Quick fixes vs Big Infrastructure

Over the weekend I was part of Cities In a Snap – a competition hosted by Cazgem where competitors have two hours to either build a City or complete a scenario. In this instance it was completing the Traffic Scenario where you have a limited amount of time to get traffic above 82% and the population above 35,000. This was achieved inside the two hours!.

Below is the entire video (including a couple of interviews with Cazgem himself) on how using quick fixes to restore the traffic and get the population back up.

Not a single six lane highway was built. All that was used was inside the existing road corridors with I think only one or two new 4-lane roads built. Some cycle super highways were also built with transit going in at the end. The point being retrofitting and upgrading Real Life Cities do not need multi billion dollar large infrastructure fixes. The small nimble quick fixes are often more than adequate without degrading the urban environment (in fact the urban environment was improved as the Low Land Value flags disappeared).