How exactly do you ever stop the traffic issues?

[Doom Sayer]

Every time I play I continue until I hit unfixable traffic issues then quit. Then I come back later restart and same ♥♥♥♥ happens. Biffa's videos arent particularly helpful either.

[katiem]

road hierarchy. biffa's videos are helpful to an extent because he does road hierarchy too and lane mathematics, but beyond that he uses that cheat mod so if you're vanilla it doesn't help much

i basically use the Uk's real life road hierarchy which goes like this:
A roads should only ever connect to motorway and B roads (and other A roads via roundabouts)

B roads should only ever connect to A roads and local roads (and other B roads via traffic light or stop sign depending on the intersection)

local roads should only ever connect to other local roads (and B roads via only stop sign or no signage at all again depending on intersection)

don't build on A roads with the exception of services

B roads is where you want commercial & offices, services such as clinics etc

local roads is where you want parks & residential, services such as elementary schools

to get proper lanes in vanilla just use lane mathematics. 3-1 = 2. so if you have a slip road going left (or right if american) from a 3 lane road, make sure the road after are only 2 lane. that way you'll have a dedicated lane going left and 2 going forward, then when the slip road comes back onto the road later, the roads after that slip road can go back to 3 lane. this keeps traffic flowing smoothly without bumping into eachother and getting muddled up in lane changes.

on top of that, public transport. pedestrian paths that go places, and cycle paths. i make all my B roads cycle paths and all my A roads bus lanes (so they're 2 lane + 1 extra lane for buses and emergency vehicles). i'll also have cycle path for the main local roads running from B road to B road.

putting cargo rails close to your main commercial centers and industrial parks helps too as truck traffic will be limited to those places then and not jamming up your streets instead :)

i only have 30k population at the moment so nothing too impressive but i do have 94% traffic flow because of all this so :) only 82% traffic flow before i plonked cargo trains down

[mbutton15]

At what population do you experience these traffic issues ?
I tend to follow the hierarchical example described above which certainly works well for the size of city I grow. Max I've ever reached is just above 100,000 population. Sure, I just junctions that are red, but they are still flowing, not stationary.

[Panahasi]

I am curious about your population also, do you have a save game we can look at?

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Degeneratus:

Every time I play I continue until I hit unfixable traffic issues then quit. Then I come back later restart and same ♥♥♥♥ happens. Biffa's videos arent particularly helpful either.

That's your biggest issue, starting over. You will have to figure out the problem, or post a save and we can look at the city and advise you of your issue(s).

But simply, traffic is a problem, because of imbalance. Each building creates traffic. Each building has a purpose. You need to keep this in balance so each building fulfills its need.

You want job worker ratios as even as possible. 12 blocks of low density residential to 12 blocks of low density commerce and/or specialized industry together.

Same for high density, you need 12 blocks of high density residential to a 12 blocks of high density commerce and/or generic industry.

To reduce freight, keep commerce/industry next to each other and on the highway. This makes it easier to move freight around and keeps it better out of residential. Also, make sure to keep an eye on import/exports. Especially exports, as they are the worst offender.

Remember, shopping is optional. This means commerce isn't needed at all, which means industry isn't needed at all. So don't get caught up on building commerce and following the blue demand bar. Instead you can build offices to meet the industry demand, then you only need to supply residential.

But I highly recommend posting your saved game and we can advise different ways to tackle your traffic issues.

[chic.aeon]

Also make sure you offer enough options for folks in CARS -- I like underground metros the best for longer distances but buses are needed too. This keeps a lot of cars off the road and helps get you staying under the vehicle limits which apparently become a problem for everyone eventually..


I hit the vehicle limit a few days ago and made all the mass transit free in order to correct that (vanilla - no mods or assets) My traffic was at 73 then and now even though it SEEMS like there is much less traffic and indeed many less vehicles in use, i am more in the red than before. A puzzle. I am at 203,000 now and made it past a "citizens are too smart and won't work at low paying jobs thing -- too many colleges -- by defunding the schools some. But not sure I will get too much more population from here on out (again no "HELP" from mods).

But it is my best and biggest city so far. That counts :D.

[Mytwo Centsworth]

I would add to make use of one-streets to avoid left turns needing to cross traffic.

Also, don't make your intersections too close together. Traffic stopped at one intersection will back up and block the previous intersection.

Similarly, don't make highway interchanges too close. Traffic entering from one interchange has to cross traffic wanting to exit the next interchange. For this reason, I don't like cloverleaf interchanges. I like to have all exiting traffic exit before any incoming traffic enters.

[Doom Sayer]

Originally posted by Panahasi:

I am curious about your population also, do you have a save game we can look at?

Its not a persistent population issue its more a issue with intake of traffic to specific areas (from highway) get bloated and i havent seen a consistent cause or solution.
(meh idk i reloaded save and now it seems to have stopped. I will post screenshot if i have new issue)

[Nite69]

You have to balance the import/export to what the city needs, keep the commercial and industry close together and near the highway, train station, and harbor, this will help traffic

too much import = not enough industry (not enough generic industry (goods), agricultural, ore, oil and forest products)

too much export = too much industry (generic industry, agricultural, oil, ore, and forest is producing too much)

Keep an eye on the Circular Chart in the import/export

I'm playing base game btw, if you have the industries DLC I can't help on that sorry

[Clunk]

In a nutshell so long as traffic is moving don't worry about the 'Traffic %'. Some players can get quite hung up about it and consider it praiseworthy to reach a steady 80% or higher. Anything from around 60%+ means it's all moving, albeit perhaps slowly in places.

As I progress from one city to the next I find myself no longer building highways, even clearing existing highways from what's provided. I leave highways out of my road hierarchy almost all of the time. With TM:PE you can adjust speed limits on any type of road which is a very valuable feature.

Placing toll booths as far out on the highways as your unlocked areas will allow will stem the flow and slow down the traffic entering your city, at least until it becomes more manageable. But your traffic % may suffer, if that matters.

Primarily I use 2+2 medium roads everywhere until the road meets junctions where options exist. Then increasing the lanes to meet the options and using timed traffic lights and lane connectors to ensure all lanes are used as the traffic gets divided. Traffic lights allow traffic to build up (like loading a gun) followed by a controlled timed release. As the previous tranche has all but dissipated the new gets the green light. Numerous junctions can be set to work together in unison. Once working it is beautiful to watch, very therapeutic, but always under scrutiny for further tweaks.

Traffic and it's management is why I play this game. I love managing heavy traffic and having massive industrial areas teetering on gridlock. This is my Oil Industry area and it's almost all in the red, but flow is still 77%. All that matters is that it all keeps moving.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260928737

[Sasquatch]

Traffic mods aren't "cheats". They are tools that give you better control and more options. The vanilla game actually cheats for you by magically getting rid of cars when traffic gets bad. Using Traffic Manager is no different than using the budget menu to control spending or district policies to manipulate behavior. People need to quit making mods some sort of moral question. Everyone has their own priorities and desires for what they want from the game. I, personally, hate micromanaging things. So I let mods handle the budget and bulldoze abandoned buildings. This is how real life works. Mayors focus on the big picture while various departments handle the details. I actually hated the vanilla game and wouldn't be playing today if it weren't for the mods that fix what I didn't like.
/rant

If traffic is your main concern and you play on PC, you really should use Traffic Manager. It helps you solve so many problems. Failing that, there are tricks you can use to help. Check YouTube, there are tuts available.

[jshutich]

Everyone has their own solutions to traffic, when you start out all your cities have traffic problems. After a while you learn what works and what does not. How little changes to zoning can alter traffic to relieve congestion in an area where your roads can’t handle the volume.
Depending on how long you been playing, try a few cities with unlimited money so you can change big sections of the road network and experiment with different designs.
Check out this city, what is unique about it is trams are the only real public transport in the city, I added a small three stop monorail but it gets limited usage. The trams also are making a profit and being used by over 10% of the population. The traffic is 85% or higher. TM PE is NOT used.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2258913166

[katiem]

Originally posted by Clunk:

In a nutshell so long as traffic is moving don't worry about the 'Traffic %'. Some players can get quite hung up about it and consider it praiseworthy to reach a steady 80% or higher. Anything from around 60%+ means it's all moving, albeit perhaps slowly in places.

^^ so true. i started panicking once because my traffic flow was 77%, i was half getting prepared to demolish swaths of neighbourhoods to put in new arterials because i checked carefully the problematic intersections

turns out its because i have traffic lights at a couple of intersections i knew was going to be busy (i like traffic lights). there was no jam, it wasnt backed up. they just had to wait until green, but everything was flowing and on green they were getting to where they wanted to go.

that's when i learned to stop caring as much. i keep checking out of habit though im trying to get out of.

also another trick i found that works OP, when you want to force them to use a different road but don't want to use mods or cheats.. TOLL BOOTHS. at first i hated them i didnt see the point, the maintenance is literally twice of any profit you make. but i noticed people will deliberately avoid them overtime.

at least half the traffic going down that road i incorrectly placed at the start now instead goes around to the main arterial on the other side where there isn't a toll booth.

[Doom Sayer]

Its probably that I was tired when I made the post. I suspect this is a lot like Factorio where its not wise to play them when tired.

[ImpalaToby]

... Biffa's videos arent particularly helpful either. [/quote]....

That is interesting. I watched some Biffa Videos. (probably ALL his traffic fix videos, for 6 month straight about 2-3 videos a day- auto save- sipp a tea !) and wrote down some basics that he did all the time. Like lane mathematics, use public transport, roundabouts!!! I also never have just one area of one sort. Mix it. Residents and shopping (Gewerbegebiet) . Also, give many options to get from A to B. Like from two areas next to each other.

It’s also not just roads but also city layout. Other YouTube have great content too...

Just hit 120.000 ( my second city) traffic constantly at 83%. Once at 68 I spent 3 h fixing it. And got it going again.

Biffa inspired me to get the game and helped me a lot to have fun!

[Doom Sayer]

For context I am someone who has issues at any level of city and i have never gotten a super large city. I tend to have problems around point of starting high density. That said im improving.