Why do traffic choose the highway ramps instead of the main 4-lane tunnel?

[rodrigo1406]

Can anybody please explain to me why do almost all cars/trucks prefer using the highway ramp instead of going through the main, much larger road (a tunnel, in fact)? They're even stopping at the crossing on the top of the picture!

pic 1
pic 2
pic 3
pic 4

[MarkJohnson]

Easy, ramps are much faster.

[SirJC17]

As rmjohnson144 said, I think is has to do with the fact that highway ramps have higher speed limits than medium roads, so people prefer the ramps as they think it's faster.

[Frank K]

Instead of highway ramps switch to two lane surface roads and see what happens! The speeds on those is lower so I think they'll use the through roads you've constructed.

[GenericallyNamed]

Try traffic president and network extensions, they have some useful features you could try as well. Traffic president will let you lower the speed limit as well and connect lanes. You can configure the intersections so cars aren't able to use the ramps to get there

[OneJasonBradly]

Traffic will always travel the “quickest” route not necessarily the shortest route. In your case the On and Off ramps have a speed limit of 80. The avenue bridge and tunnel have a speed limit of 50. Its quicker for them to go around. If I may suggest, on each ramp change/upgrade the latter half(The exit half) of the ramp to a 2 lane one way street speed limit 40. This may (1) cause the avenue to be quicker traveling and (2) Divides the traffic into two lanes for the intersection.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=839080305

[rodrigo1406]

Thank you guys for the fast reply! OneJasonBradly, great idea, as the traffic gets heavier, I think it'll be the way to go (right now replace the ramps for 2-lane one-way makes more sense to me). Generic Name, I'll avoid extensions for now, but I'll surely take a look when I grow tired of the game as it is.

[MarkJohnson]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Not sure why you want to intentional slow things down.

It is an unorthodox intersection, but it seems to be working.

[rodrigo1406]

rmjohnson144, although the ramp has a higher speed limit, they are stopping at the top crossing (look at pic 2), so they end up slower than if they had gone down the tunnel.

[MarkJohnson]

Yes, that will happen. Eventually you'll get traffic. The game doesn't take into account for that.

Replacing the onramp with a street should be enough to slow them down, then you still have the quicker offramp for extra speed.