Entry no.27 - Highways of Dresden pt.2
A vote on the interchanges.
12 members have voted
Continuing on from where I left off last week, we'll now go for a drive southbound on highway 702 from Looper Juction(C) to the city border.
But first a short discussion about the numerous safety features commonly seen on 700-series highways in Pretoria;
Noise abatement walls in urban areas of the metropolis are a common sight. These walls are between 5m(lubu style) and 6m high. I created a new wall set as in time for this entry as the lubu style was admittedly getting a little repetitive in the city. 700-series highways come equipped with either steel flex beam guardrails or concrete mediums to prevent crossover accidents. High mast lighting is standard in interchange areas. This type of lighting is more energy efficient and not as maintenance intensive as common street lighting. It's also very common in the city where I live. Interchange areas are also generally cleared of possible obstructions such as trees for increased safety in instances where a vehicle may leave the roadway i.e during an accident.
System Overview
A - "The Curveball"
B - "The Web"
C - "Looper Junction"
D - "Z-Change"
E - Underpass Rd./702 Interchange
F - Esna Parkway Interchange/702 Interchange
Soon after merging onto the 702 the highway goes into a short tunnel. This tunnel takes the highway under the L & SS Fastraxx commuter lines at the point where they diverge.
Commuter service on the L line(top) is bi-direction while service on the SS line(bottom) is rush hour only as can be seen from the Morning rush hour commuter paths.
Bi-directional long distance trains actually do run on the SS line but it's not shown in the paths since as we all know SimCity only cares for rush hour traffic 
The highway then curves southward
This is a vital transportation corridor for the region which includes one of the two southbound freight lines and the only major highway & passenger rail line that continues southward to the remainder of the south shore borough and locations beyond.
And that brings us to;
D - The "Z-Change"
The Z-Change is an interchange between highway 702 and Genosha Boulevard which is one of the main thoroughfares of the city.
Spoilers for the unrecognizable before version
close ups
The primary component to this interchanges functionality is this little piece right here;
I'm not quite sure if traffic is doing anything wonky in there but it more or less works as intended.
It was pretty easy to come up with a name for this one, any way you look at it the Z is quite evident
My favorite thing about this interchange is actually just watching the traffic flow through it. It's somewhat mesmerizing. A gif of the traffic flow is not quite the same, but here's a few in any case;
usage
total vehicle count north of the interchange: 9,123
total vehicle count south of the interchange: 3,450
Pano shots
Can you spot the one change above?
Ministry of Transportation internal report
Safety rating - 3.5/5
Both on-ramp merge at fractional angles sans merging lane. Again not ideal but not terrible. It's the best option I had available as theres a rail viaduct which runs over the highway near by. Even the awesomeness that is NAM 34 does not allow for rail viaducts to pass over a diagonal 3 lane RHW piece or even a diagonal 2 lane RHW highway - but there is a workaround for the latter. Additional half point given for the safety features mention in the intro. 
Capacity rating(in relation to local congestion) - 4/5
On and off ramps are single lane only, however the off ramp from NB 702 has it own bridge and merges into Genosha Blvd in a new lane and does so without having to go through a single stop light. This extended ramp always traffic to exit the freeway at a greater speed and it's extended length prevents backups from forming. Likewise the opposite ramp is treated the same. This was necessary because these ramps lead to downtown Dresden and with this new higher capacity design I was able to remove a couple of redundant ramps at Looper Junction and streamline it's design.
Design rating - 4.5/5
This rating is not to be confused with how good I think it is but rather it's how original/unique of a design it is. As explained and seen in the images above, there is an interesting little quirk in this interchanges design.
Overall Grade - 12/15 Highway 702 exit 102 (aka "The Z-Change")
The highest score of the 6 interchanges in the city!
There was one major problem with the redesign/rebuilt of this interchange. The addition of new highway ramps and bridges may have made it far easier for vehicles to get around but at the same time it became much more difficult for pedestrians. There's little chance they're going to be able to safety cross the highway now on that overpass now. With this in mind a new pedestrian route had to be created otherwise the small pocket of development to the right of(east of) the 702 would be completely isolated between the highway and a rail corridor.
At first I tried to build a pedestrian bridge, which is hard enough trying to accomplish over a RHW though there are few ploppable options. But there's a lot of grade changes in city including this location. It made it difficult to work with so a pedestrian tunnel was built instead under the 702.
A bridge was built on the other side though, here's a teaser;
I'll take a closer look at this bridge and where it leads to among other things next time.
E - Underpass Rd/Highway 702
About 0.75 kilometers southwest of the Z-Change is the next interchange on highway 702. This interchange is much more conventional.
Then again not every interchange has to be big and sprawling or an elaborate design. Sometimes we one can lose sight of what's really important in the real world and that is integrating interchanges into the community as well as physically possible. This interchanges small footprint and landscaping does just that, preserving the integrity of the community while fitting into a tight spot beside an important rail corridor.
Click on the spoiler below only if you really want to see what things look liked before I switched over to the RHW.
The interchange as it is today
looking north
looking west
looking east
looking south
usage
total vehicle count north of the interchange: 3,450
total vehicle count south of the interchange: 839
Ministry of Transportation internal report
Safety rating - 4/5
All on & off ramps have merging lanes, though they don't get full marks as they're a little on the short side(due to space constraints).
Capacity rating(relative to local traffic) - 5/5
On and off ramps are initially single laned but a second lane is added as the on off ramps approach the intersection with the road below, giving this interchange more then enough capacity to deal with local traffic conditions.
Design rating(grade for the interchange only not the area around it) - 2/5
Your typical orthogonal interchange with a minimal foot point. One additional point given for the added interest created by the railways.
Final Grade - 11/15 Highway 702 exit 104
There used to be a small interchange just south of this one. It was one of three additional interchanges in the city that were deemed superfluous and subsequently removed. It's just not realistic to have interchanges every half a kilometer.
This location today
F - Esna Parkway/Highway 702
A generic interchange located 1.25km south of Underpass at the edge of the city map. Esna parkway is the alternate route to downtown Dresden for traffic originating from points further south. Not much to see here, still need to do some work to improve the surrounding area as well.
Maxis vers.
Ministry of Transportation internal report
Safety rating - 2/5
Your minimal Project Symphony interchange. Of course its still better than your basic maxis interchange which would be a 1/5.
Capacity rating(relative to local traffic) - 2/5
On and off ramps are single laned with no merging lane. Esna parkway is not heavily used at this point, otherwise it would be a 1/5.
Design rating - 1/5
An even simpler orthogonal interchange with a minimal foot point. This is more or less as basic as a RHW/Project Symphony interchange can get.
Final Grade - 5/15 Highway 702 exit 104
bonus mosaic
And that concludes the tour of the city's highway network.
There's still the rail system to deal with but the next update won't be transportation based. I'll be switching things up a bit instead.
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