Lane preference

[masteriw]

Hello,

Why is it that the vehicles coming from other town are standing in line using the right lane even though they're not going to enter my tunnel to the right? Is there any way to help them use the other lanes more?

 

[thexmassteam]

Hi,

It's probably because they all exit at the next off ramp. If you look closely they do no use the right lane, but the second lane left starting, then after the T take the right lane.

edit : to go further, you must discover where they are going, and build your exit and lane in order to force them to use the exit or lane you want. use the traffic tool to watch that.
Check this guide, section 204 - highway

 

[masteriw]

Thanks! Very interesting guide. Been giving it a read.

Also, is there a 1.7.0-working mod that can make you change lane arrows?

 

[thexmassteam]

I'm not sure it's possible, as it's tied to the traffic AI. But check for Traffic manager : president edition. I haven't test it myself, but a lot of people seems to find it useful to get better traffic.
That says, for your example, I'm not sure you can do much more than force the traffic AI to use what you want.
I see a lot of trucks, so it's importation of goods or raw materials (traffic from external to external will use left lane afaik). Try to switch some of those importation by rail and boats

 

[MarkJohnson]

Simple answer is traffic goes where it is needed. So, if there is no need to take the tunnel, they don't.

Create a need for them to use the tunnel.

Remember, cims take the quickest route possible. If it is very long, they will take an alternate route.

 

[thexmassteam]

Simple answer is traffic goes where it is needed. So, if there is no need to take the tunnel, they don't.

Simple, but strangely it's not so obvious. I had to spend some time reading guide and post to figure out how traffic works.
That say, find where the traffic is going and why the traffic take this path could be confusing in the first city you build. I'm currently building my second one and I'm pretty sure I'll get some trouble at some point, even if I try all that I've learn in game and guides

And for the quickest route, I'm still no sure I have the same definition of quickest as the traffic AI

 

[EthanZak]

I'd recommend using on/off ramps instead of two-way roads to connect to your highway, it prevents traffic lights and allows for smoother transfer of traffic to/from the highway. If you connected to that tunnel via a more oblique offramp (coming off the highway about where that orange truck is changing lane) you will have a greater gap between the tunnel junction and the next junction, which helps to encourage better lane use as well.

 

[Promethian]

The problem in that picture is less a lane change and more a traffic bottleneck further down. Since you are new I will give you the most important bit of advice about the game, period. Industry and commercial draw a lot of traffic. Always create multiple access points to your highways for them so the traffic has more than one way in and out.

 

[Vimes]

Seeing it written above regarding the quickest route possible chosen by the Sims, what is the determination for the quickest route...? Road types, length of route and actual traffic congestion, are they weighted in the equation once the journey starts...? I do believe that they do not deviate from that route regardless of events on the journey.

At the very early stages of starting a new map, it had only one external road connection (I think that it came with the latest patch / DLC), not only did that road traffic get very congested but the choice of their lanes, even though they were not going to or coming from my intersection to my city, was difficult to understand - with one lane very congested until it ran "off" the maps edge.

I need to spend time reading the above linked guide to get a better understanding of how the game operates rather than what I expect it to.

I like using the TMPE mod but in some cases that is being used by me as more of a sticking plaster over the issue, traffic management can be quite complex to manage, more so if you do not understand the mechanics involved.

 

[EthanZak]

I think the AI checks for the quickest route at the start of journey based on road type and distance, but it doesn't take any traffic congestion into account.

 

[Vimes]

^^^^^ I had a GPS like that once. It would calculate a typical 40mins journey in something like 15mins. It was almost as though it used a straight line rather than actual roads...! As you would be driving in "normal" traffic conditions the ETA would actually increase until you got close and then it would decrease.!



Back to the game, I will have to understand how much emphasis the game places on "priority road" now when it makes its calculations on the route to use.

 

[ristosal]

Back to the game, I will have to understand how much emphasis the game places on "priority road" now when it makes its calculations on the route to use.

Priority road simply means all roads crossing with it have a stop sign if there are no traffic lights. It's unlikely it will make any real difference.

 

[Vimes]

Priority road simply means all roads crossing with it have a stop sign if there are no traffic lights. It's unlikely it will make any real difference.

Thanks for that

 

[thexmassteam]

I'd recommend using on/off ramps instead of two-way roads to connect to your highway, it prevents traffic lights and allows for smoother transfer of traffic to/from the highway. If you connected to that tunnel via a more oblique offramp (coming off the highway about where that orange truck is changing lane) you will have a greater gap between the tunnel junction and the next junction, which helps to encourage better lane use as well.

I'm not sure that it's an exit. If I understand the picture, it's an highway intersection more than a two way-roads, you see on the left that the tunnel join the other way's highway intersection. It's look like an exit, but could be the start of another highway.

 

[masteriw]

I'm not sure that it's an exit. If I understand the picture, it's an highway intersection more than a two way-roads, you see on the left that the tunnel join the other way's highway intersection. It's look like an exit, but could be the start of another highway.

It is like this:

This truck is returning to a factory in town. However, some trucks that do not belong to a factory inside my borders seem to enter my town and go right out without any real purpose:

I don't get it...

 

[EthanZak]

That truck is coming from your neighbour (Los Cruz) and exporting goods to another city (that isn't your own). Not really sure why he's taking a detour right into that zone, something stopping him continuing straight down the highway?

 

[thexmassteam]

However, some trucks that do not belong to a factory inside my borders seem to enter my town and go right out without any real purpose:

I have the same in my own town, trucks leave the highway and take the shortest path to go back to the highway. I'll give a try to create an Y on the exit ramp that go straigth to the higway again.
In your example the truck export goods (must be for commercial use, not industry afaik) from outside, so check if it unload when passing front of something in your town (load% must decrease), if not it's the case where there is no obvious reason

How the hell everybody succeed to create cool curved road grid when I only can create psychiatric super right angle road grid? Even my curved roads end in super parallelism right angled stuff

Ok for your exit system, a mix of highway/6 lanes-one way/2 lane one-way. Not so bad when your exit is on one way and end in an Y or in trident. It spread the traffic between lanes. But crossing before the spread may lead to issue if there is two way involved, has the traffic will need stop at some point in a road or the other.

 

[MarkJohnson]

That truck is coming from your neighbour (Los Cruz) and exporting goods to another city (that isn't your own). Not really sure why he's taking a detour right into that zone, something stopping him continuing straight down the highway?

I have this issue in my new city as well. I get exporting trucks coming into my dead end starting tile and they go to buildings and drop off goods and despawn. I get the same issue with importing goods, they also leave town with a full load. I thought it was just cosmetic and the terms were reversed, but even then it shows the same thing if reversed in my head. This was on my windows 10 Edition from the Microsoft store.

Maybe it's a Mass-Transit bug? Maybe I'll build another test city and see if I can tell what's going on.

 

[MarkJohnson]

It is like this:

View attachment 270389

This truck is returning to a factory in town. However, some trucks that do not belong to a factory inside my borders seem to enter my town and go right out without any real purpose:

View attachment 270391

I don't get it...

Can you post a save of your game? I'd be interesting in testing it against my wacky city for possible bugs. or at least make sense enough of it to find a simple solution.

 

[masteriw]

Can you post a save of your game? I'd be interesting in testing it against my wacky city for possible bugs. or at least make sense enough of it to find a simple solution.

Here you go!