Difference between streets and country roads

[philmo]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but can someone please confirm the difference here. Country roads have a greater speed limit and seam cheaper - so what are the benefits of streets? Thanks

[chrisasnyder]

Cities will only place buildings on steets. Country roads in a city will be converted to allow for growth.

[philmo]

How stupid of me - so if I converted some city roads to country roads to encourage speed does it mean existing building simply will not grow and will keep their population/business levels as they are ? in which case I guess it is a trade off if there is not other side effect ?

[Thork]

If you convert existing city-roads they will just get re-converted the next time the city has an "upgrade-tick". However, when I did it a few times it seemed to me like this uses up some of the growth which would otherwise be used elsewhere. I believe there is some amount of "growth-points" the city can spend on upgrading/adding a building or converting/adding a road.
I could be wrong about that. Maybe someone else knows for sure or is willing to experiment.
If this is true, you can probably add/convert city roads yourself to speed up growth.

[philmo]

So it sounds like no growth with country roads - I think that answers my question.

[electricmonk2k]

Not sure if you can place inline bus-stops on country roads, or see people walking along them, but somehow, I doubt it.

[chrisasnyder]

If you want to guide how a city is to grow, build with streets. if you are trying to have a fast road for trucks come into the city, eventually the city will try to convert it.

You can prevent this by snap-placing tracks on each side of the county road. This allows you to build a dedicated county road truck-route into the city. The tack balast mod looks better, but the idea is the same.

[philmo]

Originally posted by chrisasnyder:

If you want to guide how a city is to grow, build with streets. if you are trying to have a fast road for trucks come into the city, eventually the city will try to convert it.

You can prevent this by snap-placing tracks on each side of the county road. This allows you to build a dedicated county road truck-route into the city. The tack balast mod looks better, but the idea is the same.

So you are saying the city will try to change country (fast) roads into city (slower) roads unless you place obstacles to restrict growth ?

[chrisasnyder]

Correct