@@jester.Gaming hello bro. I noticed something weird with vanilla cities skylines. If you build a city with only 4 lanes and 2 lanes with tight grid, it is actually better for the traffic. I have 50k pops with 81% traffic going, the only red segments are on the highway exit... I also use trams here and there so they does not interfere with the traffic, and it works sooooo good. Does not look aesthetic, though, it looks like san fran with bigger roads here and there loool
That's an interesting layout FF Hermawan! Does it work with all different zone types? I had something similar in the low density area and I'm surprised it would work well with high density.
Yes it traffic totally depends on roads and if you are using your roads correctly you can get 90+ percent of traffic flow. I have arou d 80thousand citizens and my traffic flow is 93 percent sometimes 95. It all depends on roads and public transport.
@@taimoorshah8230 Good points, however the game's auto generated lane arrows usually tend to be wonky and confuse the traffic routing AI, leading to silly things like a 3 lane road with all the traffic jammed up into a single lane that has arrows going in all directions and the other 2 lanes being ignored by the traffic, causing backups and traffic jams that should not occur if the traffic were behaving normally. TMPE allows us to take control of that and make sure the lane arrows are serving their proper functions and that the traffic can work it out and use all lanes. A 6 lane arterial road only works if the traffic actually is aware it's a 6 lane road and uses all 6 lanes. Otherwise you can end up in a candidate for a Biffa traffic fix video just from the bad lane arrows and unused lanes that triggers.
To me, it's always seemed kinda cursed, because the lane math doesn't ad-up due to the vanilla lane arrows. I prefer to use a roundabout or service interchange to transition from highway to street.
If you loved a game definitely you will do everything you can think of within that game for a long time without ever getting bored :D I've also been like that for a long time with Skyrim (since release), RF Online (since 2007), DoTA2 (since dota 1 still has only 30 heroes), The Sims 4 (since Sims 1), and Stronghold Crusader (since 2004). And C:S will also definitely going to be on my longtime favorite list. Started playing this game since Q3 2018 after spending half a year watching YT videos related to C:S, and finally decided to buy the game with all of its DLCs since last year (yes, I've tried out the pirated version for 2 whole years before buying). Edit : I've got another game to be added to my list of All-time favorites, it's the recently being awarded as "Best Game You Suck At" in Steam, aka Nioh 2 😂💀 That game, so hard yet so addicting.
Hey DAAC86, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. It does take a little bit of practice ... most of my cities eventually did the same thing too. Once you get the hang of it it's relatively easy though. I hope you can make the traffic in your city better after watching this - good luck! :)
I’ve been playing CS for a few years now, and haven’t ever found a channel I enjoy watching, while also valuing the information given. You have changed that. I have watched a few of your videos tonight, and am loving each one. The presentation of information, and then showing it is practice is fantastic. Very easy subscription. Keep it up!
I wish I found this when I first started playing this game. I don't know, but no videos about traffic hierarchy makes sense except yours. Time to watch the whole series!
Hey Jesse, I was hoping to show how relatively simple it could be to design a layout with decent traffic, I'm glad you liked it! My other advice would be to take things slow while building your city and let the traffic adjust to any new additions! Thanks for leaving a comment!
I've honestly been looking for a simple trick for road designs for my cities. The traffic always gets clogged up and this has definitely taught me a thing or two about road mechanics in-game
Hey Erratic Bot - that's awesome, I'm glad my video was helpful! Traffic is fluctuation around 88% and stilly flowing very smoothly at about 65k population. The principles can be applied to just about any layout. I hope it works well for your city. Welcome to the channel!
This is probably the best explanation of road hierarchy I’ve seen, especially the parts about what roads can connect to what and how to remove stoplights. This helped my city a lot!
I have issues with trying to create proper transit routes, it's all super confusing--something very detailed when it comes to setting up stops would be seriously helpful. Also, which expansion has the pedestrian paths?
You have replenished my love for Cities Skylines ♦ Literally use your videos as a direct study guide to really bring the most out of my playtime. THANK YOU :D
I've played this game for over 100hrs now just watching other videos I've found, this is the only one that I actually learned about road hierarchy and finally found out why my cities traffic flow is always horrible. Thank you so much!
I never use the 6 lane roads. That's why my high density areas always back up. I didn't follow road hierarchy hahaha Thanks for this video. Super helpful
You're welcome Lyndl - It's not perfect but it works! Good public transport and pedestrian walkways really help a lot too. Good luck with your next city!
You don’t actually need six lane roads all you need is that the individual lanes are able to do their own thing for example on a 4 way intersection you’d like three on the exiting side because you then have one lane for left right and forward. I never use 6 lanes I usually stick with the 4 lanes but I only ever have 3 way intersections because those let the Cars move more freely. Also roundabouts !
@@aaaaaaa1062 That's very true Aaaa Aaa, there are lots of ways to create an efficient road layout - being able to create things different ways is one of the things that makes this game awesome!
Hey Lyndl, I wouldn't say that it's absolutely required but you could always improve over how the game manages the traffic! I'm using road hierarchy for the high density area and haven't made any adjustments to the lanes and it's still working well! Lane mathematics and road hierarchy are similar so you're usually using both to so some extent. I hope this makes sense!
Love city builders. Started with sim city 3000 late 90s, early 00s. I'll never forget my first big plane ride and watching a guy play sim city 3000 on the plane, on a laptop. I was blown away and had to play that game. Years later i was able to lol.
hey A City Planner Plays City Builders, welcome to the channel - I'm glad you found your way here, thanks for leaving a comment and the subscription! I hope some of my videos are helpful for your city!
Great stuff. The How to series on youtube I also found helpful for this game, but THIS VIDEO FINALLY showed me the FUNDAMENTAL traffic problem I had. I didn't leave enough room between the freeway and my collector roads. That and road hierarchy. Thanks! This helped a lot!
No algorithm brought me here, I found this myself but wow is this incredible, I almost never use Traffic Lights in my cities because they are just awful but this proves I've been designing roads completely a$$-backwards for YEARS, all the way back in Sim City!! Thanks a ton for the video! Also totally agree with other comments asking how you layout your Services and such as well; that would be amazing
Welcome to the channel cory3573! Using traffic lights is a bit tricky and doesn't always work out... I'm a little surprised at how well everything is going so far! There is a bit of an ebb and flow with the traffic as expected but nothing really backs up too much. You are very welcome for the video! The newest release (episode 16) is about zoning around the city and another new high density area! :)
You have been one of the most helpful and inspiring persons on this game that I have found here on RU-vid. I'm so very grateful to have found your channel and to have you teach me how to get more enjoyment from playing City Skylines. You have become my most favorite RU-vid channel on this game and I always look forward to whenever you release a new video. So just wanted to let you know that you have earned a fan for life. 👋🤓👍
I'm not quite sure what to say Randall - thank you! I'm glad my videos have been helpful! I hope the the traffic in your city works well following these principles of road hierarchy. I've got new videos planned .... hoping to have one up this weekend. Every video I do won't be Cities: Skylines but there will be lots of them! :)
@@jester.Gaming Thanks. You have good tutorials. Believe it or not, one of the things I find hardest is land value. I can surround a building with parks and it still won't upgrade. It's confusing.
That is odd.... I find parks to be very helpful for increasing land value! The land value is also increased by service coverage (emergency, schools, garbage, death care, etc..) and decreased by pollution and lack of services. If your traffic isn't very good your service workers may not be able to reach some building. I hope this helps!
Great video! I've started a new city following these principles and I'm only at 15k population for now but it's the first time my traffic has stayed above 80% the whole time!
Great tutorial for those that need help, no doubt ! However, you seem to rely heavely on principal arterials (arterials that meet highway(s) with service or system - like interchanges ), and you did 0 standard arterial (arterial that doesn't meet highway(s), just goes under or over). Looking from 16:02 , you have an arterial that just loops around to connect 2 neighboring interchanges. There are missed opportunities to create a diagoanal connection toward the top right between the 2 principal arterials, and having, on the left, the arterial from the interchange go towards " north ", while horizontal one goes " west " Either way, that's probably intentionnal and by design anyway that you did this. So, the end result still counts as good !
I appreciate all the time you put into this, thanks man. I hope I will make these kind of cities at some point but there is still a long way to go. This vid already helped out a lot.
Thank you for the feedback and support tim! I went through many many cities myself and I still think similarly to you - there are tons of cities out there that I think look way better than what I have! The best thing that I started doing with my cities was build them slow and steady ... going quickly only leads to problems down the line. I'm glad the video was helpful, welcome to the channel!
Clean, my man! Impressive knowledge and understanding of the game itself and how straight forward you articulate. Road hierarchy has always been a bit miss understood for me, not anymore 👌
this vid transitioned my city builds from dirt roads, to proper road networks haha, road hierarchy litteraly works like magic my traffic was significantly improved
Great explanation of how the game works with traffic (I especially like the 'trick' you used to connect the 6 lane road to the highway)! I have just started playing and my city's traffic is a MESS! Now to decide whether it is better to try and fix my current city or start all over and remember your 'rules' for better traffic flow... Thanks!
Hey Jim, sorry for the late reply! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I'm glad my video was helpful .... like you most of my early cities had massive traffic problems. What I've been doing recently is making a separate save file of the city and testing things out before implementing them just to make sure it'll work without having to do a whole redevelopment!
I never knew about this, early on I used 6 lane roads as often as possible thinking more lanes = less traffic, then I learned about roundabouts but roundabouts at almost every intersection isnt pretty lol this is very helpful!
Making a road network is something that can take some time to get used to and roundabouts can be a bit tricky when they get busy without mods to get the AI to do exactly what you want them to do so I try to avoid them. I currently have only 1 roundabout in the city. Welcome to the channel Emerson!
@@jester.Gaming Absolutely, I started using traffic manager when I found out about Biffa and after experimenting with that it has been a huge help. I built a city yesterday with proper road hierarchy and lane mathematics, at 21000 population so far and its going very well!
Just got a new subscriber (from the algorithm - been watching mostly a city planner plans cities, conflict nerd, and a little of biffa), your funnel system is amazing, as a matter of fact, your entire city is amazing, just looking at the road layout...I wish I had this level of ingenuity/vision
Hi Anthony P, welcome to the channel - thank you for the feedback, I'm glad you're liking the city. You shouldn't be too hard on yourself! It doesn't come that easy to me either. I go through lots of different versions and remake the same area a few times before I settle on something that I like. It might seem like I'm just doing things for the first time in the video but that isn't the case for the most part!
Really like your road layouts! One thing I would have done differently: That 2nd cloverleaf seems a bit too excessive? I would have just build arterial road bridge over that highway to other side of the city.
Hey Timo T, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment - I'm glad you like the layout! I was a little bit hesitant to have the interchanges so close together too... but then I even added another one close by to the industrial area. It's definitely a work in progress that I may have to revisit :)
@@jester.Gaming No problem. And thank YOU for making these videos for us morons to watch, so we learn to play game too! :D :/ You are the one who does all the ”hard work”. Commenting is not hard at all. And don’t think too much for interchanges for industrial areas, as they create so much traffic so for them dedicated connection to a highway is much smarter. As my last comment was mainly because I thought your whole area was just for residential use.
Don't be too hard on yourself Timo - there are lots of mistakes and different iterations that I go through that don't make it to the video! I'm glad you're liking the videos. Thank you for your support!
They sure do Mike - a good pedestrian pathway and public transportation network really helps out! In the real world I commute too far to work to use a bike but I know a few people who do... there are good days and bad haha :)
Dude, I am only now discovering you and am so confused as to why your not more popular! Great job on 7k, I wish you the best of luck with growing on RU-vid. You were direct, to the point and specific with your tutorial, no distractions or off topic jokes. Well done my friend, I subscribed and will continue to watch you! Amazing video!
Hey Eleatic! I definitely still play .... no live streams though. My time is somewhat limited so unfortunately videos don't come out as often as I would like but they do get here eventually!
Great video I learned a few things that help. The intersections that back up some due to traffic lights I implemented one way streets similar to alot of citys and it gave traffic a directional even flow that kept intersection traffic rolling smoothly.
Hi Erik, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and some advice! That's a good idea. It sounds like a combination of road hierarchy and the industrial layout that I have in a previous video that uses directional traffic to keep the traffic flowing. I might have to explore this in another video when we expand to another area.
just picked this game up on steam for the summer sale. I know i will play it a lot but the big speed bump for me is selecting the right tools and not having to undo stuff because I thought i had chosen one tool when in fact i'm still using the previous tool!!! i have been playing about 4 hours and it feels like 2 of those hours is just starting and then quitting because of this lol
Hey Narsty, welcome to Cities Skylines! My best advice is once you have the start of your city established is to take things slow and expand your city bit by bit ... don't let the demand meters force you to build! You could also make a save of your city before trying out a big project and if it doesn't work out you can easily go back to the previous save :)
It’s nice to see a road layout which to me I guess looks like it has American influence, as somebody from the UK we transition from motorway to main roads which we call A road via roundabout. And we don’t tend to use 6 lane roads. The hierarchy in the UK are local roads, B roads , A roads then Motorways which you can call M roads.
Hi Carl - I am in North America (Canada specifically) so I suppose most of my designs are loosely based off of what I've seen around where I live. I've never been to the UK so it's interesting to learn about your road terminology and design! The 6 lane roads are relatively common here on some of the major roads. Once you get into some of the older parts of the cities they are a bit less common and largely two lane roads. Thanks for leaving a comment and welcome to the channel!
Thanks Anglerfish - I appreciate the feedback. I'm overwhelmed by the support I've been getting I figured replying to the comments was the least that I could do! Welcome to the channel!
Tip: if you go to traffic routes and then go to adjust roads, you can select a collector road and highlight priority road to automatically turn all the traffic lights to stop signs.
Outstanding job explaining this topic. I just lost a city because my garbage trucks couldn't get around the city. This shows why mine didn't work. I tried to correct it, but only made it worse. As you said in this video, it's hard to fix once the city gets big. Look forward to more videos. Do you have any that explain how to avoid the backup from trucks loading/unloading?
Hey skess - I'm sorry to hear about your city! I've started expanding my cities very slowly and in the event that I wasn't sure about something I was doing I would make a secondary save just in case I needed to roll back to what I had before ... which has happened! Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to avoid the backup from trucks loading/unloading at commercial or industrial buildings. I find it's the worst outside of warehouses. The best thing that I've found that helps a little bit is to spread these buildings out. I don't have a lot of warehouses close together and I don't have a large commercial district. This way there is only a little traffic backup once and a while rather than a constant backup because there are lots of buildings getting deliveries. I hope this makes sense. Welcome to the channel!
haha, I hope you managed to get a good shot of everything! If not it is available in the Steam Workshop if you're on PC (steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2286642386). Unfortunately I don't really have much of a method other than try and try again! I went through a few different iterations before I was satisfied with what I ended up using. In an upcoming video I'm planning on showing off some of the different attempts I make at designing an area ... none of which turn out any good. Welcome to the channel David!
I'm completely new to your channel, however, just from the beginning it looked like you're a professional, and I love the way that you seem to smoothly create the roads and neighborhoods to mix in well even in vanilla. Since I'm a console player, I think I'll be watching you more often to see how you make it look so good in Vanilla : )
Hi Zkittlez, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment, I appreciate the support! I'm glad you'll be able to use some what I do on console - good luck with your city!
@@jester.Gaming I trully hope your channel grows as large as at least 20k subs, I think you deserve more than that for how great you are. Also, I am pleased to be here :)
haha, maybe one day! I've gotten the majority of my subscribers in only the last couple months - I'm very happy and grateful for what I have so far - Thanks Zkittlez!
Well that was really helpful! Thanks dude an easy sub there for me, clear consise video and it inspired me to make better roads 😀 I shall be checking out your other videos on your channel for sure 👍 keep it up
Cul de sacs are the real world standard because they limit through traffic and T intersections cause less traffic(accidents). You should utilize this to help control traffic flow and keep traffic down on the main drag by limiting turning across traffic(on the main road). Especially since you have highway access on either side of the new area, you can make it so people only turn onto the near side traffic. I usually use yield signs as well instead of stops.
Hey coypinoy22092, that's great advice - thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I do use some of those principles in my generic industry area to keep the flow of traffic going smoothly and it works really well. I definitely could have improved on the design of this area but I wanted to try and keep it simple and relatively realistic ... and yes I know the pedestrian tunnels don't quite follow this! :D
Omg of course I find you now we about to transition to CSL2. You would have saved me so much struggle. The good part is that I can go with a lot less struggle to csl 2 😎 thank you
Hey Timothy - don't be discouraged, I'm sure you'll do fine! It helps to expand slowly bit by bit and fix things as soon as they become a problem ... if you wait and let things compound it'll become a monumental task to try and fix everything in a large city!
I wanted to make sure that they were connected somehow to reduce the amount of traffic going on the highway to the new area. I maybe should have connected one or two of the local roads but it seems to be working out so far! Welcome to the channel Avalon!
They can totally intersect! I'm not sure it's a good idea in Cities: Skylines though - most of the highways are pretty busy. If you've ever traveled in British Columbia the Trans Canada Highway has a few lights/intersections along it when you pass through Kamloops (and probably other places but that's what comes to mind!).
