Tips of the Week
For September 2, 1997
Tips of the Week Index
View the last tips of the week: Seaports and Airports
Traffic and Transportation
Traffic, it's probably one of your worst gripes, same with the Sims. When a Sim comes barreling down the electronic highway at anywhere from 30 to 200 Megahertz, it is fast! :-) This section will cover how to keep the Sims (and your city) in the fast lane.
First Step: Roads
You cannot start a city, no way, no how, without roads. Roads are the basic connections, they connect the residential, commercial, and industrial zones together. A road should only be handling up to 70 cars per minute (you can check on that with the Query Tool), and even that's a bit too much. Contrary to popular belief, a bunch of roads bunched up together won't help traffic. It'll confuse your Sims and just waste space.
Second Step: Highways
Highways connect each group of zones (and their roads) together. The highways in SC2000 are 2 way-4 lane. A highway can go up to 130-150 cars per minute. You need to build onramps before Sims use a highway. That can get tricky at first, but you'll get the hang of it. See the manual for more info. Highways are only useful in large cities, or for connections with smaller cities.
Third Step: Busses and Railroads/Subways
These are last resort kinds of things and should only be used in larger cities. Buses will help a lot, I use them because they're cheap and effective. Railroads are only good for industry. And when you've run out of space, Subways provide another layer of transportation.
And overall, be creative.
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