Long commute for pedestrians!?

[The_Family_Guy 2]

Maybe somebody has this problem. I have some R$$$ towers at the edge of my city, with a road in front of it, connected directly to a neighboring city. When the building grows, however, it says that all 2000 or X residents are pedestrians, walking on the road 2 or 3 tiles out of town. Short commute, right? Well, no. The commute is ALWAYS long, and the building turns that ugly light brown as a result. I don't want to demolish it, because sometimes 10,000 people are still living there. Any ideas?

[Peorth 17]

What's your R$$$ tax rate?

[The_Family_Guy 2]

I always keep R$$$ and C$$$ at zero. While we're on that, how can I keep my C$$$ demand stable? One minute, I'm at 4000K+ demand, then I drop to -800 the next!

[KoolSIM 2]

I have noticed that when a sim commutes to neighbour city, the commute time is always long. No matter how close the sim and the job actually are!

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

Date: 2/15/2006 8:47:29 AM
Author: The_Family_Guy
While we're on that, how can I keep my C$$$ demand stable?

quote>

I would expect by raising your C$$$ taxes to normal levels. Likewise for R$$$. The prevailing logic is that by lowering R$$$ taxes, you encourage R$$$ sims to move in... but there aren't enough R$$$ jobs available to support the R$$$ population, and the buildings quickly dilapidate. I would expect to see a similar situation for C$$$.

[The_Family_Guy 2]

Yeah, you're probably right, I'll try that and see.

[Peorth 17]

Keiran Halcyon, you have the correct logic regarding R$$$'s. I personally use a rate of 9.7-9.8% and in one city I'm working on right now I have no residential distress, and that's at 110,000 population.

However, I beg to disagree with C$$$ taxation. The logic does not extend there. The point is with R$$$ is as follows:

Low R$$$ taxes --> R$$$ Sims like the idea of a tax break --> sims move in and find no job --> sims leave city leading to dilapidation. This scenario is one wherein you create an ARTIFICIAL demand.

However, dropping your C$$$ taxes (or any I/C taxes for that matter) will create TRUE demand:

Low I/C taxes --> industry and commerce move in --> new I/C needs workers --> sims move in to fill the jobs

I've experimented with commercial rates as low as 0-1% and instead of dilapidation, I've noticed additional growth. In addition, I've read old posts regarding this matter and some have experimented too with 0% C/I rates with no adverse effects.

On the matter of R$$$ dilapidation, here's a good example of what happens when too many R$$$'s move in:


This was one of my cities before I knew better. The R$$$ taxation here is 9.0%, the base level provided by the game. Even at 320,000 population, by eyeballing there are too many Hogans, Bell Towers, and other R$$$ buildings holding thousands of sims. At this level of development, an optimal city would have predominantly medium-wealth residential buildings. However, too many R$$$'s moved in and built those tall towers, only to move out. The equilibrium was eventually achieved by having the R$$'s move into the R$$$ buildings through a 1-step decrease in wealth.

The next logical question would be: Is it possible to restore all those R$$$'s buildings? Personally, I believe it would be really difficult, if not impossible. In SC, buildings only evolve in one direction, that is R$ -> R$$ -> R$$$. Since it is impossible to physically devolve R$$$ buildings to R$$'s, the simulator instead devolves the wealth level of the building. The first regression essentially converts it to a R$$, the second into a R$. Each step is accompanied by more dilapidation, as many SC4 players would have invariably seen.

In summary, to prevent such scenario above, you should prevent excess R$$$ buildings from popping up. ANY excess R$$$ buildings will eventually be devolved to a R$$ or R$ one through dilapidation. Hence raise your taxes to at least 9.5%-9.8%; some have even advocated at least 10%. For the above city, the only remedy is to gradually bulldoze the R$$$'s and hope for R$$'s skyscrapers to pop-up. I've experimented with this and it works as expected. However it should be done slowly since each bulldoze decreases the R$$ sim level by at least 1000; done too quickly it will hurt the workforce staffing the commercial/industrial buildings.

[Gnargenox 6]

I noticed something similar on my region lately, I had fire fighters commuting from another city halfway across a medium sized city. Pretty darn far to walk if you ask me. These commuters showed up in the medium sized city after i started up the neighboring city. After a while they found different jobs, but this may only be because I was able to zone more space for them in their own city.

I think it should iron itself out as far as where they commute to. As far as getting the original higher wealth residence back in the building - that can happen but you need another place for those mid-class sims to move to and demand for high wealth sims at the same time. Good luck!