I’ve not spent much time in the game yet, but in my SimCity days (even bsck to MSDOS, not the more recent ones) I discovered by logic of trying to maximize the value of properties by the combination of (for SimCity) light rail and making sure things were in a rather tight-but-connected system between residential, commercial and industrial (trying to keep industrial from being too close to residential, of course) and always making sure there’s some natural greenery nearby or parks, that it resulted in max taxes collected and populations.
In some ways, it reminded me a bit of some of the properties of where I grew up for how things were connected, I suppose.
In the last couple of years, I found a book called “A Pattern Language” “Towns Buildings Connections” that defines a bunch of recognized design patterns of such, and how they fit together, more or less. In the last few months, I found someone that has applied some of the patterns in the urban design realm, and coined the term “fused grid” which has design aspects that greatly encourage full connectivity in a convenient grid for other than motor vehicles, and a partial grid for motor vehicles, subdivided up into 1/4 mile square neighborhood quadrants further divided into districts of 4 of those with large roads around, all designed to make very human-permeable areas where residential is conveniently close to commercial and mixed-use areas around the perimeters of the neighborhoods and districts, that is also conducive to mass transit.
The reasons the fused grid is amenable to mass transit as well as encouraging more walking is motor traffic can’t pass through the residential neighborhoods, but main roads go around them in a nice grid that’s spaced right for convenient mass transit, assuming what you need isn’t already in easy walking distance already. In the fused grid, green space in the form of parks exist in a 1 minute walk from most anywhere in the neighborhoods, and are part of the human bike/walking path simple grid that makes it easy to walk in and through.
People need a certain amount of green space for maximal health/sanity, but not as much as you might think. Several years ago I interviewed in Manhattan, and it became very obvious that perhaps the most valuable thing there overall is Central Park, for keeping people from losing it. You also have one of the greatest transit systems in the world, partially because of the population density making it feasible. If you want to maximize the population density and value of a city, you need to provide strategic green space, make it walkable, and amenable to easy mass transit that won’t break the bank or be too inefficient for people to adopt and depend on. This means making sure it goes to/from places that make sense for people, in short enough (but not too short) routes for trip length to not be obnoxious.
Adding more lanes for traffic doesn’t help a city grow, except in budget requirements: making the roads and mass transit options efficient (which requires things being walkable and placed decently) will reduce the need, real or perceived, for more lanes of traffic
