Neighbour Connections

Neighbour connections are not just ways for sims to move between city tiles in the region.  They are bustling centres of intercity traffic and commercial opportunities.  I'm talking C$$ and C$$$, which is the big source of both jobs and city budget, also known as "axle grease", "sugar and honey", "big bucks", "loot", and "dosh".  

Did you know that high traffic = high wealth, in terms of developing your commercial zones?  In both SimCity and in real life, commercial zones make the most money where there is traffic.  In SimCity, commercial zone wealth is directly proportional to traffic in the 2 tile perimeter of each commercial lot.  Yes, corner lots on major throughfares have an advantage!

One simple way to think of it is this — your residential zones hate traffic, but your commercial zones love it!  

There are many techniques for developing city traffic, but one of the biggest ones is placement (and commercial zoning) of your neighbour connections.

I always play with a large city startup loan (Ctrl+X moolah), but also with the objective of reaching a balanced cash flow, and the long-term objective of repaying the "loan".  I care only a little bit about capital plop cost, but care a heck of a lot about monthly cost.

For Breezy Point, located on a peninsula (see the Breezy Point portion of the SC4Mapper region map below), the only  road neighbour connection  is at the north of the city map, but the large bodies of water actually contain the most potent neighbour connection opportunities ...  ferries .  I talk more about the fertile tourist commercial opportunities that ferries provide in this other post of mine, which also includes a broader map of my East New York region.

You'll notice that I've deliberately spaced my ferries widely apart.  One thing you don't want to do, is zone residential right up close to a ferry, as your sims will take the first ferry out of the city.  It's better to help your sims find employment in your home city, but to use the ferry terminal as a neighbour connection to drive traffic, and delicious commercial C$$ and C$$$ high traffic opportunities.

Ferries are also a great way to avoid No Job Zots, but that only works when you have several cities with ferries to provide employment.

Around each of my three ferries, and the northern neighbour connection, I'll be placing the largest commercial zoning directly along all the heaviest traffic routes.  In the early stages, given this is the first city in the region, the Breezy Point residents will use the ferries simply to help travel around the map ... because sims often LOVE a good ferry commute to work.  Later, as I develop more cities in the region, the ferry terminals will become buzzing centres of commerce, tourists, hustle, and retail opportunity.Large C$$ and C$$$ offices being the largest employers in SimCity 4, the commercial zoning of high traffic areas slowly becomes a "virtuous cycle" (the opposite of a vicious cycle) driving more and more commuter traffic and commercial opportunity through those zones.