No purpose in Public Transportation

[EricTheGreat12]

I want to show a current city that I have just made, and although I have the current 'death wave' issue in my city there is no current outstanding issue. I do have a problem though with finding a purpose for having public transportation in my city:

Overview:

Population: 11762 {Just passed the Small City Milestone}
Traffic: 74%

Screenshots:

View attached files

So my question is: what the point ? I am thinking of adding 1 or 2 roads across the water fall, but the traffic seems to mostly be put around a certain area so I'm not too worried. Would public transportation have a high improvement effect on my traffic meter?

It feels kinda bizarre due to the fact that this game has a heavy focus on public transport, and this is my very first city where I actually don't feel the need of having any buses or other kinds.

 

[ChubbyBrahGaming]

So my question is: what the point ? I am thinking of adding 1 or 2 roads across the water fall, but the traffic seems to mostly be put around a certain area so I'm not too worried. Would public transportation have a high improvement effect on my traffic meter?

It feels kinda bizarre due to the fact that this game has a heavy focus on public transport, and this is my very first city where I actually don't feel the need of having any buses or other kinds.

Your city is still fairly small, so theres little traffic and thus little need for public transport if you've done a good job laying out your roads, encouriging biking, building bike lanes/pedestrian paths, using polciies and districts which can delayed the need for public transport. But sooner or later you will likely need it when your city starts becoming really big.

 

[TimFisher]

I find that if I do a good job laying out the road network using all the techniques of modern city planning, I don't have much need for public transportation.

There are two problems with this. First, Industry doesn't upgrade without bus stops so I have to bring in bus lines just for that purpose.

Second and bigger problem: The city does not look real. There is no city in the world with perfect road layout so that the traffic is spread evenly throughout the city like in Cities:Skylines. I want my city to look like it's real. If I do set up a real-world road network, then I get traffic problems. So then I have to use public transportation options to fix it.

 

[ristosal]

Your city is indeed still fairly small, though I can't say much out of those screenshots because they don't show the big picture. For that size, 74% traffic flow is pretty good but could be better.

 

[panda_Express12]

You have a very small town of 11k.

How many towns that small do you know having public transport other than maybe a train to a big city?

 

[EthanZak]

I don't tend to notice serious traffic build-up until beyond 20k population, though I always build my cities with integrated public transport from the start - try a city of around 150-200k without public transport and you may see some different results

You have a very small town of 11k.

How many towns that small do you know having public transport other than maybe a train to a big city?

Where I am in the North of England, a town of 10-15k would usually have a handful of bus routes connecting to outlying villages, sometimes one or two long distance bus routes to nearby towns/cities, and often a local train service connecting to the nearest mainline (though not as many as back in the day, thanks Beeching).

 

[EricTheGreat12]

You have a very small town of 11k.

I've had cities where immediately after having unlocked buses (forget the exact milestone) I create my very first bus line. I guess that it's all based on how the player layouts his/her streets and how they expand. I'm suppsoing also that due to the map that I played on, cars move a certain way a therefore has a certain effect on traffic.

I've grown past the 16K population milestone, and yet my traffic is still at 74% and besides for expansion of my downtown area with the same stereotypical 90 degre roads nothing has changed. I'll keep on going till a little after 20 thousand, but I'm still not noticing much...

 

[Promethian]

Its worth noting that public transportation is a service that counts towards leveling up. Every service type has diminishing returns and a hard cap on how much it can contribute so adding a service that wasn't there previously is a huge gain. Public transport is both cheaper than average in this regard and it removes vehicles from the road. So passing on public transport is really a poor decision.

 

[Vimes]

With my current city of about 91,000 I do not have a single bus. I do have a heavily used Metro and, just to see them on the roads really, I do have a couple of tram routes. Around three blimps are used, mainly to see them fly around. I have no other public transport.
I import around 200 or so, need to build up goods manufacturing a little. But I export around 8000 IIRC.
I have a cargo train station at each specialised industry, connected to generic for goods manufacturing. Also I do have some goods cargo train stations close to high commercial selling zones. The trains have helped massively to reduce road traffic.
My traffic runs about 85% or so. That can be improved and will be in time.

My city looks a little ugly, understatement, but now that I have unlocked all the tiles (25) I might think about beautifying the flow between the districts etc. Also I think that I'll build some tourist stuff, but again being aware of drawing traffic to a centre which influences traffic etc.

For me the metro and cargo trains have been invaluable. As well as making choices when building districts in thinking how that is going to influence what is going to want to travel there and which direction etc they will be going.

Also the sea train / road cargo ports have been really useful


BTW Op, without going into specifics (there are much better informed people than me to help you with specifics) but with a pop of 11k or so 74% traffic, and looking at your screenies, should be a little red flag that your layout and routing is a potential cause for concern. Not that you may want to but to scale that up could be just one big traffic mess.

 

[EthanZak]

With my current city of about 91,000 I do not have a single bus. I do have a heavily used Metro and, just to see them on the roads really, I do have a couple of tram routes. Around three blimps are used, mainly to see them fly around. I have no other public transport.
I import around 200 or so, need to build up goods manufacturing a little. But I export around 8000 IIRC.
I have a cargo train station at each specialised industry, connected to generic for goods manufacturing. Also I do have some goods cargo train stations close to high commercial selling zones. The trains have helped massively to reduce road traffic.
My traffic runs about 85% or so.

My city looks a little ugly, understatement, but now that I have unlocked all the tiles (25) I might think about beautifying the flow between the districts etc. Also I think that I'll build some tourist stuff, but again being aware of drawing traffic to a centre which influences traffic etc.

For me the metro and cargo trains have been invaluable. As well as making choices when building districts in thinking how that is going to influence what is going to want to travel there and which direction etc they will be going.

I think metro has to be the most valuable public transport for a large city - I've had a city upto 375k population before now, and as long as I kept the metro expanding I didn't really need buses/trains too much (I also used loads of direct cargo rail routes too).

 

[Promethian]

I think metro has to be the most valuable public transport for a large city - I've had a city upto 375k population before now, and as long as I kept the metro expanding I didn't really need buses/trains too much (I also used loads of direct cargo rail routes too).

Thus far I have found Metro to be the strongest of the MTs. However it is bad at extremely long distances. The new Monorail/Train/Metro station is godlike. Metro for short range. Mono for longish range. Train for crossing major distances on the map. It even has two train ports so you can do an external line and an internal line on the same station. It has been way more effective than the Mono/Bus station I did in my previous game tho the Mono/Bus set up was cheaper (Buses are profitable).

 

[Vimes]

I think metro has to be the most valuable public transport for a large city - I've had a city upto 375k population before now, and as long as I kept the metro expanding I didn't really need buses/trains too much (I also used loads of direct cargo rail routes too).

So far that has held up for me too. I added to the above post that the rail / road ship cargo docks have helped really well for both exports and carry stuff across the river to the manufacturing section, be rail.

I only started "playing" with trams (I even have a taxi which carries 11 people a week) to fill out the city a little. But they are more for fun as yet. I might play a little with passenger trains, not sure tho.

I have not tried the mono rail as yet.

 

[Vimes]

One thing tho I did try was to dezone where my generic industry is at the moment, not ideal for so many reasons. Re-zoning it in a preferred location went well, with full rail network goods support BUT I could not stop a lot of commercial and other areas from then importing their goods rather than use the new manufactured goods from the newly placed industry. Even with the same very good road and rail services, it gives an impression that if they are too far apart then regardless of the rail service used they will then import.

 

[EthanZak]

Thus far I have found Metro to be the strongest of the MTs. However it is bad at extremely long distances. The new Monorail/Train/Metro station is godlike. Metro for short range. Mono for longish range. Train for crossing major distances on the map. It even has two train ports so you can do an external line and an internal line on the same station. It has been way more effective than the Mono/Bus station I did in my previous game tho the Mono/Bus set up was cheaper (Buses are profitable).

I haven't had a good play with the monorail yet, but I've always loved a good combined transport hub - I usually use the excellent modular central station from the Workshop, I may have to give these new-fangled monothingies a try on my next map.

So far that has held up for me too. I added to the above post that the rail / road ship cargo docks have helped really well for both exports and carry stuff across the river to the manufacturing section, be rail.

I only started "playing" with trams (I even have a taxi which carries 11 people a week) to fill out the city a little. But they are more for fun as yet. I might play a little with passenger trains, not sure tho.

I think good cargo connections by rail/sea are about as important in getting traffic off the roads as metro, and they let you get away with larger zones than the roads could handle.

Trams I found a bit disappointing; they always seem underused, though perhaps I implement them poorly. Taxis just make me laugh; if you can only ever put 1 cim into a taxi for a journey, that would otherwise be made by a pocket car - you're not really helping the traffic situation Until such a time as multiple cims can share a cab (eta: never) taxis will remain a cosmetic novelty for me (I'm also constantly amused by cims calling a taxi that's half the map away, then waiting for 3 months watching 50 other taxis pass by).

 

[Vimes]

Trams are also dissapointing for me

I haven't had a good play with the monorail yet, but I've always loved a good combined transport hub - I usually use the excellent modular central station from the Workshop, I may have to give these new-fangled monothingies a try on my next map.



I think good cargo connections by rail/sea are about as important in getting traffic off the roads as metro, and they let you get away with larger zones than the roads could handle.

Trams I found a bit disappointing; they always seem underused, though perhaps I implement them poorly. Taxis just make me laugh; if you can only ever put 1 cim into a taxi for a journey, that would otherwise be made by a pocket car - you're not really helping the traffic situation Until such a time as multiple cims can share a cab (eta: never) taxis will remain a cosmetic novelty for me (I'm also constantly amused by cims calling a taxi that's half the map away, then waiting for 3 months watching 50 other taxis pass by).

Trams are also disappointing for me, as a mass transit transport, but they do look kinda nice clanging their way down the street.

Not sure of the point of taxis, unless I have missed it..?!

I have given up trying to move my generic industry now, Ill just have to supplement it elsewhere. Even the best transport system going doesn't make up for some commercial outlets importing rather than using the produced goods if the journey is too long.

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Trams I found a bit disappointing; they always seem underused, though perhaps I implement them poorly. Taxis just make me laugh; if you can only ever put 1 cim into a taxi for a journey, that would otherwise be made by a pocket car - you're not really helping the traffic situation Until such a time as multiple cims can share a cab (eta: never) taxis will remain a cosmetic novelty for me (I'm also constantly amused by cims calling a taxi that's half the map away, then waiting for 3 months watching 50 other taxis pass by).

Whenever I use a tram service I utilize it in high commercial/office zones and leave it be. No buses nor other kinds of transportation in the area, as buses just supplement trams.

In terms of taxis, I agree that they are very lame. Max # of people that get to use them is about 10-15 people in the cities I've done.

BTW Op, without going into specifics (there are much better informed people than me to help you with specifics) but with a pop of 11k or so 74% traffic, and looking at your screenies, should be a little red flag that your layout and routing is a potential cause for concern. Not that you may want to but to scale that up could be just one big traffic mess.

I ended up removing a 4 lane road that was full with heavy traffic and transformed it to a roundabout; not the best result, but traffic seems to be better still. I am thinking though of putting a tram network in my downtown area (high residential/office space), but I'm thinking as to whether or not I should get rid of 6 lane roads all across the area

 

[EthanZak]

I ended up removing a 4 lane road that was full with heavy traffic and transformed it to a roundabout; not the best result, but traffic seems to be better still. I am thinking though of putting a tram network in my downtown area (high residential/office space), but I'm thinking as to whether or not I should get rid of 6 lane roads all across the area

My one golden rule with large roundabouts is to always use highway ramps for on and off access, instead of directly connecting the road to it; the traffic flows so much more smoothly around it.

An old, slightly wonky example:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=743097714

(if you can take the off traffic from the opposite side that you feed the on traffic on, it works even better)

 

[Fox_NS_CAN]

I find the taxis rarely use the taxi stands. I dunno if they don't like them, or I just don't put them in the right places.

 

[Promethian]

I find the taxis rarely use the taxi stands. I dunno if they don't like them, or I just don't put them in the right places.

Its the way taxis work within the mechanics. The taxi stations only release as many taxis as there is demand for. They have some kind of system for how long they stay out before returning (probably total cims taxied). Taxis only sit in stands if they having met their quota and no cim has engaged them. Since taxis are only released according to demand this means demand for them must spike downward after they have been released for the taxi stands to fill. Its generally a pretty rare occurrence.

 

[Vimes]

Does anyone find that the Metro is useful for schools and universities as a means of transport...?

I have tended to plan my Metro around travelling to work or larger shopping areas.

But I have decided to rebuild my Metro system and whilst I have grouped schools close to each other with car park access I am not sure if it would be useful to consider them when placing my Metro stations over that of bus routes and stops...?

How well do the Cims cope with multi transport journeys as well...?

Any thoughts..?


Thanks