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 … Continue reading Fixing a City in #CitiesSkylines #CitiesInASnap
Building of the Downtown and East End After the issues with the Mods things got back on track. So here we are with this week's stream a tad late - but it is here. This week I focus on building the Downtown, the East End, and the first ever Metro line for Grand Manukau/Layton Cities. … Continue reading #CitiesSkylines City Building. The Subway is Fixed in Grand Manukau/Layton Cities
Highway to Boulevard - reconnecting two sections of the City In real life Auckland there is a lot of fanfare over the City Centre Master Plan MK2 which includes replacing the motorway (State Highway 16) in Grafton Gully with a tree lined boulevard. https://twitter.com/kentslundberg/status/1146533436422623233 While that particular timeframe is of at least two decades before … Continue reading Operation Grafton Gully: #CitiesSkylines to Mimick Highway Replacement in Manukau
Some 700 photos - and been slacking off a bit Some 700 photos between March and now means I have been slacking off a bit with updates to my cities here. I won't share all 700 in this post as that is picture OVERLOAD for anyone. So over the next few posts I will be … Continue reading Catching up with Manukau #CitiesSkylines #UrbanGeography
Maps, Big Data and pictures - how to make the City flow When your City surges from 109,000 to 133,000 in two days of game play (basically the equivalent of Auckland's growth from 2010 until 2019 (today)) you need to have your wits about you to keep the City functioning and flowing. How do you … Continue reading Manukau Continues to Grow, Using the Toolkit to Make the City Function #CitiesSkylines
Match the mode for the space Auckland Transport Executives and the Chair again prove that they are talk and no action when it comes to the livability of a City especially its City Centre. The latest from AT in regards to Customs Street having busses removed to improve the flow of cars through a core … Continue reading Impending Auckland Transport Mess Up With City Centre Street – This is How You Design City Centre Streets #CitiesSkylines
100% clean green power 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 … Continue reading Who Say’s I Don’t Do Green #CitiesSkylines
Let's see what I have been designing for San Layton City Since Cities Skylines came out in 2015 I have been honing in my Urban Geography and Urban Design skills. That is trying out different spatial developments, different urban design techniques and most of all working the transport system in so your City does … Continue reading Urban Design in #CitiesSkylines? Always! Urban Design and Transport (Integrated Planning) Evolving? I Hope So
Let's try Monorail We are all familiar The Simpsons and Monorail: 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 … Continue reading Monorail! #CitiesSkylines
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 … Continue reading San Solaria Leads the Way in Low Carbon Future
Ben's Cities 