How to make Rush our meaningful - Issue and possible solutions explained

[Mazisky]

Hello Dymanoid.

So, there is a huge problem related to a vanilla behaviour that is reflected to this mod aswell.

Let's say i have a packed high residential area of 2000 citizens and a commercial+industrial area on the other side which cover all the jobs needed.

Around 9:00 every morning, most citizens go to work there, so there is a lot of traffic and rush hour is working as intended.

I need to create a good transit system to reduce traffic, right?

So, let's say i create a crappy bus line with only 1 bus avaiable, who links residential to commercial\industrial.

Despite being inefficient, 70% of the citizens take that bus route and there are pack of 800 cims at that bus stop, waiting for hours invain.

Here comes the big problem: since in the game workplaces are useless and only eyecandy (cims don't need to get to work in order to industry and commerce to get workers and being active), even with the crappy bus line mentioned above, i've solved the traffic issue;
no more rush hours since only 30% of the people are using cars, the majority of them is stuck at the bus stop with no consequences for the player.

It does means that as soon as you create any stupid and inefficient public transport route to get people to workplaces, you have no more rush hour and no more issues. It doesn't matter if they go out at 9:00 all togheter since most of them just walk to the bus stop and wait hours so they do not create traffic.

The only citizens that need to get in places for those places to work in the game are the buyers for the commercial to have customers, but those few who arrive (either with bus, or with that few cars) are enough to cover this.

We know this was a CO choice because if the cims needed to really get to work, the 65k limits would have crushed any big city because they wouldn't spawn to reach their workplace.

But there are simple solutions to solve this without any big code change, for example:

-People who leave transit stops because too long wait will reduce happiness in their residential area and\or their workplace area.
-People who leave transit stops because too long wait will take cars instead hence increasing traffic.
-People who leave transit stops because too long wait will reduce land value in their residential area and\or their workplace area.

I would like to know what do you think about it, if you see it as an issue and if it's a simple change to do since i am not a modder and i have poor knowledge about this.

Thank you

[Sipke82]

I really love this idea! perhaps these happiness penalties can be further expanded for example the people waiting in the traffic jams :-) And these happiness reductions should last for at least a few days I think. (I'm not sure how the happiness mechanic work)

[RenaKunisaki]

One thing I've been thinking about that would fit in nicely here: more chirps about conditions with traffic and work. Like:

• Where the heck is the bus? I've been waiting an hour!
• This traffic is insane, I'm going to be late again...
• Sorry folks, [business name] is still sold out of [random product]! The delivery trucks are taking their sweet time...
• My house burned down because the fire trucks couldn't get through traffic!
• It's impossible to find parking at [place]!
• I can't get to work with the roads flooded out...

etc, giving players more useful information and fewer useless chirps. Of course you might have some positive ones too, like how great the transit is, or how they sold their car in favor of biking.

[dymanoid]

@Mazisky, the idea is great, I like it. Thanks for the suggestion.

However... Well, there's always some "however". Real Time only decides when and where the citizens go, but not how. This one is decided by the game itself and by other mods (like TM:PE, Citizens Lifecycle Rebalance etc).

I really want to keep Real Time "relatively" simple.

Is it maybe a new mod idea? Like "Real Commuting" or something?
There are, for example, some suggestions from other users to make Real Time more realistic by changing the game's economy model. Sadly, I rejected them too (by classifying as "new mod idea").

[dymanoid]

@RenaKunisaki, this is one aspect of the game Real Time ignores completely - the Chirper. Personally, I always "exterminated" the Chirper when I played Cities: Skylines. But if you think that some chirps would make sense and could be really useful - well, they are worth to implement then.

I would ask you to create a new issue (a feature proposal) for that.

[originalfoo]

I would ask you to create a new issue (a feature proposal) for that.

I would also like chirps, so created an issue for that: dymanoid/RealTime#213

[dymanoid]

@Mazisky Check out my new mod Stops & Stations. It partly solves the issues you described above (with the 'dummy' bus line).