Town Planner Sam Bur uses Cities Skylines to communicate things one should not do in their cities – simulated AND reality
While players often get stuck building cities our planners, engineers, designers and politicians equally get stuck building cities as well. This is not a bad or a negative thing (unless you have a knack of always trying to do the wrong thing better) as cities are infinitely complex evolving organisms. However, there are some basic things we can do (in simulation and reality) that can make building and experiencing cities just that tad easier.
Enter resident Cities Skylines, and Queensland Town Planner Sam Bur on six things to avoid in Cities Skylines (and real cities):
The six things to avoid (or tips):
- Road hierarchy – that is when is a 2 or 6 lane road needed or will a 6 lane motorway over compensate for the 2 lane national highway that can do the job just as efficiently taking less space?
- Also with large intersections: USE ROUNDABOUTS!
- Highway connections: using roundabouts to connect the road, ramps and motorways together is the most efficient way of moving traffic through the area compared to what Auckland does and use traffic lights (Greenlane and Ellersie notwithstanding)
- Intersection proximity – why it is a bad idea to bunch intersections especially on large roads rather close together (it bungs the flow of traffic and even pedestrians)
- More than one connection (road or transit). Redundancy capacity and something I make very loud noises on when Auckland does not build that redundancy capacity. Note: with roads that does not mean go trigger happy as remember the more roads, the more you have induced demand and congestion. So a fine balancing act between redundancy and causing mega congestion
- Transit reliability – that is making sure the transit network is able to run reliably. By reliable: no overcrowding, decent frequency, an actual 24/7 timetable and the infrastructure to match purpose and demand.
- Don’t centralise your industry. Do not plop all your (heavy) industry in a single place – unless you want freight chaos across the city as it attempts to service the City. Spread the industry around and tie it into the transport network especially rail. Auckland does have an issue where four of the five heavy industrial complexes are in Southern Auckland with the 5th in the lower Isthmus meaning there is nothing in the north or west. This also has to do with geography and that 75% of New Zealand is south of the City.
So there you have it six tips and things to avoid either playing simulated cities or building real ones.
As yes six lessons I keep in mind as I undertake my latest city – Manukau – the first city post Industries DLC era.
Talking Southern Auckland 