Traffic Levels

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I just needed to know, is there anyone other than me that is okay with current traffic levels right now in game. I mean i can understand bus loads are a little small, but other than that I am perfectly okay with current traffic levels. Usually when I see a gridlock I plan lines that pick off in a circular pattern and several months later the gridlock always starts to disappear. Most problems I have are some bus lines will have well over 160 passengers waiting and no other passengers at any of the other stations. I fix this by using the cheapest to maintain buses and have roughly 20 of them moving at once. Havent gotten a bad gridlock because of it yet, usually the roads are empty in the area with all those passengers. The only bad part is the station if it ever gets mad will stay mad for the life of the station.

EDIT showed an example of one of my bus lines in Berlin. 6 station route, real life maybe 20-30 minute commute there and back, picture shows 4, now at 8. Buses are no stuck at gridlock, but at the south usually is some traffic. And the bus on the north east is part of a different line and different problem, but that line does feed pedestrians into the one I am showcasing, but that line is 6 stations long. Just seems every station is unhappy whenever I get nice traffic.

 

[unmerged(231343)]

In my first campaign attempt, Berlin rapidly declined into something more like Mumbai in rush hour. But on my second attempt I designed my lines a bit better with lots of off-road tram lines, and a big interchange in the empty space south of Brandenburger Tor. So far I have no major traffic problems and only a couple of stops have large crowds.

I think there are two basic problems. Firstly, as someone mentioned on the other thread, the learning curve is too steep. Usually the players actions make the congestion actually get worse, but there is no strategy guide to tell us where we are going wrong. The obvious tactics of Transport Tycoon etc. do not work in this game, which is fine as long as there is good feedback on what we're doing wrong. Secondly, when gridlock does start to set in, it starts of a chain reaction that is very hard to get out of again. The sight of single cars stopping in stupid places holding up hundreds of cars, trams and busses just makes the player get frustrated and angry.

I don't have a problem with the current traffic levels, but I think 3 things could be charged: 1) someone needs to write a strategy guide or basic advice to avoid gridlock. 2) The handling of traffic at intersections needs to be made a bit less frustrating. 3) If the city declines into total gridlock, then there should be soem kind of negative feedback loop that makes people stop driving for a while until journey times come down again. My worry is that if all of these are done, then the game might become to easy, and the amount of traffic will actually need to be increased to make the game balanced.

I hope the devs don't just release a simple 'cheat' patch that just truns down the traffic levels and removes all the challenge. On the other hand, they could tweak the traffic levels in the campaign so that they gradually increase as the player gains experience. Berlin in the 1920s is really throwing you in at the deep end.

 

[unmerged(272883)]

If you plan carefully, you should not get into any gridlock, I also don't have any such problems. Look at the traffic before you start building your stations and plan your route accordingly. Keep the line short and on the small streets that are completely green. The more you are moving into the inner city, the more you should use trams and build the railways not on the street but through parks and other areas, so they won't touch the street. For Berlin this works perfectly.

In your screenshot for example, I have a tram line with a circle on the huge market place and then going south on the small street below your bus station on the right side with 41 passengers waiting. This way I can access the big railway station and don't have to care for any traffic problems at all.