Sim City 4 Subways
The trick with transportation
Just a quick little update: I've posted two new downloads from Seraf in the Downloads section. Go get the University Club and City Hall Fountain if you haven't already downloaded them in the SimCity 4 Downloads! I'll also be posting some previously. For SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition on the PC, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'How do I get High Tech industries'. Sim City 4 is the fourth installation in the Sim city series, a city-building simulation computer game developed by Maxis. These games allow players to create a region of land by terraforming, and then to design and build a settlement which can grow into a city.
Written By: Rand HuckWednesday, May 14, 2003
Transportation in SimCity 4 is more complex than any of the previous versions. If you've played SimCity 3000 (Original and Unlimited) and SimCity 2000, you might have found that sims have very simplistic (and, might I add, flawed) ways to go from point A to point B. Sims would not use highways very much, and instead decide to clog the roads, and they always preferred mass transit no ands, if, or buts about it. Sims would pick one form of transportation and use it.
Well, in SimCity 4, it's a little more complex, yet much more realistic. First of all, transportation is not only used by sims going to and from work. There is transportation to do errands at Commercial-Service zones, to take freight from a factory to the seaport or freight train station, and even tourism plays a role in how clogged your roads can get. Your goal, traffic wise, is to make the easiest way for your sims to go from point A to point B in all of those different forms of transportation.
In the following points, I'll help you get familiar with the way sims think in getting from point A to point B.
Walking
The first thing a sim thinks is, 'can I use my feet to get to where I want to go?' Generally, sims won't walk much farther than a block.
If a sim looks towards the other side of the city, and sees his destination a couple miles away, he/she will decide walking alone would not be a prudent method. But is there a bus, train, or subway station the sim could go within walking distance?
If the sim doesn't see mass transit as a possible route, he or she will decide to use his/her own car and drive.
Driving
Keep in mind that sims can drive to a train station. Let's say that about three blocks away, there is one, and the sim knows that the train will take him/her near the destination.
The sim hops on, and travels to the next station, which will take him/her downtown to around point B.
From Train to Point B
The sim gets off, and now has three possible choices:
1.) He/she could walk to the destination.
2.) Hops on a bus at the bus station right next to the train station.
3.) Hops on a subway at the subway station on the other side of the train station.
Keep in mind this sim can't drive, since his/her car is all the way across town. (Keep this in mind when you make your train stations!) And, being a good sim, won't go hotwire a car in the train station parking lot.
Walking to the destination might be okay, although it is two blocks away, and sims in SimCity seem to have very, very lazy legs. Instead, he/she decides to get on the bus, knowing there is a bus station right next door to his destination. And there you have it: the sim successfully made his trip from his/her house to the destination across town.
Of course, this sim had several possibilities throughout this route. He/she could have driven the entire route, or could have taken the subway at the end instead of the bus.
Another thing to note is that high-wealth sims rarely take mass transportation, and like to stay in their luxury cars, and mid-wealth sims tend to take trains and subways if it's practical, but rarely busses, and low wealth sims tend to take the bus a lot.
The key things to remember in this is:
Make sure you have a useful mode of transportation next to your train stations. Otherwise, if a sim may only walk from the train station to the final destination, that train station is only serving a very small radius and won't be used very much at all.
Sims generally like to drive more than use mass transit, especially mid/high wealth sims.
There is freight to mind. Make sure industries are close to either the city limits or a freight/seaport.
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I have a few freight train stations in my city's industrial centers. They link to each other, and to other regions. However, despite being much closer, the stations are always ignored in favor of road links. Only industries right next to the tracks actually use them.
The same thing happens with passenger stations. Instead of using trains to get around, people always just drive or take the bus, no matter how congested the roads are.
Stations are always accompanied by bus stops and parking garages. I also have the Commuter Shuttle Service city ordinance.
Simcity 4 Transportation
I have tried removing the road links, but rail use is still lower than expected - only 4% capacity for my most popular station.
Obviously, I'm doing something wrong. How do I build an efficient, effective and worthwhile rail network?
MaxpmMaxpm2 Answers
All mass transit options must be 'on the way' to a sims job/home and there must be a similar end point for that mass transit option within 6 tiles of the destination. Apparently it is possible to have sims transfer from one form of mass transit to another, but they will always transfer on foot so make sure the end points (subway station, bus station etc) are as close together as possible, across the street from each other preferably.
I lifted this from the GameFAQs SimCity 4: Transportation FAQ. Other tips lie within, including pointers for building an effective freight transport network.
XantecXantecAppart from R$$$ sims never take public transport other sims choose for mass transit if it offers the shortest option to the destination. Same goes for sims taking a car, they often zigzag small roads to there destination instead of using the highway. If you have many straight roads and avenues leading out of the city then those road road are often more favorable then using public transport.
This all is because the pathfinding is iffy. They should have made different movement costs on specific tiles, or better, speed limits. If a highway has a movement cost of 50 and a simple road 100 then it's often very efficient to take the highway especially for long distances. However when testing this it appears that all infrastructure tiles get the same movement value and thus get treated the same by the sims in your city.
In my gameplay and let's play series on YouTube i introduced neighborhoods. Up till now most people where building inside large grids. Which is very inefficient, firstly because there are many traffic lights and secondly because rarely people make use of the public transport or your highway. What i often do i make neighborhoods with 2 to 4 exits and make sure those exits are not connected in a straight line. Then connect this neighborhood to an avenue or highway. Now if the sim wants to leave it's neighborhood for some shopping downtown it needs to path out to the avenue or highway connecting these neighborhoods and it will not enter another neighborhood since the exits are not a straight line and thus takes more moves to cross that.
There is also a much bigger chance for those sims to take a public transport option. I had many stations over 1000% capacity using these (far more realistic) layouts. Obviously you do not want 1000% capacity but here is where you need to expand the public transport system.
MadmenyoMadmenyo