This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/citiesskylines by /u/Rekthor on 2024-11-22 18:35:01+00:00.

I was getting frustrated this morning when I copied a few different designs from some posts in this subreddit for industrial layouts (Industries DLC) that boasted about their high traffic flow. Traffic flow in industrial areas is something I’ve just literally never been able to make work; no matter how much space I give the trucks, they always get backed up. I make good use of one-way roads, try to design an operational flow… it doesn’t matter. Even with the layouts designed by people better than me at this game to improve traffic.

Then I saw it. When I said I copied the design of layouts that boasted about their traffic flow, I only made one basic change (I think; I might’ve changed some one-way streets to two-ways, or vice versa). That one change is I made the street layouts more square. More 90 degree turns, so I could fit more industrial buildings. So I demolished two small underground mines, turned one of my busiest 90 degree turns into a wider, 15u turn, and I saw the traffic speed up immediately. Instantly I turned every single 90 degree turn on the busiest industrial roads into sloping curves, and of course, the traffic improved significantly. Then I followed that up by moving some one-way injector roads away from the curves, so the trucks didn’t have to change their speed in a short time-span.

We’re still in the red in the district in general, but that might be because I’ve just got so many damned buildings in the industrial area (most of the stops in the traffic flow come from a truck entering or leaving a mine), or the earlier potential problem with the one-ways. But the important thing is that there’s a lot less stop-and-start traffic now.

I feel so unimaginably stupid for not realizing this earlier. Of course cars and trucks have to slow down significantly at right-hand turns. Of course moving intersections (even one-way intersections) back from those curves and turns makes them have to slow down less. I don’t know how I didn’t consider it, but seeing it fix the problem so fast was eye-opening. I was just so focused on efficiency and cramming as much as I could into a grid system that I forgot this extremely basic fact.

I hope this helps someone frustrated with their traffic designs, like my dumb ass half an hour ago.