*Land-Use*
- I know alot of you guys might already do this, but mix up your zoning!
In medium/heavy dense areas, don't go for the massive swaths of residential
seperated from commercial. Intersperse them amongst your small blocks:
this increases chances of walkability and in the long run makes mass transit
more viable. In low dense areas, you don't have the necessary population to
support such high quantity of commercial zoning, even if low, so you have to
gradually transition to mixed up uses. If you feel daring, mix up zoning in
a single block (which is extra special considering you have such little zoning
room in the first place).

I say in the long run for mass transit, since early on, when you are still
sparsely dense, mass transit works better when there is a clear direction for
where the jobs are, ie you have R on the west, C on teh east, and all your
bus stops/rails are connecting them. In the long run, when you start getting
stage 6 and up for both R and C, instead of having terrible one-way commutes
in the morning (in the previous example, going eastwards in the morning,
westwards in the evening), you disperse traffic all throughout your city.
In addition, bus transit and subway becomes highly effective at this point
since people are trying to get everywhere and you're not just focusing them
in on a single traffic corridor. El rail, Monorail, and light (passenger) rail
are great backbone infrastructure (light rail better, but i'll get into that later)
but in the end, the puny stops and incredible flexibility of both buses and
subways will make them reign supreme.

- Go for transit-oriented developments in your more suburban areas.

Definition: Transit oriented developments are generally mixed-use
developments around a significant, non-asphalt transportation corridor. They are
one of the major design principles behind new urbanism and are built on the premise that
a) it gives suburban dwellers a pseudo-urban alternative (that is, urbanity
with some of the benefits of suburbanity while lacking some of the urban
excitement) b) the mixed-use in such a small area will promote walkability
(people walking to stores or even work) c) the proximity to a major transportation
corridor will improve the chance that people will take public transit to their work
instead of driving.

So how does this work in SimCity land? Well, its most effective when they center
around a light rail or monorail stop, as they stretch out from your center city
into more lightly dense areas. El rails don't work as well because a) light rail
allows for park-and-drive, which is more conducive to the surrounding, lighter dense
areas b) monorails, while they require walking, can compensate with a parking garage,
and can compensate the taxable land lost to a parking garage with enormous speeds
c) el rails have neither speed nor built-in-parking.

How about designing a ToD? A very good example of ToD in action is Orenco Station
in Portland, Ore. Look it up on google if you want. Basically, have roads oriented
towards the stop in question, make sure blocks are small, have neighborhood or
pocket parks, and mix up medium dense zones near the transit stop and have really
small block low dense zones further out (rowhomes also count for the further out
areas, although this requires zoning micromanagement, ie checkerboarding medium
and high R zoning so that lots are restricted to 1 by X, where X is less than or equal
to 3).

- Park Blocks! Portland, Ore. dedicates several contiguous blocks to park use in their
city. Amidst your soon-to-be high skyscraper corridor, you want urban oases. Not only
does this create a lovely urban valley effect in SimCity's rendering, but for your Sims,
nature does good for them. (Scientific study has shown that the sight of nature helps
stimulate the mind and promote coordination.) Plus, it gives you a great chance
to cultivate Street Walls. This isn't exactly a tenet of smart growth, but in older, built
up cities, street walls are basically tall buildings built right next to each other near
some sort of open space so its literally a wall of buildings for that street. New York
has a great one around Central Park. Chicago has an amazing one near Grant Park (on
Michigan Ave).

More coming soon...