Traffic Light vs. Traffic Circle?

[Nasarog]

So, what do you think?

[🦊 Hermit]

Roundabouts every time. They allow for much quicker and smoother flow. I only ever get traffic lights in the weekly unlocks if I already have several bridges and at least one roundabout in hand, and there are no motorway/30 road tile options.

[uhkay]

Roundabouts for early to mid game, then pick traffic late for late game.

[Nasarog]

Okay, I'l need to try it.

[kschang77]

Traffic circle / roundabout is faster, but you need to keep the "inflow" under control, If you overload a traffic circle the consequences are much worse, as cars start to queue up at EACH of the entrances instead of moving steadily through. When it works, it's great. When you overload it, it's terrible. It also needs more real estate to plop down.

Traffic light on the other hand, is compact (takes no real estate), and just requires an intersection. However, it's "barely" better than no traffic device at all (i.e. all ways stop) Traffic light is okay when the traffic is relatively light and can be useful when you have a T-intersection (like leaving a double-plot), but obviously, when things start to queue up, it's bad.

[Nasarog]

Right on, thanks.

[FissionChips]

Traffic lights are good if there's a light traffic route crossing a heavy traffic route, it'll mostly stay green for heavy preventing slow down. Traffic circles are good for speeding up traffic entering/exiting motorways or car parks.

For regular intersections I prefer circles because there's no stop/starting of traffic, but anything over 4 connections will likely see it choke eventually.

Early on if I think I'm going to want a circle somewhere I'll build a diamond - with an extra tile in the middle to stop a house popping into it (which happened when I first tried it). It slows traffic but early on that doesn't matter.

Aesthetically, I like to place a circle with a tree in the middle if I can.

[🦊 Hermit]

Originally posted by FissionChips:

Aesthetically, I like to place a circle with a tree in the middle if I can.

Wait, they don't bulldoze everything down, even the central square? Interesting, never realised that worked

[kschang77]

My rule of thumb is no more than 3 colors into a traffic circle, and no more than 2 colors into a traffic light.

[Nasarog]

Hmm, yea, traffic gets bound up easily.

[halig dukan]

lights help even with heavier traffic, since they can keep things moving instead of one lane hogging the intersection and stopping up all the other lanes

had that happen before, saved it with a last-minute light

[Nasarog]

Originally posted by BronzeFormica:

lights help even with heavier traffic, since they can keep things moving instead of one lane hogging the intersection and stopping up all the other lanes

had that happen before, saved it with a last-minute light

My luck isn't as good.

[🦊 Hermit]

Lights can help like that on occasion, but they're very situational, and can often end up harming far more than helping. Quite frequently I've put down lights on a junction to try and speed it up, only to have them persistently block up the main road while letting a few straggling cars take priority on a minor side road, slowing the whole junction down more than when they had no control at all.

Whenever you put down lights it's imperative to watch them for an in-game week or so to make sure they are working as you would hope. And in my experience, the times where they actually help are in the minority compared to where they make no difference, or cause more issues than they solve.