Contributor/author(s): Keegan Lucas
Your commuters only travel at one mile per hour.
That's right folks. Let me explain my experiment.
I set up a 2x2 zone of dense industrial with a road leading to a 2x2 zone of residential. I started with 10 spaces between the two zones. What popped up were two low income lots with 8 people total, and then an industry that had 9 jobs. This kept the simulation simple. I would then move the residential zone 10 tiles further after recording average commutes.
This is what resulted - with 10 tiles between, there was an average commute time of six minutes. Every 10 tiles further added another six minutes (approximately). By the time it was at 100 tiles we were at 62 minutes.
What does this mean?
Well, Maxis has finally owned up to a truer sense of scale with SC4 (much appreciated). They tell us that a tile is 16 meters (roughly 53 feet) across, as opposed to telling us SC3k's tiles were about 200 feet across. Unfortunately, unrealistic commute times have persevered. 100 tiles is about a mile, and that means your sims are traveling 1 mile per hour.
I was excited when I heard that sims might be willing to travel up to 2.5 hours. Well, that's time spent on about two miles, and it honestly messes with the whole regional idea.
It seems to me that they've never gotten the commute times right. Play SC2K again and you'll see how closely you have to build every zone for anything to survive. SC3K expanded this quite a lot, but is still not realistic. And now this.
See also
How to make dedicated bus lanes
Traffic and Mass Transit Overview
Mega income from toll booths



Sign In or register to comment...
To comment in reply, you must be a community member
Sign In
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowCreate an Account
Sign up to join our friendly community. It's easy!
Register a New Account