SimCity 405: The Double Road

Behold the above image. What you are looking at is a nighttime shot of three roads. That's right -- three roads. On the right, a standard high-density avenue. At right, what you're looking at is two abutting high-density roads. I refer to this as the double road.

In SimCitys of the past, two roads right next to each other would result in a string of chain-link roundabouts that would aid in traffic flow but looked hideously ugly. In SimCity 5, the double road not only works but also creates a grand boulevard that gets cars where they need to go ASAP.

Episode 6: The Double Road

Posted March 12, 2013

Here's a video I put together for my YouTube channel explaining how to set up a double road and why it works.

Benefits of the Double Road

The double road is in effect two sets of one-way traffic roads right next to each other. This is like replacing the drain pipe under your toilet with a car axle -- you'll never get a clog again and when you flush the water will rush out in seconds. You will straighten out any crushing traffic problems in your city in a heartbeat -- better than a standard high-density avenue can.

You can also straighten out the quirky bus line thing where the buses follow each other around by placing bus stops on both sides of the street directly across from one another.

Residential communities love the double street. I don't know why, but they will develop it faster and denser than an avenue. Now, that might change later in the game as the density levels rise -- I haven't tested over the long-term yet -- but as a starter you can't beat it.

Drawbacks of the Double Road

First, you should notice that the double road is physically wider than it's avenue cousin. So the drawback here is that technically you are using extra space for your road. Some of you don't care about these tiny parcels of space because you're playing to have fun. I care about those spaces because I'm trying to destroy my enemies and live atop a mountain made of their bodies in Leaderville. My advice, you want one of these running in each direction.

A second drawback is that Sims driving in one direction can't make a left-hand turn. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Clearly, this prevents traffic jams, but at the same time it forces anyone trying to make a left to travel a great distance away, turn around, and come back on the correct side of the road. This is corrected by creating circles in the center of the road -- thereby cutting the drive time of land-handers in half. Again this takes up more space, but if you have two double roads crossing each other and they both use the circle, then the extra space is a valid strategic risk.

Because the roads are right next to each other, you can't intersect both of them with a cross-street. The street has to dead-end on one side and then the people would have to drive to the round about and come back down the street to continue. The only way to cross a double-road is at a circle.

Putting a police station, fire station, or hospital on the double road cuts the radius of these stations in half because in order to cross the road, they also need to use the circle. So what you'll see is that one side of the double road will be lit up like Christmas when you go to plop, but the other side will be dim to empty. Use the double road for residential and commercial properties and place your ploppables somewhere else.

Ending a Double Road

When the double-road terminates, because SimCity won't allow two intersections to be right next to each other, you'll have to branch the two roads away from one another in order to terminate the road. But this is actually a good thing and here's why: in the space where the two roads part ways, you can plop a police or fire station. Then, they can respond to crimes/fires on either side of the double road. Pretty tricky, right!

SimCity 401: Tracing the Water Table

So, the most basic and fundamental advanced strategy I use is the water table tracing I do at the start of every level. What does this mean exactly? Well basically, I take a look at the water map and -- while it is displayed on the screen -- I add roads to my community making extra careful to keep the roads on the driest (read: lightest blue) portions of the water table.

The advantages to having your water table traced in streets is a) you can see where your water table is without having to bring up your water map, and b) you can zone areas that you know for sure to be light blue with industrial and other polluting ploppables -- thereby minimizing the amount of pollution you'll have to deal with later in the game

Once you can visually see where your water table is via roads, the next step is to close the water table data layer and begin broadly zoning the sections you traced out. Any section that you know has no water table underneath of it is a location you want to dedicate to garbage, sewage, mining, and industry. Anywhere that you know has water -- especially deep water -- you want to zone commercial and residential or install clean ploppables like parks, government buildings, and schools. Also, obviously, your water towers will go here.

Episode 5: Tracing the Water Table

Posted March 11, 2013

In this video, I cover the basics on how and why to trace your water table using roads. If you regularly have problems with water pollution, then this video may be for you.

The Water Table From Above

You never really get a shot to see the water table from directly above (or at a distance) in SimCity 5. However, I put together this composite image tracing to show you what a water table looks like. This particular map -- Corsair Coast (region: Sunrunner Bay) -- is a well balanced water table by my estimation. You can clearly see that there are plenty of dry spaces for industry and polluting ploppables as well as an even number of watering holes above which go residential, commercial, and, of course, water towers.

Most maps are more complex than this one and some are almost completely covered by water table. Cinder (region: Reflection Atoll) is a good example of this

Now, I'll be the first to admit that you can't lay your roads solely via the water table on most maps. For instance, the elevation changes in this map make the upper right corner impossible to follow 1-for-1. In that case, simply cut the road short in the dry area to make sure ground pollution remains sequestered.

The more mindful you are of your water table, the better for the long-term health of your city.

Benefits

This is a huge preventative benefit that keeps major pollution problems from creeping up on you as your city begins to expand and grow. These pollution problems usually will stop and even reverse the growth of your city as people get sick and die and can consume huge amounts of time and money later on that are better spent on expansion. The key to maximizing your fun in this game is to think now -- at the start -- about where you want to store your ground pollution.

Disadvantages

It's sometimes ugly, difficult to draw the roads, and can be limiting from a design aspect. Take the city in the photo above: Trinity Point. The industrial zones (yellow) follow exactly the path of the dry bedrock beneath. Esthetically, this isn't very pleasing.

More importantly, the squirrely nature of the water table makes the roads themselves a pain to draw. In other city sites these aren't really issues, but for this site the problems are more evident. Sadly, I agree with each of these criticisms, but in the long run I know that this strategy is saving me from future headaches and that makes it worth the sacrifice.

Leaderboard

In terms of ascending to the top of the leaderboard, I consider this strategy to be indispensable.

SimCity 201: Roads II

As I said during the intro class on roads and bridges, roads are the blood vessels of your city along which people, power, water, sewage, and information flow. They are the grid that gives your city character, the instructions that gives your city shape, and the thoroughfares that grant or deny access.

Guidelines

Imagine that you are just building your city and you lay two parallel roads on the ground. When you go to lay out your third road, your city planners will show you guidelines that allow you to place the next road at the same distance from the second road as the second road is from the first.

This is incredibly useful when setting up a grid-based city layout.

Straight Roads

Straight roads are the most economical when it comes to preventing wasted space between your city's buildings.

Don't forget: holding down shift while placing roads will make them snap to 90 and 45-degree angles to the passing highway. Straight roads usually create less traffic.

Curved Roads

Curved roads are incredibly fun and can add an esthetic beauty and gracefulness that compliment your city.

Problems: Square Pegs in Arched Holes

The downside of curved roads is that because the buildings are square in nature, they will waste tiny bits of space as they are constructed. The bigger the building, the more space it wastes. Each of these tiny bits of wasted space adds up over time into large quantities of land that would otherwise host buildings if your city utilized a more bland, grid-based design.

If you create a city entirely made out of curved roads, you will have no shot at landing at the top of the leaderboard. However, I have created many curvy cities because they look freakin' awesome. So, it depends on what you're looking to accomplish. Being the best means as few curves as necessary; playing with friends for fun, curve away.

Problems: Disjointed Roads

Let's say that you are laying one of the squares of a road grid. By holding the shift button, you can extend any road in a straight line. Now, let's say that while extending a road, you stop half-way to the next intersection and then attempt to finish the road from the other side. There is a chance that if you are not 100% perfectly on the guideline that when those two sections of road meet, they will not connect properly -- creating, in fact, two overlapping cul de sacs that do not operate as a normal road. Be aware of this and make sure that when you connect roads in this fashion that you double check to make sure that they have created an actual road.

Again, this problem only occurs when you hold shift for each road. If at any time you release the shift key, the game will automatically connect these two roads with no problem. I, as it turns out, am the kind of person who compulsively demands straight roads. I use shift constantly and this happens from time to time as a result.

Problems: Traffic

If you have areas of your city where traffic always seems to back up, you may be tempted to think that this is a result of poor city design and blame yourself. Well, rest assured: it is your fault and had you designed a road system using four basic theories of city planning, you wouldn't have these problems?

So, what are these theories?

• Connect your corners
• Interlace residential and commercial properties
• When it comes to roads: never use anything less than medium density
• Love mass transit

The maximum distance that people have to travel is from each corner of your city site to the off ramp from the highway. To minimize the amount of traffic produced by your city, you want to connect the corners of your city to this off ramp using roads as direct as possible.

When you zone, if you interlace your commercial and residential zones, you will cut down on the amount of traffic that is on your roads as the people who live in your city can simply walk down to the street to the market instead of driving miles across the city. You do NOT want to interlace industrial into the same areas as this will create pollution and problems in the long run.

There are several types of roads to choose from. However, the low-density roads that seem like a cheap way to lay out your city quickly at the start of the game are an illusion. Using these roads will instantly send your precious baby into total gridlock. Avoid them at all costs by using only medium-density roadways or better.

Finally, you should fall in love with mass transit here and now and attempt in every way to move your citizens around your city using trains, streetcars, and other such tools. Every Sim who you put on a train is one less Sim pumping NOx and SOx into your atmosphere and gumming up the streets they share with cops and firefighters.

SimCity 145: Roads and Bridges

How you layout your city depends entirely on if and where you can place your roads. You have some great tools to develop straight, curved, or circular roads depending on what kind of mood you're in and what the terrain looks like. Roadways are what give your city it's unique layout.

Roads

Roads are the lifeblood of SimCity 5. You can't do anything without laying a road. Zones are based entirely on the location of intersections and road endings. Your citizens travel via roads (either via car or on foot) to get to work or to go shopping. The traffic capacity of your road (low-density, high-density, etc) determines the size of the buildings that will abut it.

All power, sewage, and water lines run unseen under the roads. Connecting any road to a source will automatically transmit that service to any building connected to the road provided there's enough supply.

Bridges

Your ability to cross valleys, rivers, and even the occasional bay depend upon the ability of your citizens to erect bridges and elevated highways. Based on the terrain elevation, your construction crews will automatically build the bridge when you try to traverse open air, however it's important to understand that bridges cost extra money to build. So be careful that you don't accidentally short yourself early in the game.

If you are bored, you can noodle around with bridges to get them to pass under each other and loop in crazy ways to add dynamic sight lines for no reason other than you can.

The Onramp

The bane of any mayor. It sits their mocking you at the start of the game -- daring you to expand into the great unknown. It serves as a connection to all the zones in the area, so anything that isn't connected to the on-ramp can not receive deliveries from other cities. In addition, that probably means those areas aren't connected to your water and power grids either.