SC4: Rush Hour in Alabama

[vovan]

As you can see from the report above, the population of my city more than doubled in the past five years. A big part of this was that I introduced a huge new district in the last year. My old housing district is mainly aimed for medium-high welath residents, whereas there was a huge demand for the housing for the poor. Hence, I created a new district specially for them. Right next to the industry, so they don't have to drive far to work. I have provided them with water, and plan on giving them fire and police coverage eventually. But other than that, while the industry is still there, I will probably keep this neighborhood poor and won't provide them with rent-cost-boosting things like medical coverage or education...

[vovan]

Also, you can see that the amount of industry jobs more than quadrupled in the five year period. That was due to aggressive manufacturing sector expansion. The new manufacturing district is shown here. Note that before the slums to the south were constructed, the only way from housing to the industry was via the avenue that goes to the east. Well, I put in a toll booth on there, and it was raking hefty profits of some $400+ a month, thereby paying all of the transportation department expenses. The only problem was that the toll booth could only serve 3000 cars, and I had well over that going through it each day, so that caused quite a bit of traffic delays.

[vovan]

The traffic now isn't that much of a problem, because for one thing there is now these slums to the south of the industrial district, and so many of the workers come from there now. Also, you can see on the attached picture the new commercial district, which accounted from more than tripling in the number of commercial jobs over the past five years. Many of the wealthier people now work there.

You can also see how the old housing district has not grown so much in area, but has certainly grown in height.

[vovan]

Finally, you can see the Mayor's home surrounded by houses of the wealthy... Vovanburgers.

[vovan]

This is with the patch installed, btw, so hopefully people won't have any problems with it...

Also, if people could look at my city and tell me how the heck I'm supposed to take care of my traffic problems, I would be much obliged. Look at the old district, some of the roads are all jammed up.

I could put bus stops all over the place, but I am not sure about that, because that won't take much load off of roads, would it? It seems to me I need some kind of public transportation that is not road-tied. So, trains would be good. Of course, trains aren't really acceptable, because for one thing I have nowhere to put them, for another I don't want to stick them into the wealthy district, and that's where I have traffic problems... So, I'm afraid, subways or restructuring of streets is the only way to go...

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by vovan
This is with the patch installed, btw, so hopefully people won't have any problems with it...

Also, if people could look at my city and tell me how the heck I'm supposed to take care of my traffic problems, I would be much obliged.

Geting a road planner without parkinson's might be a start.

I could put bus stops all over the place, but I am not sure about that, because that won't take much load off of roads, would it? It seems to me I need some kind of public transportation that is not road-tied. So, trains would be good. Of course, trains aren't really acceptable, because for one thing I have nowhere to put them, for another I don't want to stick them into the wealthy district, and that's where I have traffic problems... So, I'm afraid, subways or restructuring of streets is the only way to go...

Buses would be a good start, but only temporarily, because there is only so much they can do. Subways would be ambitious, but probably overkill with the size of community you have.

[vovan]

Originally posted by Osweld
Geting a road planner without parkinson's might be a start.

Originally posted by Osweld
Buses would be a good start, but only temporarily, because there is only so much they can do. Subways would be ambitious, but probably overkill with the size of community you have.

That's what I figure. I already have some buses between the old residential district and the commercial district, but they don't help traffic any...

[General Ludd]

You could also experiment with parking garages and 'transport hubs' that contain bus stops, train stops, subways, or whatever kind of transport you decide to go with.

[vovan]

Yeah... There are two good places to cross between the mountains on the other side of the city. One on the north, where the avenue currently goes, and one on the south, at the tip of the new slums. Now, what I was thinking is: put a parking garage on the south part of the old district, and then pull a railroad from there, through the south pass, and the slums into the industry. Now, industry already has space left over specially for the railroad tracks. Although the slums don't, so I could alternatively just dig a tunnel. Either way, my idea was to direct traffic through the south part of the old district, via a parking garage, and railroad into the industry. That way, the entrances from the residential area onto the avenue, which are the most busy streets, would become less busy, because some people would take the southern route. Now, the only problem with that is, I am not sure yet how many people would actually take that route, as maybe the avenue would still be faster... Also, I was thinking about putting more buses into the commercial area...

Yeah... Fun.

[vovan]

I'll download your city and take a look at it now. One question only though:

How in the world did you get that much money!?

I did about as much expansion as you did (or maybe even more, judging by percentage growth), and I've had $2000+ profit all the time. And still I only have like $22000. How did you get $171K? I wish to have that much money too.

[vovan]

Okay.

[mrmitchell]

vovan: Perhaps neighbor deals?

Or maybe he just took out a loan or however it is phrased in SC4.

[vovan]

You will learn it without my help soon enough.

mrmitchell, that may very well be. I guess I could just take a look at the city, and see what kind of interest is being paid and what kind of neighbor deals are up, and we'll then see if your guesses are true.

[Colonâ„¢]

Would SC4K run on an AMD Duron 750mhz + 128MB RAM? Thinking about buying it.

[Colonâ„¢]

Elaborate.