TIP: Forget 4 lane and 6 lane roads!

[simonmd]

As I get more experience with this game, it has become clear to me that traffic lights are a MAJOR PITA! I know there is a mod that allows you to create roads without them but not everyone wants mods and there is another easy solution. Ditch 4 lane and 6 lane roads where you might have alot of traffic merging and just use 2 lane one ways.

Here you can see the highway is backing up quite badly as it ends in an industrial area, even the slip road is backed up to the roundabout (Traffic is flowing on the left as this is London BTW!)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415613829

Now i've removed the troublesome roads and put in one way streets running north/south and east west, still heavy of course but it's all moving, note the highway slip road for example, nice spaces between vehicles!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415614238

[Ellye]

6-lanes one-ways can also be used effectivelly as part of no-traffic-light setups, in the right places.

But yeah, 4-lanes two-ways are pretty bad. Pretty much everything that touches it creates a traffic light. It's way more effective to use two 2-lanes one-way in parallel instead.

[BLÀde]

have you tried this? http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=414487141&searchtext=turtle

it's awesome at stopping traffic!

[LordDeimosIV]

The problem in the first pic is simply how you've setup your highway exit and it is not very efficient. You can't treat your highway exit like any other intersection in the game or you will have huge traffic problems. My solutions: dedicated turning lanes with a six-lane two-lane combo. Equally as effecient in my industrial zone. Two-lane roundabouts also get the job done pretty well.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=413010017

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415911899

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415911996

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415912049

[Silvus Sol]

The only problem is that one-ways can easily be used improperly and create a big mess. I do agree that too many people think that 6-lane roads are a fix-all solution and should always be used whenever available. Bigger is not always better.

[simonmd]

This isnt about efficient highway exits, it's to demonstrate that even WITH a bad highway exit, a simple change to one ways instead of 4 or even 6 lane normal roads will help flow greatly.

Sure, changing the highway exit as well will help but that's not the point.

[grapplehoeker]

I agree with the suggestions about correct highway exits, the use of roundabouts (or one way circular direction systems that don't have to be round) to filter traffic from city/district to highway.

However my reason for posting is this wonderful asset for your industrial districts. I cannot praise it enough. It is large and it will take some remodelling to fit it in, but the benefits are HUGE! All your heavy goods/cargo road traffic congestion will disappear ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410027027

[last light of the library]

6 lanes work brilliantly of u use the toggle lights mod on them. 4 lanes are still **** though

[tha grumbie]

They missed a big opportunity with the 4 lane divided highways. They don't allow intersections that keep the divider in place making intersections into "right/left turn only" which would not cause a traffic light and would also allow the player to direct traffic in one direction.

[Moro]

Originally posted by LordDeimosIV:

The problem in the first pic is simply how you've setup your highway exit and it is not very efficient. You can't treat your highway exit like any other intersection in the game or you will have huge traffic problems. My solutions: dedicated turning lanes with a six-lane two-lane combo. Equally as effecient in my industrial zone. Two-lane roundabouts also get the job done pretty well.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=413010017

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415911899

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415911996

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=415912049

just wanted to throw my opinion out there about on your statements.

first off i just want to say this is based on my own cities obviously. my intersections dont look all fancy like yours, but they get the job done. well... they did for a while. which is what i wanted to get to.

in all your pics you have a population of under 30k. i have to say that in my own experience i did extremely well myself managing traffic at that point too. however... once my pop got out there around 50k i started getting a lot more issues. maybe its not an issue for you? i know that roundabout there in the last pic looks slightly congested as is with just its current population. what would it do with 20k more traffic? keep in mind the AI in this game doesnt care if it travels from one corner of the map clear to the other to do something. you will get traffic from every where unfortunately.

[Dr Bolouswki]

Originally posted by tha grumbie:

They missed a big opportunity with the 4 lane divided highways. They don't allow intersections that keep the divider in place making intersections into "right/left turn only" which would not cause a traffic light and would also allow the player to direct traffic in one direction.

This is my ongoing frustration - why don't they have this? It would make for really pretty roads and make traffic WAY easier to handle!

[LordDeimosIV]

Why necro a 1 year old thread? Would be better to just start a new one. :)

[Dave]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873937406

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873423730

you would think so, but no. it just takes a lot of work to make it work properly

[Slick Gamble]

Traffic lights are very poor in vanilla. You're correct, it's better to forgo lights for no lights or roundabouts in vanilla gameplay. You would never allow peds to cross while vehicles turn, or for turning vehicles to compete with traffic driving across for the duration of the light step in a real life scenario. These issues in vanilla make traffic lights very inefficient. Problem is, you need lights when traffic is heavier, or very complex roundabouts. Roundabouts are only very marginally more efficient. Weaving quickly becomes an issue within the same traffic density and they take up more space.

For highways, you must give traffic time to do its thing. Spacing is important between interchanges of all types. Providing space for traffic to weave when they get off the highway is as important as capacity if not more. If you don't allow traffic to weave, they never get an opportunity to take advantage of capacity.

Honestly, both worlds are ones full of dread and misery when you discover Traffic President. Traffic President offers very powerful tools and makes traffic lights far more efficient than roundabouts. I base this on over 1000 hours experience. The reason is simple. When the light goes green, as long as traffic doesn't need to stop for obstructions, it will flow out, and the congested traffic will pick up speed, eventually emptying. If you watch a busy intersection, you see this basic principle in action. So, the goal is to provide enough green light without excessively holding traffic in other lanes. Prioritizing is necessary. I like to give pedestrians their own traffic step to cross unless another opportunity presents itself. Japan does this for their city centers.

[garryashdown]

If you use Traffic President you can change arrows to stop vehicles turning across oncoming traffic at all the intersections!

[YourMama]

@garryashdown how would you do that? can you provide a screenshot? Thanks a bunch for your help!