Is it better or worse for traffic zoning commercial on arterial roads?

[Seizon]

Hello everyone, I'm having huge trouble fixing traffic in my game, specifically on arterial roads with too many people using them to go to high density commerce zone and clogging up. In the meantime, I noticed my collector roads barely have any traffic (I zoned only high density residential on my collectors).

So, in short, zoning commercial on arterial roads is better or worse for OVERALL traffic?

I've seen youtubers opinion conflicting on that matter. Some say high density commercial should be on Arterial roads, and some others saying it should be on Collector roads.

Thanks in advance.

[Miiiiiiiiiiiiike]

I usually have commercial on 'main roads'. I also have metro/trains to help transport people around the city to help reduce congestion from private cars. Residential does not really have issues with traffic. Commercial and industry does as that has both people and trucks/delivery vans accessing those areas.

Not sure on what sort of population you have, or mods/DLC's. For me, it's all vanilla with the mass transit DLC and about 80k population over 6 or so tiles.

[Seizon]

Hello @Miiiiiiiiiiiiike I'm using Vanilla 0 mods with all the DLC content unlocked.

Yea I understand where you are coming from but I see so many people with different opinions on that. Some say it's better to put commerce on Arterial roads while others say it is better for Collectors. No idea which one is optimal for traffic.

Thanks for the input!

[me22ca]

I generally say you only zone (or plop) on local roads.

Residential isn't a big deal for traffic, unless you're using mods. So to me the biggest reason it goes on small roads is to waste less space.

For commercial, one thing I like is using https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1906791020

[OneJasonBradly]

It all depends.
I do place commercial where they will be seen by the most amount of citizen passing by. This does mean that I tend to look to main and or collectors to place commercial. There are areas of my mains that cant handle the volume mixed with deliveries. For those areas I preposition the commercial so deliveries don't happen on the high volume road but of coarse the vehicle will use the road for it is a main or arterial roads.
There is no one rule, it all depends of factors available for the area. Though if I can I will zone commercial where they will be seen by many.

[WhiteKnight77]

I run 2 lane roads off of 4 lane roads and build commercial areas in their own little districts. I try to have a separate road into the area from a different direction for delivery and let residents who wish to drive, in from the 4 lane road, but typically, they will walk to the commercial areas.

[Stealthy]

Arteries are best kept free, but low density "local produce" commercial might be ok in low quantities. Big amount of delivery trucks will hinder traffic quite badly if you build too much. Ideally arteries are free from zoning and zones are along the collectors and local roads. I quite often do a local road 5 tiles offset from the arterial road, so that 1 square is left empty on either side and buildings face the parallel small road.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2510108050

That's the vanilla project I did recently. Some zoning is on larger collectors but main arteries are usually free from zones.

[SievertChaser]

I put commercial on both arterial and connector (not that I'm THAT rigid with the hierachy) and all of my clogging seems to be from other issues.