This entry will see residential expansion and the addition of more highway.

 Forgive me for the U-drive it icons

This is how I currently build my subdivisions. Many of you on here are fantastic at this. For me, I generally start by creating a box of avenues. Inside that box I'll randomly wind streets to mimic what can be seen in real cities. I also don't butt my zone directly to the avenues, instead spacing one square away. Though this might promote bottle-necking, the low density and population keep traffic lower. This design helps alleviate congestion on the avenues. Instead of sims just hopping onto the avenue directly from their houses, they're forced to take their closest exit from the neighborhood. 

A completed subdivision prior to being zoned.

In these areas I also zone low density commercial peppered with some medium density residential adjacent to the 'burbs. My hope is that some smaller apartment complexes will spring up, though some of these are taller than I'd like they look pretty good here.

A pocket of medium density residential next to the college. One thing I've noticed the more cities I build in this region, the less useful elementary schools are. It seems like most of my sims are of age for either college or utilizing libraries. It just seems elementary schools are very short lived and get cut out of the budget quickly. 

The more I play, the more I like these single cell apartments. They house 30 sims, twice a normal house, don't take much space, and tend to build together as a larger unit.

Shot of the golf course and surrounding developments.I wish I could turn off those movie theaters to the upper right, they might be the most repetitive building in the game. 

More apartments bordering the industrial sector.

I wanted to develop a block of those single cell apartments, something common in cities. Here's the original area...

Leveled...

Zoned and under construction...

Finished. It seems like once one of these structures is built, they duplicate until the block is full. Pretty handy if you want to create a repetitive complex.

A better angle.

The next few shots will cover the addition of more highway for future development. As stated in my first post, the slope mod I got from the STEX made things interesting. Highways, streets, ect. are fine on their own, but when they cross a railway it becomes a challenge. But it's well worth it in my opinion.

The avenue intersection here will eventually change with the elimination of the north-south route (with the tunnels) It looked ok, but wasn't used by a single person. I originally built it before the highway, and figured it could be used as a bypass to alleviate some traffic.

This cloverleaf heads from midtown to downtown, and from midtown to the airport across town. It dumps into an avenue that will make up the main entry into downtown. Whoever developed the NAM is a godsend for creating a transition between the elevated highway and the avenues.

The exit to the airport. Again. I know most people have moved to the RHW at this point, but I don't quite have the patience for it yet. 

 

Stay tuned for downtown!