What is your favorite interchange and why?

[Hatchet Jack]

Here are some of the "successful" interchanges that seems to handle a lot of traffic with little problems. Some are more difficult or took a lot of time to make properly. What's your favorite?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458547727

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458541272

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458545870

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458539561

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458538649

[ExavierMacbeth]

Sadly most of the interchanges people post always see very overdone to me. Yes they are functional & efficient but they always feel to large for the places I would use them in my cities so I always end up making my own designs...

The one I like, and use the most often is this for highway on/off ramps. 10m Sunken Highway Roundabouts :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458622084

Since I usually have them about every 500m or so along the highway (at least in the densest parts of my city) they rarely get backed up traffic wise because the incoming/outgoing traffic has so many pathing options they don't bunch up.

My Highway/Highway Interchanges are usually always a mess though. Mostly because I tend to build them AFTER an area has been planned out so I am always trying to make the interchange fit rather than bulldozing the area & building the interchange before i develop... Even if not the best, they tend to look more natural like a real world zoning board could only get permission to build the interchange without dispersing existing businesses.

EDIT: And yes I have a railway running along with the sunken highway, including going under the farm :P

[Hatchet Jack]

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Sadly most of the interchanges people post always see very overdone to me. Yes they are functional & efficient but they always feel to large for the places I would use them in my cities so I always end up making my own designs...

The one I like, and use the most often is this for highway on/off ramps. 10m Sunken Highway Roundabouts :)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458622084

Since I usually have them about every 500m or so along the highway (at least in the densest parts of my city) they rarely get backed up traffic wise because the incoming/outgoing traffic has so many pathing options they don't bunch up.

My Highway/Highway Interchanges are usually always a mess though. Mostly because I tend to build them AFTER an area has been planned out so I am always trying to make the interchange fit rather than bulldozing the area & building the interchange before i develop... Even if not the best, they tend to look more natural like a real world zoning board could only get permission to build the interchange without dispersing existing businesses.

EDIT: And yes I have a railway running along with the sunken highway, including going under the farm :P

Wow. I had not thought of these. I think this is totally awesome. I used similar designs in CS1 but not as simple and space saving as these. How did you think of these? Are there any real world examples? Thanks for sharing. I'm going to have to try these out.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by Hatchet Jack:

Wow. I had not thought of these. I think this is totally awesome. I used similar designs in CS1 but not as simple and space saving as these. How did you think of these? Are there any real world examples? Thanks for sharing. I'm going to have to try these out.

Honestly I picked up the core idea from streamer I watched doing very fancy terrain manipulation in CS1. I forget his name but he had a bunch of how to videos for making very realistic looking overpasses, ramps, and rail crossings. I couldn't fully imitate his sunken highway, mostly due to my own impatience & not wanting to install about 15-20 deco asset mods (I had too many mods in CS1 as it was back then)... But this design is more or less what I ended up with as my version. Its actually easier to do in CS2 than in CS1 in my opinion.

As for real world inspiration... I am not sure where he got his originally. I know the "Highway To Nowhere" in Baltimore is one that I recognize, but this type of freeway through dense parts of a city has been tried in a lot of places with varying degrees of success. My own city has one that is about pretty much runs through downtown (actually goes through a tunnel that has part of downtown built on top of it).

The roundabouts in the design are strictly a City Skylines modification to the idea though because of how CS1 traffic worked. In real life, roundabouts in my area of the world are pretty rare... mostly because not many people know how to use them properly, especially the handful that are used as part of freeway ramps on the outskirts of the city. Most real life sunken freeways I have seen use the traditional frontage road 4 way light setup for traffic control.

EDIT: Interestingly enough in CS2... If you make the -10m Sunken road first & then lower the terrain to match, the road gets treated as being a sunken highway when it comes to calculating noise pollution from it... instead of being just a ground level highway in a trench.

Thats why the sound barriers on the ramps are so small. All the parts of the highway that look like they have concrete curbs are actually still being treated as below ground level by the game. Flattening the terrain out after making the road doesn't remove that.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Here is the very compact T Interchange for the highway in case your curious...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458735493

Getting that to connect was an absolute nightmare because of how close to violating clearance zones each overpass is. But for as compact as it is the traffic flow through it during the rush hour times is actually not terrible.

Still building out this area of the city, which is why there arn't really any zoned buildings in this area yet. But this junction represents all 3 outside road connections (North, East, & West) on the Twin Mountain map.

[leftbehind]

I like interchanges that start out as one thing then slowly warp in to something weird to meet needs of local traffic. This one started as a trumpet and evolved in to... idk what this is. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3452719218

Different angle: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3456406783

[leftbehind]

Another slowly warping trumpet: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458781771

4 levels of spaghetti interchange: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458783207

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by leftbehind:

4 levels of spaghetti interchange: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458783207

Haha, those are always funny to make if the area allows.

I guess I need to build more rural highways. I think I am too much of a density gridder to really make pleasing rural areas. But then I never really had an artistic side so most of my stuff is function first & any form of beauty is just a pleasant side effect.

[CHMulti]

I love to create custom interchange designs. I'll admit to overdoing some of them.

Here's a small "parclo", symmetrical as I'm on the edge of the map : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458797227

This is an interchange that the base map offered as another "parclo", but due to the evolution of traffic, turned into something else entirely. I love how it turned out! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458797255

This one attempts to minimize its footprint whilst managing heavy traffic. Based on a real interchange, of course, and adapted to my needs: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458797290

And here's my smallest design for this city. An overpass is missing to make this one omnidirectional: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458797243

[martinolund]

I like how all these massive interchanges have like no traffic at all. Clearly overcapacity?

[leftbehind]

Originally posted by martinolund:

I like how all these massive interchanges have like no traffic at all. Clearly overcapacity?

I'm using the Realistic Trips mod so traffic volume changes throughout the day. I usually work on interchanges while traffic is low. That being said, they are over-engineered for current traffic needs, but they are preparation for the needs of 3 cities I'm about to build. There's a few areas on the map where I can't realistically route trains so the highways will need to take the extra strain (map is "Goto Islands" and a quick look will illustrate why I'm expecting some dense traffic on these routes).

[Major Kudos™]

To promote best traffic I use only elevated freeways and railways.

Elevating the freeways and railways allows and promotes unencumbered traffic between districts and neighbourhoods. Traffic is greatly enhanced by giving local traffic and especially pedestrians fast ways to move back and forth to work, play, shopping and school while avoiding inter city traffic.

I do not use traditional (Game type) freeway entrances and off ramps and instead use more real life solutions like roundabouts and avoid traffic lights and crosswalks in any of them.

Using many of these types of city feed interchanges greatly reduces traffic jams in the city, ANY size city.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3392688257
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3389108076
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3345464254
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3337936554

[sethtriggs]

I like to just build a Parclo A4 a lot of times, with the signalled exit ramps, works pretty nice. I do need to upgrade a few intersections.

Honestly for my beginning stage of the city I also tend to stick to a large roundabout to distribute traffic initially, but then I can move on to (space permitting) Parclos.

[General Tso]

This is my favorite intersection because it was the first one I made. I also like it because it's a big mess. I like making things like that in my city. :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3458960329

[Dave]

My spaghetti:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3454123160

i like this interchange because i redevelope it a lot and gets better every time

also like simple but effective and elegant solutions like this one

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3351855049