davidhogan

Date:10/4/2004 10:33:22 PM Author:ChicAgo333 i love this city journal, its just incredible quote> i've noticed i get more excited about updates on Crystal Junction than playing sc4 myself... great cj, please keep it going. Dave

Black's is an amazing beach - there are ways to access it that don't require passing through the nude portion, but what fun is there in that? Thanks for the comments, it's always motivational to keep working on this project to know people are reading. I'm not sure if I want to keep working towards the South Bay, I-15, Clairemont, El Cajon, Escondido, Ramona, etc... It's such a big map it's tough to decide. I know I'll be adding a golf course to La Jolla, an airport at Miramar, and I'd like to work on Tierrasanta soon also - but I guess you'll have to wait and see! Any suggestions, please feel free to post. This would have been a new post, but this was recent enough: CA-209 Construction Underway These two ballparks were the last hangup in construction. Local residents staged a protest that included chaining themselves to the backstop to prevent their destruction. They forgot that chain link fence is easily cut with wire cutters, so their protest lasted all of 5 minutes after the police arrived. To avoid irritating too many residents, the ballparks are now planned to be relocated. (Historical background: CA-209 was the designation of Rosecrans St from the I-5/I-8 interchange to the tip of Point Loma past the sub bases in real life. This designation was relinquished in 1999 (I think, I could be wrong). There was supposedly discussion in the 1950's of making it a freeway, but it now stands mostly as a 4C/6C and 6E roadway, maintained by the city of San Diego.) I had plenty of traffic problems between I-5 and the Pacific Ocean, and local residents were asking for any way to get downtown and the airport areas faster. This route was planned as an avenue, but is being constructed as a freeway because the funding was available, and it will allow for the faster flow of traffic. At this point, having learned from the San Francisco Embarcadero Freeway disaster, San Diego County is not planning on continuing the CA-209 freeway along the Pacific Coast, instead terminating it into Sunset Cliffs Blvd a few hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean. Dave

San Diego County Page 3! The picture is a link to a full-size image of the region, have fun. Dave

North County Urbanization Area Continues Growth Along the CA-56's western stub a small community has started to grow. More small planned areas like this are expected to crop up throughout North County as residents attempt to escape the city life that so much of the metro areas have become. Dave

as good as i've heard florida's beaches are, every surfer i've ever met has said you can't do much better than San Diego without heading to hawaii. there's a place in La Jolla that's, well, just amazing. i don't think SC4's terrain could recreate the cliffs you need to hike down to get to it, but it's worth it. i've seen a few surf magazines mention everywhere from San Clemente (northern edge of SD county IRL), to Sunset Cliffs are the best places to surf, but i'd have to pick La Jolla myself. if only other drivers there could learn how to handle a stop sign. Dave

Mount Soledad Regional Park Named The expansive open space has been purchased and taken over by the city of San Diego to protect it against any further development. The park stretches from close to Mount Soledad Blvd, down to Pacific Beach, east past I-5, and north past La Jolla Parkway (the West end of CA-52.) Areas along the PB Foothills and in La Jolla are being reserved also to create a Shore to Soledad park, continuous open space all the way from the beaches of La Jolla to Mount Soledad Regional Park. All current development within the borders of the park has been allowed to stay, but no new construction will be allowed except in the antenna array as needed. There's about 15,000 people living on the hill right now, but the city council has repeatedly stated they will not add more burden on the strained traffic network of Pacific Beach/La Jolla by increasing residential density any higher. (There was a new legistlative action that rezoned much of Mount Soledad Blvd, shown above, from low to medium density commercial shortly after the picture was taken.) This area was the last part of Mount Soledad to be developed. You can see that the zoning planned to make this area a more walkable community, with shops (and jobs) offered off the main blvds back into the neighborhood. The Tops shown above is one of the most successful in San Diego County. There's been talk of elevating parts of CA-52 to allow animal undercrossings. This photo shows why. Dave

those zoned areas just look magnificant. i'm sure you're getting as excited about zoning it as we are about seeing it. Dave

Wow! 20 days since my last update... Really, I've just been busy, so not playing SC4 as much as I'd like, and it's almost all been really spread out. Recent construction includes: Portions of most areas between Pacific Beach and CA-56 west of I-5. Portions of I-15 corridor near CA-56 (Rancho Penasquitos and Poway areas south to Miramar Ranch.) West and East stubs of CA-56 (just like real life for over 10 years.) Areas of Carlsbad Small segments of I-8 corridor West of CA-15 Pictures soon, but there's really not much to show other than low density houses and roads carved into hills. Dave

I hadn't seen these listed: How about a Freeway over Avenue cloverleaf? These are quite common in some areas, since the provide one less stop light on the avenue and better throughput. How about Avenue over Avenue cloverleafs? These seem to be common in Texas, and are gaining popularity out here in California. Avenue -> Road and Avenue -> Avenue off-ramps? Again, reduces the number of traffic lights. I've been realizing more and more that the avenues would be a lot more useful if they had a mix of the capabilities of roads and freeways, such as more access controls, and more interchanges. (Ave->Ave T-junction would be cool too.) It seems like these wouldn't maybe need new models, just to re-texture the existing freeway pieces so they look like avenue pieces? Dave

If you're already modeling #25, how about a version of the same that allows access to/from the other side of the freeway also? 2 little flyover ramps is all it'd need. Dave

request #5 is for angled ones, and there's a request for a one-sided version, but i didn't see a request for a bi-directional t junction yet. dave

How about an avenue version of the T-stack that's used for highway/highway interchanges now? I know you can just build a freeway stub, but it'd be pretty cool if there was a way to end an avenue into a highway without needing to have the highway stub first. Just a cosmetic thing, but with how great the other interchanges look I figured I could at least ask for it. Here's a terrible, terrible sketch of the basic travel paths, the east/west is the freeway, north/south is the ave. Any takers? Dave PS: A version that could use a road north/south instead of an avenue, so that there's full freeway access, but no 3 tile stub past the freeway to do it, would also be great.

If anyone here has to really park in San Diego, the trick is to find a residential area near where you want to go, and be willing to walk 1/4 mile from your car. I pay for parking maybe twice a month, and I drive 2000 miles/mo in SD... Dave

Good thing nobody's filed a recall petition yet! I'm sure there's developers trying to call every day, the land values must be skyrocketing with this summers zoning moratorium. Dave

The three-way avenue junction is part of the newest version of the Network Addon Mod. It's in Mods -> The Essentials, and there's an 80 page thread about it too. It's the reason I have so many half-interchanges too. Dave

Community of Bird Rock Welcomes Millionth San Diegan The new community of Bird Rock (between La Jolla and Pacific Beach) helped push San Diego County over the 1 million residents mark. This park-filled community is the junction of Foothill Blvd, Mission Blvd, and La Jolla Blvd, as shown in the left side of the above picture. A mixture of condos, single family houses, and small shops makes up most of Bird Rock. This area along Mission Blvd is a great area to take Aunt Trudy when she shows up for a vacation in San Diego, but not at 5 pm on a Friday. The traffic is the only complaint most residents have though, and with the beach-front real estate, most don't mind it that much. Dave

Regional Road Map http://img25.exs.cx/img25/1047/region-roads-pre.jpg width=600 border=0>

Clairemont Expressway / CA-296 Opens To Traffic! This shot, taken just 4 years ago, showed the already re-located police station, and the freeway segment that had been already constructed east of the Bay Terrace community. This was an interesting freeway construction project, because the only opposition came from businesses facing Clairemont Dr. The avenue was at about 100% of capacity causing long delays for commuters trying to get between I-5 and I-805. Real estate developers moved in quickly to build up the entire length of CA-296 almost as quickly as it was completed. The tunnel passing under eastern Bay Terrace was constructed in order to keep the freeway from entirely cutting the community in half. Upon completion of the new freeway CalTrans agreed to give it the number CA-296 and take on maintenance of it. To the locals, it's still called the Clairemont Expressway. Dave

Those region shots are great, Montgomery Field ended up looking great too. If you can post some shots of Tierrasanta I've been driving through there all the time lately, I'd love to see how you've rebuilt it. Dave

Thanks for the comments, I just found a little program called Region Census that let me get this shot of SDC: http://img5.exs.cx/img5/518/bigregion-pre.jpg width=357 border=0> That's a link to a bigger copy of the picture, about 650KB, so it'll take a while on dial-up. (You've been warned.) Dave

This is looking great, I can't wait to see it start getting zoned out. I'd also love to know how you did that final region shot. I've tried piecing a big one together for my region, but it's going to take hours in Photoshop. edit: Found Region Census, nm. Dave

San Diego County Breaks 750K Population Barrier! San Diego County is now three quarters of the way to a million people. The construction of the new CA-308A freeway (which has only two exits, CA-163 and CA-308) has decreased traffic significantly on Broadway into the Golden Hill neighborhood. Other significant gains against traffic congestion have been made by extending the subway network into areas of Golden Hill along Market Street and near East San Diego University along the eastern edge of Balboa Park. To the south the subway now runs to the industrial parks of Barrio Logan, which itself has seen a few high-rise apartments built. Coronado Island also has received a downtown subway loop, funded mostly by an increase in density across the whole city. Plans to add another line in Coronado are developing quickly. This subway system in turn feeds the new ferryboat system, which is planned to expand operations to Harbor Island soon. Downtown has continued to experience growth as well, with over 200,000 residents in the 2km x 2km square officially labelled downtown. (Keep in mind over half the land is the San Diego Bay or Balboa Park.) Don't worry though - San Diego isn't going to become an all-skyscraper city. The sprawl is still happening to the east, and along the I-15 corridor, and all along the coast as well. Region shots soon. Dave

19) What is an HOV lane? High Occupancy Vehicle. In California, this means carpools also, depending on the area 2+ or 3+ people per vehicle. 21) Where is the most extensive subway system in the world? Tokyo, London, or NY... I'll guess... NY 22) Where is the only public Monorail used for Commuter transport in the US? Seattle? 24) What is currently the worlds longest bridge (from anchorage to anchorage)? The Akashi Kaikyo bridge in Japan? 25) Where can you find the old London Bridge? Havasu City, Arizona, US 26) Where can you find 'Carhenge'? Alliance, Nebraska 27) What Lighthouse is pictured on the bags of Cape Cod Brand Potato Chips and where is it (looking for a town name)? No idea. Dave

10) Name all Interstate numbers (1 and 2 digit) that are reused. Like, how 80/90 merge and split again? Or I-86, in NY and Idaho, non-contiguously? 11) What interstate ends at a bed and breakfast? There's a bed and breakfast about 3 blocks from the west end of I-8 in Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA. Not sure you mean that one, but it's close. The skate park is way, way closer. (You can see it from the stoplight at the end of I-8, if you kept going straight you'd hit a fence then a few ramps.) 12) What interstate is signed in metric (kilometers instead of miles)? No idea. 13) What 3DI number is used the most times? It's gotta be x90 or x95, probably 190, 290 or 495. 14) What is the longest interstate that doesn't cross a state line? I-45 in TX? 15) What is the world's busiest toll road? NYS Thruway? 16) Name all interstates (1 and 2 digit) that don't have any 3DI's to them. I-8 doesn't. 17) What is the only interstate to have it's designation written into law? I-99 was the first, but I think I-86 in Idaho, as well as one other have been since. 18) Why do some state routes in new england (e.g. 8, 10, 32) go through multiple states, not changing numbers across state lines? Good planning? Dave

Mira Mesa Continues to Grow There's been growth near downtown, but we're waiting for confirmation of a freeway name before I showcase that. For now, that's the North County Urbanization Area, as shown a few updates ago. It's been growing rapidly as well, and as shown the county's population is now over 650,000 people. The neighborhood above has no commercial or industrial zones yet - all 7000+ residents commute to neighboring Northwest Mira Mesa (east) or Carroll Canyon (south) to get to work. This has led the residents of NW Mira Mesa and Carroll Canyon to be rather upset, but there's no alternate routes to work until Camino Santa Fe is completed to CA-56 across Carmel Valley, but even then CA-56 is still in it's concept stages and won't be completed until the North City areas grow out more to the north and east. Heading south we find Carroll Canyon; a mix of industrial, commerical, and residential in the East Hills. Mira Mesa Blvd (shown) and Carroll Canyon Rd are the only two East/West connectors open to traffic from I-805 to I-15 until CA-52 is completed, or Miramar Rd is opened to traffic. (It's shown on the maps, but until developers finish work along it it's only open to local traffic. In other words I have no population yet in some areas it passes through.) I'm realizing I made a big mistake labelling that picture. It's actually Mira Mesa Blvd. @ Camino Ruiz, but it's already made and uploaded so I'm not going to worry. I know it, you now know it. I think we're okay. The point of the picture is to show some of the traffic frustrations residents are feeling. At rush hour Mira Mesa is nearly gridlocked - at least on Black Mountain Rd and Mira Mesa Blvd. I did not intend to re-create this in the game - I've built Mira Mesa much differently than the real thing, yet those are two of the most congested roads in the city in real life. (Both had FFF ratings in 2003, meaning total gridlock at peak hours.) In SC4, they're both still bright red. I might need to add busses someday soon. (Commute times are still quite reasonable though.) Questions? Comments? Ideas? Dave