Initial road connection

[Tomnoddy]

THe base game maps are far from ideal because the inbound and outbound highway ramps are too close together.

I put a 90 degree curve in one direction on the inbound highway and curve the outbound highway in the opposite direction, then i make a simple loop with six lane, one way road to join them together. I find if this loop encompasses 60% or so of your starting tile, you'll just about have enough money left for water and power to get your city started.

I zone industry at the start of this loop, then commercial, with residential at the end. Most of your traffic is industry delivering to commercial, commuter and shopper traffic is smaller.

Over time, you can add shortcuts to this system but that basic layout works till quite a high pop. For example, you might add a loopback that skips from the end of the commercial zone bypassing the residential. That way the empty trucks that have delivered goods can get back to the highway or industrial zone without driving through the residential area.

Of course, by the time your city is a Megalopolis, the original entry point will be bypassed like a Christmas tree and you'll probably have altered the interstate too. This won't win any beauty contests, but it keeps the traffic flowing and that's all i care about..

 

[mikethelaw]

This is my attempt on PS4 connecting two sides of a small residential island to the freeway, using an elongated roundabout that tunnels under the freeway. Seems to work really well so far and handles the large waves of traffic that appear from time to time. I even managed to fit 2 small parks in the roundabouts to utilise space and throw a footpath between both sides over the freeway for easier walking access. I'm quite happy with how this junction turned out. Sorry about picture quality, i was playing using PS4 remote play.

 

[Xiziz]

I usually just add a straight intersection - holds long enough. When traffic at the first intersection gets to much I will convert the two avenues to overpasses and let all traffic enter via the roundabout. As high density is unlocked I will expand across the other side of the motorway converting the T-intersection into a higher capacity service interchange (DDI etc).

The initial road connection is all about just getting the city started.

 

[Tisifoni12]

The latest big 'hexagonal' roundabout:

• The two roads at the top are to and from one large industrial 'park'
• Next around the 'clock' are connections to and from the motorway
• Then connections to a dual carriageway leading to another industrial 'park' and connections to the East end of town
• Finally a connection to the North West end of town

There's a retail area in the South West of the image that doesn't directly connect to the big roundabout; must put some trees in there !

 

[Palmerdale]

Since my last post I zoomed in and found the roads in and out are of course each one way (as pointed out in the video kindly referenced above), but the only road you get immediate access to (also pointed out in the video above) is a two way road. Er, like why ?

There's a mod map based on the island of Skiathos I've been playing around with which has twinned one way roads doing the in / out. The in game provided one starts with three lane one way in / out roads to the motorway/autobahn/interstate. That seems a little huge . . .

Thank you for your advice guys. I will try different approaches.

I'm relatively new to C:S, and had the same issue. A tip that I found quite useful is to immediately pause the game after starting, and draw the shortest possible road. Once that is done, it unlocks some other narrow roads, specifically the 2lane-one-way road. Connect that to the Transport 'Inbound' and draw where you want the input traffic to flow. Then make another 2-laneone-way segment to connect to the 'Outbound' side of the Transport stub. You can build all manner of complicated junctions from there. My personal preference is to simply loop the inbound traffic to the outbound traffic in a fairly tight circle and build some junctions from there. Not particularly elegant, but serves the purpose until you unlock more road options.