Rebalance transport bias (esp. monorail and tram)

[YertyL]

With the recent metro overhaul, metros are only possess the 3rd highest capacity of all types of public transport; yet, cims still seem to prefer metros over monorails when both are roughly equivalent options.

As an example, in my latest city I used a grid of metro lines and 1 monorail line for the city center; and despite the monorail line being the longest and most central line, it was barely used (maybe 80% budget), while most metro lines ran in the area of 200-300% budget.

I had noticed the same effect earlier with buses and trams -- when both options are roughly equivalent (e.g. same route), cims seem to heavily prefer buses despite their lower capacity.

It would be awesome if you could twitch the cim bias to prefer the higher capacity transport in the same speed class (monorail over metro and tram over bus) to make mixed grids more viable.

EDIT: It would also be nice if there was a heavy bias against helicopters, and to a lesser extent blimps.
When given parallel routes (see screen), cims heavily prefer blimp over metro, and helicopter over both, which is kind of insane given the difference in capacity.
Also, upon further testing (see below), metro vs monorail actually seems to be in a good place, so I guess the topic title should be "esp. trams, blimps and helicopters"

 

[want_to_know]

• Monorail is slower then Metro
• The budget of a line only influences the price in pointof, the number of vehicles - If the line remains the same length - If you extend the line, the position of the slider affects the number of vehicles with the percentage (and thus the costs)
• The capacity of the metro was influenced by the reduction in the number of wagons (comparison: monorail still has 6 and therefore 180, metro only 5 and thus 150)

 

[YertyL]

I created another test tube city to look further into this, running a metro and mono line and a tram and bus line in parallel (see screenshot).
A few obervations:

• Tram vs Bus: As you can see in the screenshot, the tram line carried 106 weekly passengers, while the bus line carried 157. This does not seem like that much of a difference, until you consider that the bus line was over capacity even at 230% budget (69 people waiting) while the tram line was under capacity at 37% budget. The bias should definitely be more towards trams here.
• Metro vs Monorail: Weirdly enough, more people used the monorail than the metro: 87 vs 58. I guess the bias is in a good place after all? My previous experience might have been the result of metro being easier to place in residential, thus resulting in a more attractive line.
  
• What makes this weirder is that the metro is indeed faster than the monorail (tested this on the lines on the lower right side). However, the monorail vehicle actually has a higher speed than the metro vehicle (24 vs 20, checked with the customize it extended mod). What makes the monorail slower is a speed limit of 100 imposed on all monorail rails , whereas metro rails have no limit (checked with Traffic manager). If you remove the speed limit on the monorail rails (monorails?), the monorail is faster. I cannot tell if this is intended or not.

 

[want_to_know]

Why you want to take a look here and check/compare my Results.

What makes this weirder is that the metro is indeed faster than the monorail (tested this on the lines on the lower right side). However, the monorail vehicle actually has a higher speed than the metro vehicle (24 vs 20, checked with the customize it extended mod). What makes the monorail slower is a speed limit of 100 imposed on all monorail rails , whereas metro rails have no limit (checked with Traffic manager). If you remove the speed limit on the monorail rails (monorails?), the monorail is faster. I cannot tell if this is intended or not.

Thanks for these Informations! Is there a Speedlimit for Subway (Tunnel / Overgraund) ?
I checked This List of Monorails and only this has the approximately operating speed. All others are slower. And i took a quick look to Metros and these are slow too. (they should be slower in the game) But it depends on which technical model is being considered here.

What I want to address with this point: the consideration of the game mechanics. As I have experienced this, speed and relative distance are the deciding factors.

 

[YertyL]

Why you want to take a look here and check/compare my Results.

Thanks for these Informations!
I checked This List of Monorails and only this has the approximately operating speed. All others are slower. And i took a quick look to Metros and these are slow too. (they should be slower in the game) But it depends on which technical model is being considered here.

What I want to address with this point: the consideration of the game mechanics. As I have experienced this, speed and relative distance are the deciding factors.

What do you mean by "operating speed"?
Metro/subway rails have no speed limit -- the same goes for trains. Which makes it weird that monorails do.

Transportation bias is a thing in this game though. Compare the bus and tram lines in my test: same speed, same stops, almost the same location. Still, one is used far more than the other.
EDIT: I added a second example to my first post: Metros are a lot faster than blimps, yet when you construct both in parallel, almost all cims will take blimps.

 

[want_to_know]

What do you mean by "operating speed"?

The vehicles as such can also achieve higher speeds in terms of performance. But they are not used in action. So they operate at a lower speed.
Video test of Speed
If you wanna proof the Bias of Transportation -
The speed and length of the route must all be equivalent for the path finding.
For example: bus and tram, the bus needs a longer distance to compensate for its speed advantage. But I think you can do it well with your mods to test that. If everyone who has the same speed and the same distance, the bias is decisive.

 

[YertyL]

The vehicles as such can also achieve higher speeds in terms of performance. But they are not used in action. So they operate at a lower speed.
Video test of Speed
If you wanna proof the Bias of Transportation -
The speed and length of the route must all be equivalent for the path finding.
For example: bus and tram, the bus needs a longer distance to compensate for its speed advantage. But I think you can do it well with your mods to test that. If everyone who has the same speed and the same distance, the bias is decisive.

I do not know how Imperatur got his results -- it might be because of the custom road he is using for the bus -- but I just tested both again, on a longer road/track (2 stops roughly 1.5 km apart).
A tram on a 4 lane road (with tram tracks) is exactly as fast as a bus on a 4 lane road. A tram on a 2 lane road, or tram tracks, is exactly as fast as a bus on a 2 lane road. Which makes sense, since these each have identical speed limits (50 and 40, respectively). Apart from me stopping times, you can see vehicles moving in parallel.

Also, a metro is faster than a monorail with the standard speed limit, but slower than a monorail after removing the speed limit with TM: PE. I stopped times, and you can see vehicles overtaking each other.

Also notice that blimps are much slower than a metro, and cims still prefer them given parallel routes.

 

[want_to_know]

Also notice that blimps are much slower than a metro, and cims still prefer them given parallel routes.

What are the Numbers for pass. per wekk

 

[YertyL]

What are the Numbers for pass. per wekk

If I run blimp and metro in parallel: 78 on blimps, 30 on metro.
If I run helicopter, blimp and metro in parallel: 90 on the helicopter, 5 on the blimp, 0 on the metro.

This is mostly what makes those modes of transportation difficult to use: As soon as you place stops in even remotely central locations, you will have 500 people waiting there, while your more reasonable modes of transportation are empty. Very low capacity and very high bias towards usage is not a good combination.

Trams have the opposite problem -- pretty high capacity, but you have to place your lines carefully so people do not clog up bus routes instead.

 

[want_to_know]

Would you have a summary of your tests?
Unfortunately, I am missing some transport vehicles. But I can see if I can also verify the numbers

 

[YertyL]

Would you have a summary of your tests?

I guess my summary would be: Tram bias should be higher (cims should prefer tram over bus), heli and blimp bias should be much lower (their capacity is very low, and realistically they should be niche transportation), and I am not sure if monorails being slower than metros (because they, unlike metros and trains, have a speed limit on their rails) is a bug or working as intended.

 

[want_to_know]

am not sure if monorails being slower than metros (because they, unlike metros and trains, have a speed limit on their rails) is a bug or working as intended.

And the acceleration is the same? And do any rails have speed limits?