Strategy for placing bus stops?

[AirToob]

At the moment, I usually place as few bus stops as possible that between them cover the whole town, and then run two lines between them, one clockwise and the other anticlockwise

Everyone in the town is then in reach of a bus stop, but is there any value in adding additional bus stops so that the sims walk a shorter distance to get to their nearest bus stop, or for any other reason?

[fux_oki]

Hm? I answered you in a post few days ago and posted the link to my guide, where I wrote about public transport and other things.

When the guide is to long for you: Yes, additional stops are useful. Place on every street bus stops (left and right/at the junctions) and create lines max. 5 stations (there and back. In total 10 stations) in the beginning. Later it should be more, because the vehicles become more expensive and efficent. And try to use straight and useful lines without zigzag etc. Roundlines (CW/CCW) could be useful for the city boundary (so in the city there are straight lines and a roundlines supplys the outer streets).

In my opinion public transport in the city is the most complicated thing in the game. Always keep an eye on it.

[Fortune Calls]

I usually place my bus station next to my train station. One bus line goes from the bus station clock wise to residential area, industrial area, and circle back to bus station. Another different bus line goes from the bus station counter clock wise to residential area, commercial area, and circle back to bus station. Bus stop distance is around 1.5 city blocks.

[fux_oki]

Originally posted by Tactical Combat Peanut:

I usually place my bus station next to my train station. One bus line goes from the bus station clock wise to residential area, industrial area, and circle back to bus station. Another different bus line goes from the bus station counter clock wise to residential area, commercial area, and circle back to bus station. Bus stop distance is around 1.5 city blocks.

What is your ~ line usage with this method?

[Crisis503]

Peps are lazy. I often notice that they prefer to wait on a stop to reach the next one instead walking dirctly to that prefered. To force walking i place stops at least connected with their outer boundaries. (this animated grey lines you see when placing bus stops) I also dont place stops in front of any train station or else, but at the end of their outer catchment area. So peps who get drpped there wiill walk and others who want to reach that train station will walk directly instead of waiting at a near bus stop to finally get transported to the one in front of the station. They are lazy....
Forgot to mention that you can also work with the "only load or drop" option with the bus stops.

[2A46M]

Making circle lines around the town is IMHO a bad idea. Even in small "flat" towns at least one line schould run through the centre. Nevertheless, in towns located in hilly/mountainous regions there's literally no way to make circle lines. And yeah:
1) bus stop just in front of the train station is totally fine, don't listen to them weird people saying that you shuld put it somewhere far away
2) public transportation is literally the easiest thing in the game, lad

[2A46M]

If you want, I can take several screenshots from the cities where I used bus lines, just for you to see how flexible the "stop placing strategy" is :)

[Stay on target, Porkins!]

Originally posted by Українська РСР:

If you want, I can take several screenshots from the cities where I used bus lines, just for you to see how flexible the "stop placing strategy" is :)

Sure, sounds interesting. I could do with some more imaginative ideas with bus stops

[fux_oki]

Originally posted by Українська РСР:

Making circle lines around the town is IMHO a bad idea. Even in small "flat" towns at least one line schould run through the centre. Nevertheless, in towns located in hilly/mountainous regions there's literally no way to make circle lines. And yeah:
1) bus stop just in front of the train station is totally fine, don't listen to them weird people saying that you shuld put it somewhere far away
2) public transportation is literally the easiest thing in the game, lad

Hi Українська РСР,
1) Agree!
2) It's "complicated" in the way, that what works in 1850 will not automatically work some years later. When I build a train connection logs -> sawmill, the only thing I will have to look at is the rate and when this fits maybe changing the trains and then look at the rate again (so every 7 years?). But the city growns and growns, new streets, more cargo trucks, train lines, etc. so lines have to change. When complicated is the wrong word, then "keeping an eye most/most time-consuming" will fit more, товарищ. ;-)

PS: Would also like to see some screenshots. Please with line usage % of the town screen.

[AirToob]

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I should have said that the town I am using for an example is in 1944, has a population of 2,442 and very little car traffic, which I reckon is a sign of at least adequate public transport.

Its bus lines connect with a railway station on the north edge, serving rail lines to two other towns, and a passenger harbor on the west side, with one ship passenger line doing great and another poorly.

I have 30 vehicles on each direction (clock, anticlock) with an interval of 30s and a rate of around 270. The lines do wander into the middle of the town and out again, from either side, but don't go straight across the middle.

The bus lines are breaking even, or with a tiny profit, but three of the interconnecting external lines are doing fine. I wasn't actually looking for a _profitable_ town bus line, just to connect as much of the town as possible to the external lines.

My question wasn't really looking for other schemes for running bus lines, although I'm always interested in those. It was specifically to do with the fact that my bus stops are spaced as far apart as possible so long as they cover the entire town. I take "coverage" of a bus stop to mean that sims WILL use that bus stop if they are in the coverage area. That being so, would I get any advantage from more bus stops on those lines, i.e. several within each coverage area, and if so WHY? E.g. does cutting down a sim's walking time help in some way?

That was the question!

[s4r4hb3th]

In larger towns I use 2 (or even 3) passenger stations. Mostly I run small shuttles from the suburban stations to a hauptbahnof which has the connections to other cities but at the end of the line I sometimes have a main through station running through to a suburban terminal station to turnaround.

Buses then have a much smaller role.

I know the accepted wisdom is that trains are for long distances but a suburban shuttle can be surprisingly profitable (even though a comparable bus route might not be).

[fux_oki]

Originally posted by AirToob:

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I should have said that the town I am using for an example is in 1944, has a population of 2,442 and very little car traffic, which I reckon is a sign of at least adequate public transport.

Its bus lines connect with a railway station on the north edge, serving rail lines to two other towns, and a passenger harbor on the west side, with one ship passenger line doing great and another poorly.

I have 30 vehicles on each direction (clock, anticlock) with an interval of 30s and a rate of around 270. The lines do wander into the middle of the town and out again, from either side, but don't go straight across the middle.

The bus lines are breaking even, or with a tiny profit, but three of the interconnecting external lines are doing fine. I wasn't actually looking for a _profitable_ town bus line, just to connect as much of the town as possible to the external lines.

My question wasn't really looking for other schemes for running bus lines, although I'm always interested in those. It was specifically to do with the fact that my bus stops are spaced as far apart as possible so long as they cover the entire town. I take "coverage" of a bus stop to mean that sims WILL use that bus stop if they are in the coverage area. That being so, would I get any advantage from more bus stops on those lines, i.e. several within each coverage area, and if so WHY? E.g. does cutting down a sim's walking time help in some way?

That was the question!

See this post:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1066780/discussions/0/2262439317605510707/#c2262439317609442036

or just this screenshot: https://ibb.co/3kLvQZd

"Here you can see that the street with the bus station has 100 % of white colour, the next part has 75 %, the next 50 %, the next 25 % (it's getting more grey) and the last one 0 %.
So the white circle around the station just means 'infuence/access radius' from 100 to 25 %. It's very hard to recognize the colour switches. But when you place a station you should already noticed, that the buildings in the middle are pure white and outside a bit grey."

And post #1 in this thread: Yes, additional stops are useful.

Because your citizens will prefer this. When they have to take long walks + bad buslines, they will use the car.

PS: Screenshots are always useful for acurat help.