Simcity RH Game 4

[Kuciwalker]

I built them at the same time, actually, before I actually started time.

[Maquiladora]

Thought you might have... try dozing the ferries, see what happens.

[Kuciwalker]

Probably the traffic on the roads to the elevated rail skyrockets :/

Since Sims like driving so much, maybe I should put a garage next to the station. Right now I just have a bus stop.

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
The train station isn't any less accessible than the ferry terminals

There are four levels of car-transit connections.

1. Point to point: requires start and finish to be near walking distance of a stop.

2. Bus: boarding takes place at a stop, getting off anywhere. Commute time calculations count only the trip to work, not the one back. Does this mean one can take the bus to work but have to walk home, uphill in the snow? Possibly.

3. Park and ride: Trains, other systems with garage: cars can connect from home to station, but a stop must exist near destination.

4. Car ferry: Think of ferry terminals as unlimited capacity highway interchanges.

[Kuciwalker]

Wait, cars can park at the train station?



I've always hooked up my mass transit stations to my bus network, so that Sim walks to bus, takes bus to station, takes train to destination station, takes bus to bus stop, walks to work.

[Blake]

Since Sims like driving so much, maybe I should put a garage next to the station. Right now I just have a bus stop.

Sims do not like driving, 90% of Sims prefer the bus. Your bus network just stinks.

2. Bus: boarding takes place at a stop, getting off anywhere. Commute time calculations count only the trip to work, not the one back. Does this mean one can take the bus to work but have to walk home, uphill in the snow? Possibly.

Not quite on both counts. Disembarking also requires a bus stop (unless they commute to another city).
Both commute directions are accounted for, if you make a nice long one way road and expect them to walk back up it, they'll say "Screw going to work".

Wait, cars can park at the train station?

Sims can drive cars to Train Stations, however you don't really want them to, buses don't cause congestion so it's better if they take the bus. They also can't drive from the destination train station, so you still need bus coverage of the workplaces.

On the matter of effective bus systems I wrote this post at Simtropolis, where I post as Grater, so this is not plagiarism =)

Most Sims prefer bus to car, assuming it's not a long walk to the bus stop. It is best to make sure sims don't have to walk more than 6 tiles to a bus stop, 4 tiles is ideal. A bus stop every 8 tiles is therfore nearly optimal - sometimes I build them closer, it is better to have too many bus stops than not enough (within reason).

By far the most important factor in bus usage is overall bus stop coverage.
Say that 40% of homes are within bus stop range, and 40% of workplaces are within bus stop range.
Spot question: how many Sims have the option of taking the bus?
If you guessed 40%, you would be dead wrong. It is actually only 16%.

SC4 does not have a planned economy, Sims are not allocated jobs in a way that would be optimal for mass transit usage. Lets go visit Bob Newbie, he is a completely random Sim living in a random home going to a random job.
There is a 40% chance that Bob lives within walking distance of a bus stop. There is a 40% chance that his workplace is within walking distance of a bus stop. Taken together there is only a 16% (40% of 40%) chance that he can ride the bus to work. There is also a ~30% chance he would rather drive, so in this city of random Bob Newbies about 11% will take the bus.

Note that with skewed coverage the numbers are even worse, with 70% home coverage but only 10% work coverage, only 7% of Sims have the bus option and only 5% will end up using it. It will appear to be a rather abysmal investment. (I used to build my bus networks like this, under the mistaken assumption that Sims could disembark anywhere)

Anyway, going back to the 40%/40% city, lets double the number of bus stops so that there is 80%/80% coverage. Now 64% of Sims can ride the bus to work, doubling the coverage quadrupled the ridership. The closer you get to 100% coverage, the better the returns on your bus system. A bus system is really an all-or-nothing thing, there is little point in going halfway.

It is a myth that most Sims prefer to drive, if most Sims are driving it means your bus network stinks. With 100% bus coverage (and an average wealth mix) approximately 70% of Sims will prefer to take the bus, over longer distances it can be more like 90% or even 100%. Busses don't cause congestion so a full bus network will reduce congestion by ~70% or even higher, effectively upgrading the capacity of roads by 4x or more (like a pair of avenues).
NAM does not directly effect these numbers, but does reduce the number of bus stops needed for perfect coverage.

Full bus coverage also forms the basis of more avanced mass transit, there is no point building monorail without a bus network to deliver sims to/from stations (remember they can't drive to or from stations). With such a bus system your monorail will enjoy exceptional usage (station congestion might become a problem).

It is always best to place bus stops from the very start (they are cheap and with 100% coverage they'll start making a profit before long). Another way is to leaving lots of gaps when zoning, I suggest leaving a gap between every 3 zoned tiles. You can also just zone the "spare" gaps once you're happy with bus stop placement, so there is really nothing to lose doing this. You'll still want to place the bus stops very early as they are good for growth and useful long before congestion becomes a problem.

A solid Bus and/or Subway system always forms the basis of an effective mass transit network. Busses are in fact so good you hardly need other MT, but it doesn't hurt to add high-speed monorail trunklines especially if the road network is convoluted. Subway is also good for when your bus stations get to 500% capacity.

[:) Smiley]

While busses don't cause congestion, they do cause traffic noise, lowering residential land values.

On the other hand, busses are superior to subways in that they create on-street traffic, which is good for commercial.

The way traffic speed sin Simcity are calculated is quite odd to say the least. I have a hard time believing that a bus could possibly be faster than driving, to say nothing of transfer times between modes of transit.

However, if one factors in the time during which one is working to pay for the car, parking, insurance, gas, taxes, and other expenses, busses are faster even in real life. This effect diminishes with income level, of course. I'm not sure if this is modelled in the game, with rich sims' cars going faster.

[Kuciwalker]

Apparently I've been building bus stops too far apart.

[Blake]

Okay my city is up at http://lemmy.redial.net/simcity/xiamen/upload.php now.

[snoopy369]

I've apparently randomly been building them fairly close - about 8-10 is my spacing (intended spacing), slightly closer on north-south...

Tomorrow I shall play.

[EPW]

My city has been uploaded to Lemmy's site.

[snoopy369]

My city (Trinarium) on Lemmy's site uploaded was.

No pics as it's 3am, but:

1) Res/Ind on separate islands, a third island for corporate domination once i get there. Plateaued out the mountain so that I could build hi-class ressies there (golf course and all!) once it's ready.
2) Various versions of LakeShore Drive, plus toll booths, along my coasts. If anybody decides to drive instead of bus, they can do so speedily, but it'll cost them. Connects the car-ferries. Mostly for appearance as i'm sure nearly nobody will ever use them.
3) Super-highly taxed DI is funding my education and healthcare boom that's basically just starting.

Hopefully once the region is included I can go from low-density to high-density in one fell swoop (lots of loans probably to do that, and some selective razing.) Right now it's mostly low density with a bit of high-density. Busses everywhere, but I don't intend any other mass transit options other than busses or ferries. Lots of ferry terminals though.

The middle mini-island (the tip of something longer) I intend to have no cars on it, and to make it a pedestrian park-area. Please don't put any roads on it if you're my westerly neighbor

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Dianqian 2005

R: 15986
C: 2789
I: 5082



Small city, but with room to grow, particularly after the new bus system that's just been installed.

The new highway interchange, designed for the region because the previous cloverleaf made too many people dizzy:



The Pit of Industry. Note the wonderful new garbage dump off the edge of the world:



And the technological marvel of Dianqian, the desalinization pump. Much more than just a standard desalination system, it recycles heat from cars passing through the undersea tunnel to provide fresh water for the thirsty masses:

[Lemmy]

I have a hard time believing that a bus could possibly be faster than driving

Seperate bus lanes.

We have them in my city, and the fastest way to get to the city centre is by bus. Of course it's cheating a little, since it halves the amount of road available for cars, causing more congestion for them and none at all for the busses.

[Kassiopeia]

Yep, all the big cities in Finland have lanes for only buses (and taxi) too. Expect your average hick to drive on them with abandon, though...