doctorgonzo

Yep, there are HOV lanes everywhere, even in MN: I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for an interchange like that in SC, though. This particular interchange won an award for excellent highway design.

SPUIs are much better for high-traffic intersections. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is replacing many old diamond interchanges with SPUIs in order to help with bottlenecks. Aside from the new one that Braxton mentioned near Best Buy's new corporate headquarters, there is a SPUI near the Mall of America (yes, there is a lot of traffic ) and at other locations where there is high traffic. It takes getting used to, but they are better. The key is that left turns do not overlap and thus do not stack up. This great link explains them well.

I think the median is very realistic. Think of it this way: avenues can carry more traffic because vehicles can't make a left turn wherever they want. They can only make left turns at proper intersection. Taking away the median is the unrealistic version, in my opinion. The only place where the median is truly a problem is at the highway/avenue interchanges. That is a proper intersection, and traffic in real life is able to make a left turn at these kinds of interchanges, either from the avenue to the entrance ramp or from the exit ramp onto the avenue. I would much rather see that fixed than see median removed elsewhere.

Transportation Options.....8/10 - I got what I wanted in terms of avenues and ground-level highways. However, there are still some pretty significant bugs in pathfinding which make things less fun. I would like to see an avenue to freeway cloverleaf interchange, especially since the normal diamond interchange doesn't allow for left turns, a pretty big oversight. Folded diamonds would be very helpful for places where a railroad is right next to a road (happens a lot). U-Drive It.................7/10 - I like it. It is a fun distraction. European Tile Set..........9/10 - Haven't seen too much of it but I think anything that adds to variety is good. Bridges....................9/10 - Again, variety is good. Disasters..................NA/10 - Haven't used them. Personalization............8/10 - Finally, I can name my streets so I know where I am when I try to make realistic cities. My Sims....................NA/10 - Haven't used it. Overall....................8/10 - Route query fixed something that was sorely lacking in the original release. Now if we can get the pathfinding engine to work in a better manner, and we can fix all of those interchange bugs, we will be where we should be.