glicko

Originally posted by: SamJam Originally posted by: haljackey The 407 Eletronic tool road is the only one in Canada I can think of. It scans your licence plate and sends a bill to your home, which is faster than wating in those long tool booth line ups. There may also be one that heads west from Vancouver into the Rockies, but other than that, everything else is free. Also an intresting note, the 407 is the only cement highway in Canada. Even though cement lasts longer, it is so noisey and bumpy compared with quiet, smooth asphalt. Every time I cross the boarder between Sarnia, Canada and Port Huron, United States, the nice smooth ride of the 400-series highways turns into a increadably noisey, bumpy ride of the interstate highways.quote> Just a silly correction - concrete highways are rare in Canada - but the 407 isn't the only one. The Deerfoot Trail in Calgary is concrete surfaced for much of its length. The new western bypass of Edmonton (Anthony Henday Drive) is going to be concrete surfaced. I remember a few concrete roads in Quebec, too. I agree concrete often makes for a bumpy ride (esp. in places where there's a lot of freezing and thawing).

Quick question regarding the Grand Rail Station... The game tells me that it needs a residential AND commercial population of 172,000 AND at least one small station used over 100% capacity. I thought I had just such a city, but, no, the Grand Railroad Station would not unlock. My question is simple, when the game says "Residential AND Commercial population greater than 172,000" does it mean R + C = 172,000 or R = 172,000 AND C = 172,000?

The Single-Point Diamond or "SPUI" is primarily used where you don't have enough right'of-way to construct a full diamond interchange (the highway crossing ramp in SC4 is a diamond interchange). It's good because it only has one set of signals and (if there is no through traffic crossing the street with the lights) you may only need a 3-phase signal system (a signal for through traffic on the surface street, one for left turns on the surface street and one for the ramps). This can make the interchange function better in terms of volume. That said, if you can fit in a proper diamond with enough space to synchronise the lights properly, it tends to function better than a SPUI (that's the City of Calgary's opinion, where they've one of these operating for about 25 years). Others disagree with this assessment. A SPUI is also more expensive in terms of time and materials to construct than a normal diamond. But it is often the only option where you have limited space. As for the the "stack" interchange, I agree it'd be cool to see, it is definitely an imposing piece of work. The present cloverleaf, while more realistic than the ones before, could use some work (i'd love it if the highways actually had merge lanes...U-drive it would go a lot more smoothly!!) It would almost be good if there was a feature that allowed you to start with a "cheap" solution for lower traffic and then upgrade (say, construct a flyover ramp, add loops, etc...) But then this sounds like a nightmare to actually program.

Just to add my 2c: Where I live (Calgary), the "avenues" (basically, major surface traffic arteries) are nearly always divided with a curbed and grassed median or, at least, a concrete "New Jersey" barrier. Single or dual left turn lanes are usually provided as U-turns are discouraged at intersection (and illegal at traffic signals). The only exceptions to this are older streets that once had streetcars and some industrial roads. Two-way left turn lanes (aka "suicide lanes") are almost never used. Simcity's avenues model Calgary's "divided major street" and "expressway"-class roads very well ("expressway" in Calgary means high-speed road with grade-level intersections and strict access control -- no private driveways). Every city (in the real world) has its own design standards and road classifications. Michigan left-turns, Jersey jughandles (left turns from the right lane), Melbourne's hook-turns, etc... are completely normal in some places and absolutely bizarre in others. That said, it sounds like it'd be exsquisite hell for the designers at Maxis to cater to all of the strange traffic designs people come up with (or default to!).