As a beginner: How do I stop the traffic AI from using only one lane?

[Катя Мяу <3]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000480
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000530

I was a huge fan of Sim City 4 and was absolutely addicted to it. So when a friend suggested me to try Cities Skyline I was instantly hooked up to the game.
However after a few hours, the traffic AI starts to annoy me. Namely the cars' tendencies to just pile up on one single lane when there is multiple lanes leading in the same direction. And also from the traffic doing lane switching at the most detrimental times possible, leading to huge backlogs on motorways or other major roads. I have linked 2 screenshots to illustrate my problems.
Is there some advice on how to fix this?

[Challenger™]

As a beginner you may find you actually have very little control over which lane vehicles may choose to use. Later on as a regular player you may find TE:MP rather helpful. Eventually you may come to realize how road design can effect lane choices. Finally, in the end you may learn how very little it actually matters.

Only play by the rules when they're your rules. :)

[OneJasonBradly]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000480
In the above shot we/I need to see further south to see why they are all single laning here.
I could show you videos of reasons for this happening but there are different reasons for this behaviour. Though in your case I feel it is the next intersection going south that will shed light on your issue.
The reservation(of lanes) rule can cause issues when you don't know it is being applied.
Bellow I have a video showing the lane reservation rule in progress. In the clip I show that only two lanes are reserved for traffic to turn from though they will and can use all. But when traffic is confused upon your construction they will default to the reserve rule. Here because of the turns I push all traffic into one lane.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2064368685

[OneJasonBradly]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000530
here too it would be nice to see the intersects ahead that are causing them to "lane jump" or skip a lane change. You are showing the symptom and not so much the problem they(the traffic) the agents/vehicles are showing or trying to show you.
In many cases they lane jump because there are too few node for then to change lanes properly like in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcfHZgTBMM
I too played SimCity4. I played for over 10 years before finding Cities: Skylines and did so because of the road networking system. There is a lot of info in my profile for road issues if you would like to tackle them vanilla or want to understand the vanilla rules. Though I think it would be easier to ask and have me hunt down what I can show on a given subject.

[Катя Мяу <3]

Oprindeligt skrevet af OneJasonBradly:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000530
here too it would be nice to see the intersects ahead that are causing them to "lane jump" or skip a lane change. You are showing the symptom and not so much the problem they(the traffic) the agents/vehicles are showing or trying to show you.
In many cases they lane jump because there are too few node for then to change lanes properly like in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcfHZgTBMM
I too played SimCity4. I played for over 10 years before finding Cities: Skylines and did so because of the road networking system. There is a lot of info in my profile for road issues if you would like to tackle them vanilla or want to understand the vanilla rules. Though I think it would be easier to ask and have me hunt down what I can show on a given subject.

This is actually extremely helpful !
I created nodes on my highway, and this completely fixed the inane lane switching of multiple lanes at once. Thank you so much <.<

Oprindeligt skrevet af OneJasonBradly:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000480
In the above shot we/I need to see further south to see why they are all single laning here.
I could show you videos of reasons for this happening but there are different reasons for this behaviour. Though in your case I feel it is the next intersection going south that will shed light on your issue.
The reservation(of lanes) rule can cause issues when you don't know it is being applied.
Bellow I have a video showing the lane reservation rule in progress. In the clip I show that only two lanes are reserved for traffic to turn from though they will and can use all. But when traffic is confused upon your construction they will default to the reserve rule. Here because of the turns I push all traffic into one lane.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2064368685

Is this enough?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421076122

[OneJasonBradly]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000480
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421076122
Yes, that works well. I see the long line is turning left then for the most part going straight through the next intersection but some are turning left again. So that line of traffic is holding multiple lanes of traffic in it. The reason they are using only one lane is due to the next intersection. That intersection being so near is messing with the left turners at this next intersection. So if I were to interpret what I see. The long line turning left is not wanting the two left lanes at the next intersection but does want to turn left. The issue is at intersection 2 the two left lanes are dedicated to traffic wanting to left turn again after that intersection. Like in the video having dedicated lanes is good to a point, until it confuses the agents from doing what they want.

First I would try to remove the traffic light at the one way where traffic turns left to. And use a stop sign for the direction heading back to the highway from where the big lineup comes from.

One thing you can try is reduce the lanes (one-way) going the opposite way as well as the road (one-way) heading to the other highway to the right (in the screenshot). reduce to three lanes and see in traffic likes it better. You could even reduce them to two lanes but no need I think.

[OneJasonBradly]

Forgive me if this is confusing. If that is the case I would suggest sharing the city and I make the changes I speak of and make screenshots so you can copy them or share my work back to you.

[MarkJohnson]

IME, I find the single lane backups are caused by the game's AI triggering that your road is starting to reach capacity, so it puts vehicles in a single lane. This way your other traffic can still use the other lanes so, your roads don't clog up all lanes. If all lanes clogged up, traffic wouldn't move at all.

I find eliminating exports the easiest solution to the issues and restore traffic flow.

For quick lane changing, that is usually from too small of a node in the road and the AI doesn't have enough time to switch multiple lanes, to make the exit it needs.

In this case, I bulldoze the offending road (nodes), then I redraw the road again, but in reverse, so there is more time to switch lanes early. I usually redraw 3+ nodes before the exit to let it switch three times for the lane it needs to exit.

EDIT:

Also, if you're using mods, then you may need to look at your mods that you may be using that are similar to each other and see if they are conflicting with each other. for example, if you have two traffic mods installed, they may be fighting over traffic as they both want to control the traffic and end up making things worse.

[Scoup]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Challenger™:

As a beginner you may find you actually have very little control over which lane vehicles may choose to use. Laster on as a regular player you may find TE:MP rather helpful. Eventually you may come to realize how road design can effect lane choices. Finally, in the end you may learn how very little it actually matters.

Only play by the rules when they're your rules. :)

Insane how realistic is this. You just told my journey! Butt after that I still have a lot of fun with the design and the math about it even know it doesn't matter.

[Challenger™]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Scoup:

"I still have a lot of fun"

That's why we stay by it :) 👍🏼

[OneJasonBradly]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Катя Меов <3:

Oprindeligt skrevet af OneJasonBradly:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421000530
here too it would be nice to see the intersects ahead that are causing them to "lane jump" or skip a lane change. You are showing the symptom and not so much the problem they(the traffic) the agents/vehicles are showing or trying to show you.
In many cases they lane jump because there are too few node for then to change lanes properly like in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcfHZgTBMM
I too played SimCity4. I played for over 10 years before finding Cities: Skylines and did so because of the road networking system. There is a lot of info in my profile for road issues if you would like to tackle them vanilla or want to understand the vanilla rules. Though I think it would be easier to ask and have me hunt down what I can show on a given subject.

This is actually extremely helpful !
I created nodes on my highway, and this completely fixed the inane lane switching of multiple lanes at once. Thank you so much <.<

Glad it worked for you. Close proximity nodes are very helpful at times. In the clip below they are the major factor on how I can get such high volume to use the main roadways here. From the off ramps all the way to the on ramps I added strategic nodes for the smooth high volume flow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-koc_kev40