Traffic light management

[Ptterz]

We really need greatly improved control over traffic lights. As it is now, the light work inefficiently and cause serious issues with the AI. Similar to TMPE mod in CS1, let us configure traffic lights ourselves, and improve the default phasing in case one does not bother fiddle with the configuration.

 

[hjarg]

And add protected left turns.
That alone would solve a ton of issues.

 

[ClemiMD]

Even though I would also like to see something like this, I don't think anything will happen. The traffic lights will probably stay (as dumb) as they are. After all, they already adapt to the flow of traffic. If you want to tweak them more, you'll likely have to rely on a mod. A pity, really. The game "knows" where the most traffic is flowing at a junction and should be able to generate an optimal traffic light cycle.

I give you an upvote, but remain cautiously pessimistic.

 

[anydaytv]

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why a company that considers itself a transport manager sim game producer omitted this from their game. CS1? Makes sense. Just having persistent traffic was a novel concept.
Now? Ughhh.

We should absolutely be able to do light phasing ourselves.

 

[Ptterz]

Even though I would also like to see something like this, I don't think anything will happen. The traffic lights will probably stay (as dumb) as they are. After all, they already adapt to the flow of traffic. If you want to tweak them more, you'll likely have to rely on a mod. A pity, really. The game "knows" where the most traffic is flowing at a junction and should be able to generate an optimal traffic light cycle.

I give you an upvote, but remain cautiously pessimistic.

The lights seem somewhat dynamic at this stage, the green is switched on quite fast when there is tram approaching or no conflicting traffic. However, those "all directions at once" green phases kill each other on fourway intersections. That should really be worked on.

 

[Collector78]

Traffic lights were useless in CS1 and are just as useless in CS2. I give you an upvote, but I would already be very happy when they stop adding useless things by default when creating crossings.

 

[hert]

The three biggest flaws in the traffic lights right now seem to be:

1) No protected left turn signal
2) No pedestrian only phasing
3) Right on red ability to toggle on intersections

A lot of traffic issues would be resolved if these were implemented into the game. Especially if a phasing for left turns only was green for a few seconds before the light turned green for everyone.

 

[Degginger]

my experience is also that intersections without traffic lights are often not a solution, as despawning often occurs at intersections.

 

[anydaytv]

my experience is also that intersections without traffic lights are often not a solution, as despawning often occurs at intersections.

Oh here's a tip for you, these types of intersections are insanely useful.
It's two minor roads traveling in and two travelling outward.
No conflicting traffic, so no lights needed.

I use them in tight high density urban areas with lots of traffic.

 

[Degginger]

Oh here's a tip for you, these types of intersections are insanely useful.
It's two minor roads traveling in and two travelling outward.
No conflicting traffic, so no lights needed.

I use them in tight high density urban areas with lots of traffic.

View attachment 1074185

I'll have to test it with one-way streets, thank you

 

[hert]

Oh here's a tip for you, these types of intersections are insanely useful.
It's two minor roads traveling in and two travelling outward.
No conflicting traffic, so no lights needed.

I use them in tight high density urban areas with lots of traffic.

View attachment 1074185

The problem is you need traffic lights because you have to control pedestrians crossing. With no lights they can create a continuous blockade of people crossing in dense downtown type areas.

 

[meda2207]

Thanks for posting this! I would just add there is more things which should be added:
- to be able set a priority road in an intersection (this is huge, I think and one can sort of do it even in C:S1 vanilla)
- set manually give-way or stop sign specifically by each road in an intersection (really - who uses all-stop? )
- ability to manage road lanes incoming to an intersection

It is so frustrating to handle traffic without proper traffic management tools and so aggressive despawning (which - I suspect - has been set due lack of management tools )

 

[[Delta ²k5]]

Most people seem to think that more traffic light options would fix traffic on intersections with traffic lights - I think that's not a completely correct assumption.
While ofc more options would be great (protected left turns) irl many intersections basically work as in C:S2. Also micro management should not go through the rooftop, especially for players using controllers and not mouse/keyboard combos.

The actual issue with the game intersections is that vehicles already turn into the head on traffic while waiting for a spot to turn into the street they want to go.
In first place imho the vehicles should wait for their turn earlier (but after the traffic light ofc) to not block head on lanes.

This would really improve the overall flow in a realistic way.

 

[L1sek]

There is a pretty good mod to save us: https://thunderstore.io/c/cities-skylines-ii/p/slyh/Traffic_Lights_Enhancement_Alpha/

I can say it works very well

 

[anydaytv]

irl many intersections basically work as in C:S2.

Have to absolutely disagree. Couldn't disagree more actually. Most traffic lights in real life have timings, and in real life they are all individually set based on the speed of the road, expected traffic flow, and other lights - either preceding or proceeding it. It's part of the reason there's a common saying of "Don't bother speeding, you won't get there faster." Some lights near highways even extend their yellow light timings to account for speeders, but most light timings in real life are adjusted so that the average person driving along under perfect conditions hit the minimum amount of red lights they can. It's an intricate dance of timing.

So while, on it's face - yes, basically they are the same, but that's one loaded "basically"

So although it would be amazing to set lights up to change their behavior for rush-hour events, or flow-rate, just simply being able to set the number of phases, whether or not a particular road or pedestrian path has a dedicated phase, whether it has a protected turn, or whether two lights could be synchronized would change the game immensely.