Difference Between Streets And Pedmalls?

[simcitynate 134]

I recently built a seaport and attached it to the grid with pedmalls. There wasn't a notification that it didn't have road access, so I thought it was fine. Some time later I realized my seaport wasn't being used. This immediately changed when I connected it with a street. Is this a glitch, or do pedmalls simply not function as streets in some instances?   

[BartonThinks 3,416]

Streets allows car, freight truck, and pedestrian traffic, whereas pedmalls only allow pedestrian traffic. That means people can walk to your seaport when it's connected by pedmall, but the freight trucks that deliver cargo cannot.

[simcitynate 134]

Are there any other buildings where connection by pedmall only would prevent it from functioning? For example, if a stadium was only connected by pedmalls, would it not have the proper effect? 

[11241036 5,093]

The only thing to keep in mind, other than what BartonThinks has mentioned, is that PedMalls cannot be used along residential zones - they will mostly always abandon. But you should be able to safely place a park/stadium/landmark/whatever next to PedMalls, and they should work fine.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,042]

It is possible though to connect commercial areas by ped malls. Best used for nice, lowkey, streetless shop promenades.

[Propfam 2,286]

These days, NAM 47 offers you pedmalls with direct access. So, don't worry. You can now zone R, I, and others directly facing the pedmall.

[Lucario Boricua 7,026]

The new draggable pedmalls are still in their infancy (NAM 47 debut), but even in their limited state, they'll allow for many more options than the old puzzle piece pedmalls. We did lots of experiments to find a workaround to the RCI transportation requirements, and found an acceptable compromise by using the street as the base network (slowest motor vehicle speeds), underground car paths, and restrictive car/truck/bus traffic at crosswalks (limited on the direct crosswalk intersections, none on the mid-block crosswalk FLEX pieces).

Now, if you do use pedmalls for industrial areas, you might want to use railway access for freight shipments.