Commute Time BS

[thenext88 102]

I'm having alot of rich neighborhoods dying off because of "Long Commute"

Well I checked one area, to see where the commutes were and got this (best viewed 1280x1024 though I did crop it, might look blurry on lower res)

What's annoying me, that doesn't look like long commute!!! (the bus route that goes off the picture ends almost right there) Four different types of commuting available there, and the traffic congestion on the roads is low (as matter of fact, my entire city is low).

How can I fix this?... help! I hate this unrealistic crap that SC4 keeps throwing my way.

[onlyplace4 603]

Sims are intrinsically lazy ... to them more than a 4 tile commute appears to be a long commute. It's a fine balancing act getting the commute distances just right and even then you will probably find that the Sims in one area don't head for the nearest employment, but travel all over the city. There is no hard and fast rule to how to solve this problem ... just experiment ... after all with a game like sc4 that's half the fun!

[thenext88 102]

That's not fair

Annoying though becuse other building seems to have similar commute routes and they're listed as  "Medium"

[Peorth 17]

What you're seeing is a false long commute, meaning distance and traffic is not the issue. Rather, this happens when you have too many high-wealth sims in your city with not enough jobs to support them. Keeping your R§§§ taxes high (e.g. 9.5-9. is one way to minimize the problem. If you dislike seeing dilapidated R§§§ buildings, I suggest you bulldoze them since reversing dilapidation for these is really difficult. The bulldozed buildings are usually replaced by R§§ ones.

[jackel.22 3]

long commute doesnt always refer to the journey length, it can be because traffic is slowing down the busses hence making it a longer commute.

also if your dealing with r§§§ then i would recomend using monorail or something because iirc they hate buses..

[Tolomar 5]

have you tried the NAM ?

it has many bug fixes in the mod, and many different speed and capasity options that can help with most comute time problems

[thenext88 102]

What is NAM? (I'm new here)

[Peorth 17]

NAM stands for Network Addon Mod; it is an add-on that expands your transport options, allows you to choose your level of pathfinding, and also gives an option to alter transport speed and capacity.

If you're getting long commutes even if 1) your average commute time is low 2) you have low traffic and congestion (i.e. your transport map  is green) then you have an excess of R§§§'s. Otherwise, you have a true commute time issue which is generated by far workplaces (e.g. in the neighbor city) and/or traffic congestion.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The mod section is off the air because the site is being revised.  You can get the NAM from its private site here.  Caution: The NAM is a Beta.

[isc9114 0]

Hey, Peorth:

How do I monkey with the pathfinding options and alter the speed and capacity options? I have the most recent version of both nam and simcity deluxe (with all patches) and a semi crummy computer.

~ Ian

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

I can handle that. You need to swap out which relevant plugin you have in the plugin folder from the NAM zip file. Of the files named "NetworkAddonMod_Traffic_Plugin_*.dat", you should only have one in your plugins folder at once. The file name describes what the individual files do. Take a look at the readme if you're still confused.

...

Or, if you have the installer version of NAM, you need to "install" NAM to some dummy folder outside your plugins folder with the traffic pluggin set (in the install options) to the option you want, copy that file to your plugins folder, and delete the version of the traffic pluggin that already exists there.

Or just get the zip file and read the readme.

[Peorth 17]

isc9114,  just follow what Keiran Halcyon said. However, remember that the higher the pathfinding you choose, the more loaded your CPU gets. If you have a semi-crummy computer, maybe you should just stick to Standard pathfinding.

[zane900 1]

If your city is going well other then in terms of commutes, in other words if you are getting a very steady income, I suggest that you use monorail. Sim city considers it the fastest form of transportation it has to offer and it has a pretty high passenger capacity. But it is also very expansive. Be very cautious with it. Be sure only to put it in cities that make a very steady income and can afford in terms of stored money also.

[thenext88 102]

Ok, I guess I have an excess of R$$$. In one of my other cities, the commute time is between 60-80... and I don't have many problems. In this one the commute time is 25-30, and it's like the cities main issue. Time to kick some rich people out!

[newyorkstate 6]

Yes, what lazy sims! Traffic is horrible, euh? You dont need limited R$$$ to have good traffic, though. Just build jobs extremely close to homes! Or, do like me. Use a mod or super-lot!

[Peorth 17]

Ok, I guess I have an excess of R$$$. In one of my other cities, the commute time is between 60-80... and I don't have many problems. In this one the commute time is 25-30, and it's like the cities main issue. Time to kick some rich people out!quote>

Use the Jobs and Population graph to track the level of your R§§§'s. Divide this with your total city population and multiply by 100. At levels greater than 20% or so, R§§§ tend to get problematic. Keeping them within ~12-15% should do your city well. This is best done my increasing your R§§§ taxes. The highest I go is usually 9.8% but the value is really on a per-city basis. You have to experiment and see how it affects your wealth distribution.

[zane900 1]

Make sure that you kick the sims out that are farthest from your jobs. This may help you.

Also, just to keep congestion down even more, zone some commercial, in the residential section of your city.

[+Guest Mayor#1]

Originally posted by: Peorth

Ok, I guess I have an excess of R$$$. In one of my other cities, the commute time is between 60-80... and I don't have many problems. In this one the commute time is 25-30, and it's like the cities main issue. Time to kick some rich people out!quote>

Use the Jobs and Population graph to track the level of your R§§§'s. Divide this with your total city population and multiply by 100. At levels greater than 20% or so, R§§§ tend to get problematic. Keeping them within ~12-15% should do your city well. This is best done my increasing your R§§§ taxes. The highest I go is usually 9.8% but the value is really on a per-city basis. You have to experiment and see how it affects your wealth distribution.quote>

Wow, this is good information here. Math is a very powerful tool.

[JmacAttack 0]

I once had a giant R$$$ building

And it had a long commute.

I checked the route query.

Everyone in the whole goddang condo worked at the school.

RIGHT

NEXT

DOOR.

-.-

It became dilapidated later on due to commute time. Seriously, when you talk about rich sims being lazy, I realize you just can't please them. And my R$$$ is only 7% of my population so too many isn't the problem.