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I've been trying many times to build a good city. I usually have no problem with population, money, education, etc. However, traffic is my worst enemy. I tend to have messed up traffic in my cities, and I have no idea how to fix them. I admit that I don't plan my city in advance, but I DO plan my road network before building anything. Everything goes well until my adviser starts yelling about traffic jams and congestion, then I'll start adding bus stops. More congestions are inevitable, so I build subways. Apparently, I'm not good at deciding the best locations for these stops, since they are not being used optimally, and traffic gets worse as my population grows. I've been trying different ways to smooth down traffic: eliminating intersections, building more roads, converting streets, even linking highways. No matter what I do though, there's bound to be some kind of congestion. To sum it all off, after many reconstruction of my network, the final piece is a total mess, not to mention the fact that my buildings get abandoned often thanks to long freight or commune times (I DO build freight train stations!) Basically, I'm at lost on what to do. Traffic is the only part of the game which prevents me from enjoying it. I'd really appreciate any tip or link which may help me fix my traffic issues. Sorry for this long-winded post, and I've attached my latest congested city for anyone who bothers (3MB, so I've to split it into 3 since attachment only allows 1MB each). To open, select an empty medium city tile in your region and Import. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, I'll see if that fixes the problem.

Yeah, along with the No Dilapidation, which is why I removed them after installing the Cleanitol.

No problem, sam. It's just that it's rather annoying to reconnect things every time I switch to another city. Perhaps it's got something to do with my rails being too near to the connection? By the way, this doesn't happen all the time, only occasionally. Also, as I've said, only land connections have this problem.

Yeah, precisely why I only install the growable buildings, and dump the ploppable ones. By the way, can anyone answer my question above?

Okay, I just encountered another unexpected problem. I have three interlinked neighbor cities via multiple roads, rails and subways. Frequently, when I switch from one city to another, the roads get disconnected. I don't have any problem with the rails and subways, just the roads. Any idea why this happens?

After installing the mod, the number of crime is almost identical to the number of arrests, but if I view the crime zone, the airport alternates between red and yellow frequently, and that doesn't prevent frequent advisor pop-ups. So basically, stage 8 is the advent of skyscrapers? If so, what does stage 15 look like?

No problem, Sam. in fact, I want to thank everyone for your tremendous help. I wouldn't have gone anywhere near my current city were it not for you guys' help and guidance The mods I use are NAM, CAM, 4x Industry, and No Dilapidation. I followed Ski's Approach and spammed mass transit systems. The result? My traffic network are almost entirely green, something I didn't even think possible. I also managed to build an entire section of HT buildings. In the past, my cities were so polluted from traffic and bad planning that a single HT building was always short-lived. By the way, my monthly revenue was 18k at some point, but soon I binged on rewards buildings I would have never gotten this far without visiting this forum (though this unbelievable progress has, much to parents' dismay, glued me to my seat for 11 hours today) I'm not seeing skyscrapers though... are they impossible without plopping? Or are they only available once you hit a certain population limit?

So it's not fixable without a mod? I'm just frustrated by the frequent advisor pop-ups. Guess that's what I get for playing easy.

By the way, my airport and some rewards buildings tend to be high in crime. I've been dispatching police cars but the crime rate there doesn't seem to decrease?

Thanks for the tips and tricks, and your pic is awesome, sam. I have no talent whatsoever in city planning, so all cities I make look very mundane. This must be my most successful city so far. The only problem I have left is the demand for CO$$$ and CS$$$. Most related buildings are abandoned due to low demand. Aren't these the reason your city grows skyscrapers?

Care to elaborate on the 'mosaic of zonings'? Thanks to all your advice, as well as some new mods, my new city seems promising. However, I'm still stumped on how to solve this type of traffic congestion.

Ah, I see. So generally, how should you locate your rails and freight and passenger train stations? Do you need neighboring cities to use the freight trains?

Thanks for the replies, guys. Yes, I do have the NAM, as well as the x4 Industry mod. I'd have preferred to post screenshots as well (less hassle) but just looking at it I can't figure out anything since everything is so condensed together. On top of that, I've some more questions: -what's the skis approach? -what's a medium strip? -how do you 'choose' the NAM to increase road capacity? -where do you usually place subways, and is it a good idea to make many interlinked underground networks? -why don't my freight trains work? I've placed them next to industrial zones and yet everyone leaves due to long freight time.

Hi all, I'm new to this game, so I haven't grasped fully all the concepts of city-building as well as efficiency in-game. I also have constant problems with roads... For a start, I've got a problem with pollution. I developed my city to the point where there is demand for HT jobs, but the amount of pollution keeps them away. I've tried planting trees, building parks, run ordinances, but they seem to have little effect. The major sources of pollution are the Waste to Power Plant and the Industrial Zones. I don't know of any alternative for the waste disposal other than the plant. My city is small so I can't afford much landfill, besides I think landfill will just keep accumulating overtime. At one point in the game, I removed the industrial zones for awhile. This reduced the amount of pollution and I HT jobs start to appear once I rezone, but they disappear after some time since the pollution started spreading throughout the whole city. As for transportation, I've no idea why nobody uses the bus stations, and why is my passenger train station not getting any customers. I have a big problem with my road layouts; they are very messy. I slotted one-way roads on junctions whenever there are congestions. I've seen screen shots of magnificent road layouts by the people here and they put mine to shame. Though since my city is small I can't use stuff like the clover and such. Any suggestion for an efficient road layout? At this moment, residents are becoming unemployed, indicated by the no job symbols. I'm not sure what is causing them though. I also start getting Sims Mental Midgets issue. I've no idea why is the education level declining, just when the average E.Q. was around 160. http://i16.tinypic.com/68790mh.jpg - city view http://i12.tinypic.com/669ymw4.jpg - zone view I hope that wasn't too long-winded. Any help at all is kindly appreciated and of course, tips and tricks at this stage of development are very welcome. Thanks in advance

Wow, no wonder I couldn't find tutorials and references in a SC site... just because I didn't know what omnibus mean...

Thanks again for your input. Anyway, now that I've figured out how to manage a neighboring cities, I've got some more questions: -are airports and seaports worth it, what do they do and can a city has nothing but specialized as an airport? -when you setup an airport, do you need to build another airport in another city for arrival/departure purposes? -what is the estimated maximum number of people a small city can hold? Mine is hardly going above 50k -what are the uses of business rewards? Are they worth it? -can cities share subways? Thanks in advance, I'll be awaiting replies

Thanks, so pollution is indeed the problem. I need some tips and recommendations on sharing between neighboring countries though, such as: -How can you effectively share power and water -How can you send your garbage away for that other city to process? -Does a 'dirty' city need water at all? -I have to build HT industries in the 'clean' city, right? You mentioned how I need to locate my bus stations where people come and go. How do you find out where do they go to work? I've no problem starting a new city though, since this one is kind of out of control. Thanks a lot for your reply, it's very informational.