Bad traffic, dunno how to fix it :/

[lecker bierchen]

Hi guys, I have a bad traffic issue in my city, there are just too many cars, vans and trucks on some streets and I don't know how to make them drive on another way, or how to fix the streets to make traffic flow better, but can't just build highways everywhere. Can someone please help me? Btw if you notice something else that's wrong in my city, please tell me.
Thanks in the future :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450286840

[Blackoth]

can you post some zoomed in screen shots of your really congested areas? The traffic simulation is pretty sensitive and very minor changes can make huge differences. I find it really fun to fiddle with traffic, one suggestion off the top of my head without being able to see your city close up, is add some tunnels to allow traffic from really congested areas to exit the city without clogging roads.

[Tankfriend]

My first guess would be that you have too many intersections. But the picture is zoomed out way too far to make out any details, really.

[Zeke]

Like Blackoth said, the tunnels from this update make it easier to direct traffic from one place to another. I find the easiest way to fix traffic is to simply delete the roads that the cars are being stupid about, and then create an alternate, more efficient route completely. The AI is just so dumb about alternate routes that I have not found a way to make them take the more efficient roads than the ones that they have already been using...

[Phoenix C64]

build underground highways

[leftbehind]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=418915865

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410236188

[unity]

One thing I learned to do was to create T-insersections (three-way) instead of four-way where to roads cross each other. Not practical all of the time, but it really helped smooth things out by trying to stick to that rule.

[lecker bierchen]

I still can't figure out how to fix this. I don't know how to set the roads. All vans just take the same path... Here are 2 images:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450892927
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450892976

[Redbull102]

As far as I see you have a very bad street design. To many big roads and to many crossings with traffic lights.

I would use more 2 lane One Way Roads, to get the traffic from the highways into your town.

But you use a very different city layout than I do.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=449668673

That is the way I get the traffic from my highways. 2-Lane-one-way Roads left and right of the highway, entries and exits of the highway connects to 2-Lane-one-way Roads that are connected with the main 2-lane-one-way roads right and left of the highway. All Big 4-lane or 6-lane Roads are reduced to 2-lane roads before they are connected with the 2-lane-one-way roads so that no traffic light are created.

My town is now around 160k ( old pic ) and no longer at 80k as the pic shows and I have no traffic problems on, or near my highways.

[Tankfriend]

Yes, there seems to be too many intersections going off the large roads (i.e. those bigger than a single 2-lane). Intersections like that are normally all equipped with traffic lights. Traffic lights can be useful on few intersections that see a lot of traffic, but when you have a lot of intersections with lights like this, then they just completely break up your traffic flow and cause congestion.

So, try to get rid of traffic lights by removing some intersections.
For example, when I look at the large "L"-shaped road running from the highway roundabouts around the Eastern corner of the Summit Hills district and then to the North, you already have 5 intersections with little distance to each other on this one road.
Counting from the South:
1: Intersection of the main road with a 2-lane road from Summit Hills and another large road from the East.
2-4: Intersection of the main road with a 2-lane road from Summit Hills
5: Intersection of the main road with a 2-lane road from Summit Hills and another large road from the East.

What I'd try out would be to completely eliminate intersections 1 through 4.
#1 can be removed by cutting the last piece of the 2-lane road coming from Summit Hills (so you lose the intersection, but can still keep most of the zoning), as well as completely removing that large road connecting your main road with the one further East.
#2-4 can be removed by cutting the last pieces of the 2-lane roads from Summit Hills, again.
#5 can stay as it is, for now. That way, you still have a direct connection of the northernmost edge of Summit Hills to the main road, as well as a connection to the rest of your city further East.

If the traffic at intersection #5 then still is too much, you can replace it with a roundabout (use highway for building it to avoid traffic lights) later.

I'd also take a similar look at other areas where you have traffic problems. Having a lot of intersections with traffic lights close to each other is very bad for traffic flow, and cutting them out like this is a very simple and often effective method to counter the problem.

[Cast Iron Duck]

Learning how to make traffic work is a big part of the game.

[a Orc]

Great city, it looks very natural. This city has got personality. :)

Anyway, there are some things wrong with your road design.
1) You shouldn't have so many highway entries and exits after each other. Like under Summit Hills. This causes very bad weaving. I'd just trash several exits and then fix any remaining problems.
2) You shouldn't have traffic lights or other crossings directly after highway exits. You need a stretch of road to hold all cars when the traffic light is red, so they don't queue on the highway. And use some one way roads after the exits (without crossings), so the traffic can disperse before it meets other traffic.
3) Separate local traffic from long distance traffic. The traffic from Brook Hills has to take the local road past Summit Hills to get to the highway, passing dozens of crossings. You probably need a second road there. Generally, try to keep traffic under control by having less connections. Connect each district to the highway system in only one place, and make sure you don't have any other traffic going through the district.

Good luck!

And what kind of freaky people live in your city, don't they need water?

[lecker bierchen]

Originally posted by a Orc:

Great city, it looks very natural. This city has got personality. :)

Anyway, there are some things wrong with your road design.
1) You shouldn't have so many highway entries and exits after each other. Like under Summit Hills. This causes very bad weaving. I'd just trash several exits and then fix any remaining problems.
2) You shouldn't have traffic lights or other crossings directly after highway exits. You need a stretch of road to hold all cars when the traffic light is red, so they don't queue on the highway. And use some one way roads after the exits (without crossings), so the traffic can disperse before it meets other traffic.
3) Separate local traffic from long distance traffic. The traffic from Brook Hills has to take the local road past Summit Hills to get to the highway, passing dozens of crossings. You probably need a second road there. Generally, try to keep traffic under control by having less connections. Connect each district to the highway system in only one place, and make sure you don't have any other traffic going through the district.

Good luck!

And what kind of freaky people live in your city, don't they need water?

I tried all 3 but it didn't help much :/. I removed 2/3 of the highway exits under Summit Hills and added a bigger underground tunnel to the other side, I also removed 4/5 intersections on that bypass road around Evergreen District and added heavy traffic ban to the districts but still it didn't get much better :/ what I also noticed is that every second vehicle on the road is a bus, and 8/10 busses have 0 passangers, I lowered the budget for buses to 50% (couldn't make it any lower) but there are still pretty much the same amount of buses on the street. Btw I'm using a sewage treatment facility that creates drinking water in my city, that's why I got no other water pumping stations. I know the road design is bad but I wanted to make it look realistic :D

[Cast Iron Duck]

Cims will only take the buses if the routes go where they need to go (shopping, jobs). If nobody is taking your bus routes, maybe you could try deleting them.

[a Orc]

It does make it more realistic, I drive through a similar traffic horror daily. Too bad we can't bulldoze and replace an entire highway in a day in real life.

It sounds like you made a start with the fixing but didn't finish. Removing highway exits should clear up the flow a bit. Now you need to figure out where they get stuck. Do they collide at a crossing with other traffic, or is the district jammed because traffic can't get out either. It is important that inbound and outbound traffic don't block each other. One way streets and flyovers are your friends there.

It doesn't matter if you have five or one intersections at the bypass, that entire road is a nightmare. There is traffic from all kinds of districts on it. I would try to separate it, starting with a new road dedicated to the traffic from Brook Hill. Keep it away from Summit Hill. If it really wants to go there it should get in line on the highway, just like everyone else. :)

If buses don't have passengers, you should just remove or redesign your lines.

Are you using any mods? Traffic report tool is very helpful for identifying the cause of traffic problems.

[Hampamatta]

there is a mod that is extremly helpfull when dealing with this kind of thing. cant recall the exact name but its something like traffic report tool. it shows you where the poeple on selcted part of the road are coming from and where they are heading. this way you can see if a large chunk of people come from one place where you could make a new road with better access, to make them take that one insead.