With reaction towards City Skylines 2 being muteed by the community I thought why not swing on by Cities Skylines 1 and see how that still runs after nine years?
Well apparently looking at the speed these transit vehicles are moving, particularly the train I say for a city of 272,000, CS1 is running faster than if I was doing First Person View on CS2 with a population of 15,000. Yeah that is how much of a difference there is between the older predecessor. It just runs better than CS2 despite the CS1 city being 16x larger!
So here are some transit runs in Follow Mode in CS1.
CS2 Content will continue but I will also produce CS1 content as well!
City Centre <-> Airport Bus
BUSES!
Solarian Island – Downtown Tramline
City Centre <-> Franklin District (Train) Line
I did NOT speed up the simulation for the train run. That is it running at Normal Speed with a population of 272,000!
Series Finale in Optimising Traffic and Transit, why it is done, and we do get to build that tram line
In Part 3, we finish off of doing some traffic and transit optimisation in the existing part of Neo South Auckland (the Manukau sector) before we move onto Greenfield development over in the main City Centre across the River.
Over to Mill Way, and Ravenwood Bourne we see whether we can optimise the heavily utilised buses or need to go full tram lines.
We also look at some urban geography lessons including optimisation vs upgrades, mode efficiencies and why one more lane will not fix your congestion problems – generally.
We also take a ride on a tram and find a bug!
Finally, we take a preview of the Greenfield area that will be the main City Centre.
While we focus on Greenfield development next, optimisation programs and upgrade programs in existing urban areas will always need to occur – and regularly. As I mentioned in Part 1, Bus Lines 4 and 5 while optimised for now will eventually need to be upgraded to trams especially as medium density becomes high density in that area.
All because Cities are not static, they are living organisms that continue to evolve.
From 50,000 population to 73,000 by the start Part 1, to 80,000 by the end of Part 2 and onto 85,000 by the end of Part Three in this series, it shows how quick a city can grow even inside its own existing footprint (intensification).
Consequently as a city intensifies as Neo South Auckland currently is through upzoning (which the game makes much easier than Cities Skylines 1) what was infrastructure surpluses especially with transport assets quickly get absorbed and become infrastructure deficits!
Meaning bus lines and intersections can get clogged by general traffic movements fouling out the system particularly the transit system that needs to move ever increasing ampounts of people.
Optimisation Programe, quick wins for big gains
Roll on the review and optimisation program to see where and what is going well, and what might need a bit of a touch up before going all out of mega upgrades such as replacing bus lines with tram lines which I initially planned to do. In the end if you can do some relatively quick and cheap wins through some quick optimisation programs like intersection upgrades and changing around bus lane placements which leads to a bus line flowing more efficiently (thus able to carry more people) before resorting to going to trams then you being fiscally prudent.
The graphic below from Auckland Transport shows how many people a lane can move depending on mode type in real life cities. The same principle applies in Cities Skylines 2, and why we optimise then upgrade the systems!
How many a lane can move in real life cities. Same applies in Cities Skylines 2
The video below is the secondof three parts as I continue optimisation program before taking a ride on Bus Lane 4, seeing some crazy as accidents, and finally an introduction of the City Centre, Hamilton, and the new Metropolitan Centre over the rivers. Oh and we might have found a bug too!
Traffic and Transit Optimisation Part 2 #citiesskylines2 – Neo South Auckland FULL VIDEO
Bus Line 4 and Bus Line 5 were the first transit routes to undergo the optimisation program. Bus Lines 11 and 12 are next and will be covered in Part 3.
Coming up in the series finale – Part 3
In the final of this three part series I will be covering:
Why the Optimisation Program vs large scale infrastructure upgrades. That is what we are trying to achieve in both the short and long terms
Does one more lane ever fix it?
Mode efficiency
And moving a troublesome signature residential building
Looking towards the Penrose Industrial Complex, Ravenwood Bourne, and Mill Way
Getting people and goods moving without blowing the budget – even in unlimited money!
From 50,000 population to 73,000 by the start of this video, to 76,000 by the end of it and onto 85,000 by the end of Part Three in this series it shows how quick a city can grow even inside its own existing footprint (intensification).
Consequently as a city intensifies as Neo South Auckland currently is through upzoning (which the game makes much easier than Cities Skylines 1) what was infrastructure surpluses especially with transport assets quickly get absorbed and become infrastructure deficits!
Meaning bus lines and intersections can get clogged by general traffic movements fouling out the system particularly the transit system that needs to move ever increasing ampounts of people.
Optimisation Programe, quick wins for big gains
Roll on the review and optimisation program to see where and what is going well, and what might need a bit of a touch up before going all out of mega upgrades such as replacing bus lines with tram lines which I initially planned to do. In the end if you can do some relatively quick and cheap wins through some quick optimisation programs like intersection upgrades and changing around bus lane placements which leads to a bus line flowing more efficiently (thus able to carry more people) before resorting to going to trams then you being fiscally prudent.
The graphic below from Auckland Transport shows how many people a lane can move depending on mode type in real life cities. The same principle applies in Cities Skylines 2, and why we optimise then upgrade the systems!
How many a lane can move in real life cities. Same applies in Cities Skylines 2
The video below is the first of three parts as I go through the review and optimisation program before going all Greenfields with the construction of the City Centre, Hamilton, and the new Metropolitan Centre over the rivers.
Traffic and Transit Optimisation Part 1 #citiesskylines2 – Neo South Auckland FULL VIDEO
In Part 2 we continue optimisation of Bus Lines 4 and 5 including riding Bus Line 4. We also seem some very “wonderful” driving, the need to redo Bus Lines 11 and 12, and the fact a certain residential signature building that sits on Bus Lines 4 and 5 might need moving in Part 3 owing to its very high pedestrian volumes affecting the area.
Trams are great but can get expensive to build. Does optimising the buses work first?
What happens when a City outgrows its existing infrastructure? It might be time to uograde said infrastructure – and this case upgrading the original in-game motorway interchange to service an ever growing Neo South Auckland.
In the video extract below we:
Overview of the problematic interchange including what the traffic flow percentage was (hint: it’s poo!)
Two types of interchanges that could replace the existing interchange
Replacing said interchange with prefered interchange upgrade
Rebuilding the lost housing that was required to rebuild the interchange
Discovering in upgrading the interchange we shifted the problem down the road to another interchange forcing upgrades there (meaning we also learnt a lesson)
Rebuilding the interchange step-by-step
Fixing a Poked Interchange
The video is part of a larger video covering the expansion of Neo South Auckland as it goes through its population milestones:
The full video: Spatial Planning 102 – Major Urban Expansion – Neo South Auckland #citiesskylines2
Last week I did a Youtube short on why Planners like myself will prefer the pedestrian crossing over the pedestrian overpass. That seemed to have provoked a response from the Northern Hemisphere particularly especially around road width and allocation. However, it was a comment on population that stood out and in reply I went back to Cities Skylines 1
Solarian City was my final city on Cities Skylines one and has a population nearing 300,000 which is considered very large for a CS1 city. We take a look at the City Centre and its fringe to see how we handle high density and high amenity situations.
Overpasses vs crossings? Which work?
Meanwhile there was no chance of getting stuck in a car park here in the City Centre.
Yep, three hours stuck in a car trying to exit a car park in a Metropolitan Centre. Meanwhile in CS1 all those pedestrians move about freely walking, taking the bus, or the tram.
Bus Trips, Million Dollar Views, even some Industry
Well, the wheels on the bus go round and round indeed. As does the property money machine, the wheels of industry, even a cargo port. All in this run through of Cities Skylines 2 and Neo South Auckland.
What happens when your city outgrows its transit system?
So, what happens when your city rapidly expands outgrowing its transit system set up in the founding stages? Well, them time to get the hardhat on and solve these problems so cims can move about again.
Crisis? What Crisis
Also in this video we look at our first transit line, and some business with the industry and port!
How Urban Geography impacts my Cities Skylines 2 play style
What does Urban Geography + Cities Skylines 2 equal? In this video we find out.
Urban Geography + Cities Skylines 2 = ?
Coming up in Neo South Auckland and Cities Skylines 2
I did some expansion offscreen including forestry industry. Consequently demand for medium density residential finally took off meaning the empty land with medium density zones will soon be consumed meaning more is needed. But what about the public transport?
Jitters aside, and with some tweaks to performance, I have finally settled down to creating my first ever Cities Skylines 2 city – Neo South Auckland.
Through this one-hour video I go through what is pretty much an introduction where I cover:
Type of play (Left Hand Traffic etc)
Methodology or formally what Urban Geography style do I play to
Where I am likely to take the first City which is very much trial and error just as my first CS1 city was 8 years ago. This includes whether importing methodologies used in CS1 will work in CS2
I would say even as an IRL Planner my Urban Geography style with CS2 is unique especially with the urban island technique I adopt and will cover in the next video.
Meantime sit back and enjoy. Any questions on my CS2 play style do let me know.
Until next time: Plan Safe!
Neo South Auckland at the end of the last play through
Ben's Cities 