 hour ago, Pakistani890 said:

hi @ironjaw can u please tell me which mods did u used to make SimCity 4 look more realistic and also which UI mod did u used to make the UI look amazing 

Hi! Of course. I've just been browsing Simtropolis's forum and found many topics and post dedicated to mods. I would recommend having a look here: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/SimCity-4/reference/modifying-your-SimCity-4-r318/

I'm using

• NAM
• SC4Fix
• Save Warning
• IH Fix
• Opera House Fix
• SimFox Day and Nite
• UI Blue Skin Mod - Love this one! https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/33048-ui-blue-skin/
• Industry Quadrupler and Radius Doubler

I would also recommend searching up Rob here and his Youtube (Rob's Red Hot Spot) videos Let's Play SimCity 4 Honestville

 

[Pakistani890 122]

24 minutes ago, ironjaw said:

Hi! Of course. I've just been browsing Simtropolis's forum and found many topics and post dedicated to mods. I would recommend having a look here: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/SimCity-4/reference/modifying-your-SimCity-4-r318/

I'm using

• NAM
• SC4Fix
• Save Warning
• IH Fix
• Opera House Fix
• SimFox Day and Nite
• UI Blue Skin Mod - Love this one! https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/33048-ui-blue-skin/
• Industry Quadrupler and Radius Doubler

I would also recommend searching up Rob here and his Youtube (Rob's Red Hot Spot) videos Let's Play SimCity 4 Honestville

Thx so much bro for telling me which mods u use and yes i will search what u said 

[ironjaw 54]

2 hours ago, ironjaw said:

Thanks! I didn't know that you could upgrade without needing more space by using ARD-3, TLA-3, AVE-2 or NRD-4. What a brilliant piece of software the NAM is. I'm still learning and inching my way through learning the NAM (and watching Rob on Youtube) and all those different configurations. I will try your examples and see how it goes. You all have breathed new life in SC4! Amazing, work

Okay so here goes the first attempt back fired. I added the round abouts - being English and all :o) is there any way in which this can be done?