[HELP/ADVICE NEEDED] I suck at traffic management in SimCity 2013. Help?

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by We3_MPO, May 10, 2018.

  1. I've been trying to better myself at it for 2+ years now, and I've even read many internet articles about it over time, but even to this day, my cities either get choked in nightmare traffic, go bankrupt trying to prevent/cure it, or worse and more often, both. I don't even need to do tourism or high density cities (I want to though) for both the streets and region highways to become choked, sometimes even gridlocked near especially bad intersections during rush hour. I have repeatedly tried using streetcar tracks/university pathways for pedestrian shortcuts, as well as multiple mass transit options both in town and between cities, but nothing seems to work, even mixing all my zones together everywhere in a microenvironment and scattering everything on longer roads with few intersections and many pedestrian shortcuts. Help?

    Also, this happens even in the flattest city sites of huge regions like Rambling Badlands and Discovery Delta.
  2. Disclaimer: ElfinPineapple has never played Simcity but knows a thing or two about traffic management courtesy of people he knew in the field while in graduate school. He does not guarantee that his suggestions can be translated to the game.

    Study the highway/road layout of Atlanta, Georgia.

    Don't do what they did.

    You'll probably be at least 40% of the way to optimum efficiency. :p

    But in all seriousness, traffic is going to be a reality in highly populated areas no matter what you do. The key is to minimize rather than eliminate it. Sniff out and eliminate chokepoints where a bunch of cars from two or more roadways/highways are being forced into a single highway, or even a single lane. Outside of accidents and poorly timed lights, this is probably a main reason for jams occurring on your roads, highways, as well as highway exits. That said, study traffic flows. If its flowing fine on a one lane then keep it, but if traffic is constantly backing up, consider an extra lane if you can afford the space.

    Also consider a grid style roadway system (think Phoenix, New York City, etc.). This creates multiple pathways to a single location (as many as 8, two from each direction) rather than two at best, and that's just from a random point one block away from the location. More ways to a location = greater efficiency. You'll have to do a lot of work coordinating the lights but once its set you'll likely see a significant improvement.

    Lastly, mass transit is insanely helpful long run but the short term output on payment is likely not going to be worth your while. Your best bet early on is to focus on smoothing out the roadways and then going after mass transit when you've reached the point that you can't fix traffic through conventional methods. That said, this is inevitable - anticipate it.

    Sooner or later, if you've done your job really well all around, you'll reach a point where you've built out so much that you cannot expand anymore yet traffic is still horrible and getting worse (a la NYC/Washington DC). Don't commit to it too early as I stated, but start mentally planning things like bus stations, railway stations, railway paths, etc. Then when you start seeing that inevitable brick wall, you can shift gears towards this angle and have everything ready to go before you hit it. Learn from the mistakes of the Georgia DoT - they will serve you well. :p

    That's all I can think of off the top of my head. If I come up with anything else I'll let you know.
    Tuqueque, FadedMartian and We3_MPO like this.
  3. Thank you! And yeah LOL, don't listen to what Atlanta (which I have family in), Los Angeles, Dallas (which I have visited), Las Vegas, and Nashville (which I currently live somewhat near) have to say, as those cities are purely traffic snarled (even in the outer suburbs and interstates leading to some of their neighbors) no matter what they try to add...
    ElfinPineapple likes this.
  4. I snuck a small *but* in the mass transit suggestion after the fact that might be worth looking at. Wanted to make sure you were aware of it in case you missed it.

    EDIT: Los Angeles/Orange County is a county of ten million people that can only feasibly hold one million. There is no quick fix remedy for them :p
    We3_MPO likes this.
  5. I have a later sim city installment and I remember that it's important to have as little crossroads as possible with as biggest roads that you can afford and start looking into public transportation asap. The city growth happens fast and if you aren't on top of it, you will have congested roads. I have not figured out the key to the issue as well
    We3_MPO likes this.
  6. Yeah, I know the tips about not having any 4-way intersections, not placing buildings along avenues, making your entering avenue longer with fewer/later intersections, and taking mass transit very seriously. However, none of those things work for me (they seem to help but not solve the issue), even when I mix all my zoning, and it doesn't even have to be a high density or tourism city to happen (but I do want to have high density cities, including tourism ones, that don't jam up constantly and gridlock periodically). I even use trains and ferries between cities, and try to bring tourists in by trains, cruise ships, and airports; once again, that helps, but doesn't solve the issue.