BLIMPS! And a Bus-way (Finally)

Slowly rolling out new features in Mass Transit DLC

 

Last night I managed to get in a few serious hours of game play on Cities Skylines with the new Mass Transit DLC installed (and core mods updated).

My initial reaction is mixed as the ferries do not yet work (game crashes out) and the transit hubs are clumsy as you can no control the amount of platforms you might need. However, I did manage to get blimps going and have started using the new Routes system to find and manage traffic jams.

 

BLIMPS

While the ferries do not work the blimps certainly do and make quite site to see as they orbit your city. I do warn you though they are pretty useless as commuter services given they are slow and only take 35 passengers (bus takes >40). But when a blimp circuit is connected up between say major commerce or tourist points it gets more interesting. So I created a circuit that travels between these points:

• International Airport
• Stadium
• Downtown (Casino, Sky Tower, Convention Centre and major hotels)
• Laytonville shopping district

The patronage per blimp is about 25/35 passengers

 

Here are the blimps on their orbit (the policy setting is for educational so don’t forget about books and broccoli people):

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Busways and Traffic Congestion

I have only built one small busway connecting a City Centre to its fringe area on the other side of the motorway. Apart from that I have not used the bus-way options available in the Network Extensions mod apart entrances and exits to major pre ‘Mass Transit’ transit hubs (Layton City is an example of this).

With San Solarian City there are several choke points owing to placements of the industrial complexes and the ports meaning industrial traffic can mix with road transit traffic in key places. Bus lanes do not quite work here as they would between a residential and commercial area so you need to try something else. Enter a dedicated busway running parallel to the main road.

At first it was just one way but when busses going the other way were equally as stuck I flipped the busway into a 2-way one:

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This is the congestion I am trying to untangle (traffic flow city-wide is 65-67%):

 

And here are a few other random things including a custom made bus station using Prop Anarchy:

 

 

My goal is to slowly get traffic flow up to 75% in San Solarian City. While the City currently has a small death wave (increase funding for death care required) the new Route Priority system as well as tracing individual journey patterns is certainly assisting getting traffic flow back up.

The new transit hubs available in Mass Transit DLC are currently useless due to lack of tram integration and unable to control platform counts. However, the new traffic AI has meant for the first time the transit journey count equals the non transit journey count meaning more people are taking transit. Now to make transit more reliable starting with bus lane untangling.

All while still zoning new residential areas.

 

Fun times ahead