Urban Development in full flight in Grand Manukau/Layton Cities
After some path finding issues with the transit system and realising you can not start a Metro Line at a “deactivated” station (a station that has been built but not online to receive passengers) I got some good old fashioned urban development underway in Grand Manukau/Layton Cities.
The objective this week was two-fold:
Establishment of the Ore Industry
Continued residential expansion to support a City Centre and the new Industry
So the Ore Industry has been established and is functioning well while Parnell and Franklin District have both come on-stream.
At the moment I am in Expansion Mode – that is pretty much cookie-cutter standardised urban development through the Twin Cities and Urban Islands Urban Geography concepts. This is because the major infrastructure is already laid down from the earlier Planning and Building Mode thus all that is happening is existing infrastructure is simply being extended rather than adding entirely new Lines and so on. The other mode is Consolidation/Mature Mode where I have stopped expanding the City and am going through the existing urban area either upzoning or optimising the infrastructure for efficient operations.
Let’s Ride the Metro
So to start the videos off today we get to ride the newly expanded Metro Line 1:
Let’s ride Metro Line 1Transport Line Manager in use
Checking Out the Ore Industry
I built some Ore Industry – this is how it went:
Ore Industry – after a quick ride on the Metro
And finally a look at the new urban areas of Parnell and Franklin District. Also a final drop down to First Person mode to see the Downtown and LOTS OF TREES!
Bus lane woes, logistics and a new urban area
Next week we are traffic problem finding and bringing online another heavy rail line to help remove some of the road congestion. Also more urban expansion and the placement of the Lemonade Factory in time for Christmas!
There are several ways I like to keep my cities green in Cities Skylines:
Power production will often come from low-carbon emitting sources including hydro or nuclear. I do use the Waste to Energy Incinerators that produce small amounts of air and ground pollution but they make up no more than 1% of total power production
Recycling centres and recycling is a must
EV cars are encouraged city-wide
Mass deployment of mass transit
Street Trees
Urban Forests
Green self-sustained residential buildings in some Districts
Okay that was a few more than several 😉
The big two pollution emitters are power production and transport (followed by heavy industry). Heavy industry pollution is handled by urban forests and the Filter Waste policy meaning factories have to filter their sewerage before it heads out to the sewerage plants. This leaves power production and transport.
Power production
I follow what I preach when it comes to power production for a City. So if I say I believe in 100% (or near to it) Low Carbon Power Production then I follow through into Cities Skylines:
For San Layton City:
1,449MW of power is produced as electricity coming from:
1,254MW (or 86.6%) coming from two nuclear reactors
80MW from Geothermal
50MW from incinerators
65MW from on and offshore Wind turbines
400MW comes from Geothermal based bores sent through to the City as District Centralised Heating (steam or hot water)
Using electricity map (and assuming the incinerators let off as much as a biomass plant) the carbon output is: 37g/CO2/Per KW or 98% low carbon – same as France as of writing this post
As you say when I say Green I do Green!
As for transit I invest in most modes depending on the Geography of the City. Patronage is about 50% of the population (using transit) with more using cycling. Given San Layton has two Cores connected by heavy rail and monorail with urban islands coming off of them (surrounded by pasture or forests) that are interconnected also by all forms of rail and bus it is quite easy to move around the city without the need of a car – even going to the industrial complexes.
And yes my transit system runs 24/7 on an integrated fare system. Quite interesting to see even the big 135 bendy busses straining to keep up with passenger demand at 3am in the morning of a Saturday or Sunday as the night owls like to party.
We’re pleased to announce that Cities: Skylines will be getting a playful new expansion, Parklife. Parklife is a lively new add-on for the PC version of Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order’s hit city-builder. The expansion will make your city more vibrant than ever with new amusement parks and zoos; nature reserves and city parks, giving new life to your empty land with custom green spaces.
Parklife adds new ways to play with everything from roller coasters and campsites to flower beds, fountains and flamingos. There’s also a new park area tool, five new maps, a ton of new assets and level-up features that increase your park’s property values in play.
More leisurely features:
• Parks and Recreation: Use the new park area tool to create park districts wherever there is empty land, and new city services like Park Maintenance, which boosts happiness and effectiveness, and helps level up parks.
• Brick by Brick: Customize your city with new buildings and assets, including a new sightseeing bus line, new service buildings, fresh attractions like amusement parks, nature reserves, city parks and zoos. There’s also a regal new monument, the Castle of Lord Chirpwick.
• Freeway Free for All: For the first time in Cities: Skylines, you can place buildings next to paths in the park districts (not just next to roads). Props can be placed anywhere inside park areas.
• Recesses Between Buildings: Transform those empty spaces between your buildings into vibrant parks and gardens.
• It’s a Walk in the Park: Customize routes and set ticket prices for new walking and sightseeing tours, among other tourism enhancements.
• Policies, Please: Take on three new city policies and eight new park policies to deal with recreational hazards like Fireworks and Animal Ethics.
This will be great for my latest city San Layton City as I try new Urban Geography techniques including large park spaces and the use of those paths – that currently I can not build beside – yet!
I was also thinking last week that my City is missing a theme park like my flagship city had in Sim City 4 (it spanned half a map tile in the region).
As a result I will put my City on hold so I can make maximum use of the new DLC – when it comes out May 25 – the day after my Birthday
There is even an essay on Monorails and Urban Geography: MONORAIL: A KEY URBAN LESSON FROM THE SIMPSONS. So last night I decided for the first time in Cities Skylines to build a monorail line from the City Centre to Thorton Park halfway across the map.
At the moment the line only has two stations on it (same as the heavy rail network) as San Layton City is a very young city having only being founded a month ago (real-time).
None-the-less I built the line and it designed for more stations as the City expands. Once you get the 70km/h speed restriction off the train moves as fast as heavy rail allowing very rapid connections.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
 You can also see some of the first developments here:
Now to get the daily rush hour of traffic under control (caused mainly by inter city traffic rather than intra city commuting)
I have also written on accessibility in the past over at Talking Southern Auckland when the Manukau South Link was a topical issue:
Manukau South Link catchment close up by Saeid Adli
Cities Skylines offers lessons
Having to redo your entire transit network becomes a must as your City matures and approaches larger sizes. Bus lines end up a mess as the City expands while trams don’t operate efficiently due to expanded roads and lack of priority measures. As much as you can forward plan it some days a reformat is required.
San Solaria’s bus and trams will need a reformat as they are not tying in well with the subway network and central bus stations throughout the City. Patronage use to exceed total vehicles on the road but recently it is struggling to match one-third of its previous peaks.
Route accessibility has become the problem with routes going everywhere BUT where people wanted and this has a double knock on effect. The first being less people on the transit network means more cars on the road. More cars on the road means roads and intersections are more jammed up blocking busses and trams. Given the tram and bus network was designed around San Solaria being a mono-core City but in reality it has matured into a two Core city accessibility fast becomes a problem. Also as industry expands into new complexes the population becomes more diverse in its travel patterns.
Sounds a lot like Auckland right?
So time to delete about 10 tram lines and 75 bus lines (some more recent ones will stay) and reformat the surface transit network!
I speak Green in Twitter I follow Green on #CitiesSkylines. As shown in San Solaria Leads the Way in Low Carbon Future San Solaria gets 95% of its power from green sources while 1/3 of the Districts are ‘Green’ Districts and several more following E-cars for residents.
The last week I have been developing up Solarian Ranges after completing the last of surrounds with Laytonville which is situated at the bottom of the Solarian Range hills. Solarian Ranges is the (at the time) latest Green community situation up in the Solarian Ranges next to the Solarian Dam (the main hydro power station and fresh water storage site). It is accessible by a single two lane highway or cable car traversing the Ranges. Given the Solarian Lake tourism value Solarian Ranges is serviced by busses connecting it to the Laytonville Harbour Ferry Interchange.
Green is the name of the game from the roads, buildings, organic produce, residential self-sufficiency, bio fuelled busses, recycling centre, EV charging stations and the combustion engine ban.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Solarian Ranges continued:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Solarian River and Laytonville Heights also continue to mature well as Green communities:
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Finally a preview at the latest Green community – Solarian Point:
Next up: Solarian Point – San Solaria’s latest green community. After that we take a ride on a cable car and the subway to the Airport.
95% of power from clean sources – sodding incinerators hold up the rest
Emissions free power or close to it. I talk about and advocate for it but do I lead by example within #CitiesSkylines?
This graph is from San Solaria City on where its electricity comes from:
If you wanted it in pure numbers:
Hydro from two dams: 400MW
Wave from two generators: 22MW
Nuclear from two reactors: 1,382 MW
Incinerators (around 10) 110MW
Wind from both onshore and offshore: 252MW
Total 2,166MW produced
Total consumed at peak is 1,924MW average is 1,550MW
Geothermal central district heating has a total output of 400MW with the average of 300MW being consumed (thus saving 300MW from the main generators)
2,166MW total power production (not including Geothermal central heating) comes from a total Budget set at 73% both day and night
Transport wise of the 41 districts in the City about 10 of them require residents within those districts to have Electric Cars only with five of those ten districts also having a Combustion Engine ban (except for service traffic).
Policies such as self sufficient residential buildings and local/organic produced produce is also in effect in about 10 of the Districts as well with all new non industrial districts to have those polices and the E Car policy in effect.
Street Trees are also a major push:
Charging stations:
Going Green matters and San Solaria does its best walking the talk!
Four new tram lines were built with two connecting to the wider city and two travelling within the area forming a City Link type circuit. The photos below are of City Boulevard Lines 1 and two that run as a loop down the new Boulevard and through Forrest Road (one of the two east-west parallel roads). The other two lines that were later built are:
City Centre to Airport LRT Line. Think of it as Solaria’s City Centre to Airport via Dominion Road, Auckland equivalent with the Airport-Solarian Line (a metro/subway line) as the express Southern Airport Line).
Thorton Hills Interchange – City Boulevard Line. This links up the new urban area to a major interchange that serves busses and an inter-city train station
Â
Lessons for Auckland?
Do not be afraid of Light Rail and also Light Rail is good for small intra suburb running as well as big trans-city running like Airport Lines.
Two of the four new tram lines are intra-suburb running – meaning the line runs within a single district rather than multiple districts. I can control individual line budgets meaning I can select capacity ranges from 75 to 210 passengers. As a comparison a bio-fuel bus holds 40 passengers while the bendy busses hold 130 and let off a pile of diesel fumes along the way. So rather clogging my nice new urban area up with smelly busses I can use smaller trams to move passengers around while stepping up capacity as demand increases.
Manukau City Centre and Manukau/Wiri would be a perfect example of such a Light Rail scheme that connects into a larger LRT scheme like the Southern Airport Line (Manukau to the Airport via Puhinui Station) or in Cities Skylines the two City Boulevard Lines connecting into the bigger trans-city lines.
The two bigger lines being the Thorton Interchange to City Centre Line and the Airport to City Centre LRT Line both which run through part of the City Boulevard Lines.
Airport and NW Lines Source: AKL Urban Design via Twitter Note: Not final for statioms
In this case these two bigger lines run through multiple districts and centres so using the big E-class tram that holds 210 passengers will be more viable (remember my biggest bus is only 130 passengers).
The rule of thumb I usually follow with transit is this:
Busses for short distances and feeders into major interchanges
Light Rail for medium distances
Heavy Rail (and Metro Rail with Cities Skylines) for long distances or high capacity shuttling such as a major transport interchange and a stadium
In Cities Skylines I usually follow the above rules with a couple of exceptions. From time to time I will build a busway to allow busses to do medium distance running while light rail can be used for short distance running.
The Laytonville Busway
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
But it is the LRT system I have set up that is of more interest as it gives lessons to Auckland as we try to set up an LRT system of our own.
This map shows the transit system in San Solarian City. The dash lines are the ferries, thick lines the Metro Lines and the thin lines are the trams:
As noted before I run both trans-city tram lines and tram lines that run within a single district (local loop running). Both classes of lines connect to each other either at a common station/stop or a slight over lap of the lines in some areas (two tram lines sharing the same bit of road/track) to allow transfers.
The question is why am I using trams for shot distance running? Answer One is capacity while answer two is ambience.
Busses are smelly, noisy and hold fewer passengers compared to the trams. Don’t get me wrong busses have their place including the biofuel bus but in a large City they just don’t cut the mustard when wanting to move people between areas (and between Metro Stations).
In high ambience areas like City Boulevard, the City Centre and Laytonville having lots of busses running around isn’t my idea of fostering ambience. This is why the trams are used in local loop running like City Boulevard Lines 1 and 2.
I can control budgets of individual lines so I can determine the capacity required:
So for the City Boulevard Lines trams that hold 75 passengers (still more than the biofuel bus (40)) are adequate while the Trans City Lines get the big 210 passenger trams.
City Centre – Thorton Hills LRT Line via City Boulevard
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Airport to City Centre via William and City Boulevards
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
City Boulevard Line including Forrest Street
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Lessons for Auckland?
The Northern Airport Line will be Light Rail while I am pushing the Manukau to Airport section of the Southern Airport Line to be Light Rail (Manukau to Botany will be bus).
The first is about capacity to meet demand (The Southern Airport Line intersects Manukau Bus Station and Puhihui Train Station that have heavily patronised transit lines running through them) and the second is about ambience especially in a major Metropolitan Centre like Manukau.
Manukau or rather Transform Manukau is 600 hectares in size compared to the main City Centre being around 385ha (this does NOT include Port of Auckland but does include Wynyard Quarter). Manukau is also in the middle of a large regeneration program that includes intensification and upgrades of public spaces. Manukau is also forecast to house 20,000 new residents (I say it can hold double) over the next decade or so.
Simply put given its large size busses are not going to quite cut it moving people around Manukau nor to and from it to another major employment area like the Airport. Ambience is also in play and like the City Centre having a high amount busses inside Manukau doesn’t exactly work either.
Running higher capacity trams along the Northern Airport Line through the Airport and down to Manukau via the Southern Airport Line would be Auckland’s example of my Airport to City Centre LRT via William Boulevard Line coupled with the Airport to Laytonville Metro Line.
A LRT Line doing a circuit of Manukau and Manukau City Centre linking up the main commercial area, main residential area to the south, the events centre to the south-east and AUT to the north-east would be an example of my City Boulevard Lines.
Botany Sky Train Line Revised Manukau Loop
The Southern Airport Line is Option 1 (Red). Source: Auckland Transport
Remember via budget control you can use smaller trams (that can be coupled up to make larger units as I can in Cities Skylines (75, 150, 210 (same as the single unit E-class)) to start with and up the capacity as the demand allows.
I believe in the dig once, get it right policy that New Zealand struggles with (due to our often lack of foresight). While building LRT instead of a busway for the Southern Airport Line between Manukau and the Airport is more expensive those costs are paid off pretty quickly from the demand and ambience side.
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Transform Manukau Framework Plan Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Remember the Southern Airport Line intersects the Southern and Eastern (heavy rail) Lines widening the catchment of that particular Airport Line. You also have the Manukau Bus Station that is THE PRIMARY bus and inter-city bus station for South Auckland (like Britomart is for wider Auckland). So the demand for trams will be there straight off the bat (even if we use smaller single car trams to start with that can be later connected up like our current electric trains). As for bus congestion not applying in Manukau? Well I do not want to get to that point unlike the City Centre and as I try to avoid in Cities Skylines (and when I don’t it is a mess to untangle).
Remember ambience is the name of the game and having busses trundle through Manukau is not my idea of ambience. Again LRT like my City Boulevard Lines are great for localised loop running to move people around an area – especially are large area that has many focal points like Manukau does inside its 600ha area.
Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Source: Panuku Development Auckland
Don’t forget that budget control measure for capacity.
Finally and again yes placing LRT down in Manukau is more expensive than bus rapid transit but once LRT is down you will not have to dig up the area again because the busses went over capacity (often too quickly).
Let’s get it right the first time every time!
San Solaria City has offered quite a few lessons for Auckland. I hope you have enjoyed this cross over with Talking Southern Auckland. I might do another cross over next year as San Solaria continues to evolve or when I start a new city on a new map.
Good day to you all! Here are the patch notes for the 1.9 patch coming today along with the Green Cities Expansion! Hopefully loaded with a bunch of fixes and tweaks you and your cims will enjoy!
Please remember that a major patch like this will like render some mods incompatible, this is nothing unusual but can of course be annoying, our modders are usually incredibly fast in updating their mods compability however please do practice some patience as the patch launches. For the safest Cities experience we suggest turning off your mods until they have been updated to match the latest version.Â
Have a great day building Green Cities!
1.9.0-f5 Paid content Green Cities expansion Green Cities expansion
New commercial specialization: Organic and local produce
New residential specialization: Self-sufficient buildings
3 new Concerts unique buildings, each of the buildings improve the effectiveness of the Festival Area in their own way
Media Broadcast Building
Music Club
Fan Zone Park
Concert DLC animations for teenagers, young adults, bluecollars, educated adults and tourists
Paid content Content Creator Pack: European Suburbia European Suburbia DLC
Added European Suburbia style with 81 new low-density residential buildings
5 new props
Free update for all players and DLCs owners Cities Skylines base game
Electric cars for citizens
Noise Pollution overhaul
3 new parks
Tropical Garden
Floating Cafe
Fishing Island
Info view toggling + info view for district painting
New trees
Asset Editor
Road modding tool
Floating building creation
Train track intersection rules
……
Source: Steam
Once the mods I used were updated (Rush Hour and Improved Public Transport 2 are still down) I managed to get my City – San Solaria up and running with the new features going.
So far so good with things like an IT cluster establishing, some areas going totally self-sufficient (residential) or “organic” (commerce). Several districts have an E-car policy where residents must have an e-car while only one District has a combustion engine ban in place.
The new recycling centres have caused a boom in the industrial sectors while the new bio-fuel busses are not that great. That is because they only hold 30 passengers and I have big diesels holding 130 so we have congestion issues on Bus Lines 7, 16 and 21 which are the heaviest used routes. That said with the new 6-lane + Tram road asset out by a good modder I might covert some of those heavy used bus lanes to tram lines.
It has been a while since I have been on Cities Skylines as I was in the middle of a research project while now I am testing my mettle on Transport Fever (21st Century version of Transport Tycoon).
I will get back to my cities soon enough but it seems in the meantime Cities Skylines is about to go green:
STOCKHOLM – Aug. 22, 2017Â – Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order are preparing to make players green with envy in Green Cities, a new expansion for their evergreen city-builder Cities: Skylines. Coming later this year, Green Cities will allow mayors to make sustainable cities, complete with organic stores, electric vehicles, and new services designed to make pollution a quaint notion of the past. Green Cities will arrive for $12.99 via low-carbon-footprint digital delivery for Windows, MacOS, and Linux PCs later this year.
Cities: Skylines – Green Cities adds 350 new assets to the core game, adding a massive selection of new visual options, complete with eco-friendly buildings, organic stores, electric vehicles, and new services designed to make pollution a quaint notion of the past. Players can create more diversified cities, or go completely green as the urban population grows. New in-game services and buildings arrive alongside revisions to noise and environmental pollution, making the skies safer for Chirper at last.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, with exciting new features such as: Story to Story, Building to Building, Street to Street: New Eco-Friendly Buildings, New specialization buildings, new alternative service buildings, new unique buildings, electric cars, new parks — 350 new assets in all giving a unique new look to Cities: Skylines I Wish I Was Special, You’re So Very Special: New specialized options for all city zones, plus leveled-up specializations for the first time in Cities: Skylines So What So What So What’s the Scenario: New scenarios, new policy options, and a new Monument to make your friends Green with envy Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear More Stylish: Of course we’ve included a flower-crown hat for Chirper.
As always, the expansion will be accompanied by a free content update to the base game, which will include electric cars, road modding, changes to noise pollution, and more beautification options in the form of parks and trees, among other things.
Ben's Cities 