Quick Links
Traffic plagues cities across the world, both in real life and inCites: Skylines 2. Within this city management game, you will need to create an efficient street grid that takes citizens to their destination as quickly as possible. Of course, this isn’t as easy as it seems.
Intersections can be complicated to work with, especially when dealing with larger populations. One second, your intersection may seem fine, but a minute later, you may be dealing with gridlock that stretches through an entire neighborhood. Thankfully, we are going to help you make the perfect intersection in this guide.
Before working on improving intersections, it’s important tounlock the Advanced Road Services tab of the street menu.To do this, you will need to reach the first milestone and use Development points to unlock the node.
Once unlocked, you will have access to theRoad Maintenance Depot,as well as severaltraffic-altering functions,such as creating no right turns or placing stop signs.
Block Turns Based On Traffic
This may sound a bit strange, but essentially, it may be a good idea todisable a certain turn if it’s causing a traffic jam at an intersection.Above, you may see a basic intersection. Cars heading north have three options; left, right, or straight.
Let’s say there are a lot of carsheading south here with the intention of going straight.If all three lanes are filled with cars, making a northbound left turn can be hard. With minimal turning opportunities,traffic can build up, and the intersection won’t be very efficient.
Instead of letting this happen, you can opt todisable a left turn, making all cars head straight.If the direction to the left is really important, you can alsocreate a ramp that puts cars there,as shown in the image above. Cars that want to go left can simply hop onto the ramp, taking them to the desired street.
Create Dedicated Turn Lanes
This tip goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. In this situation, let’s use the same layout as before. Heading northbound, the right-turn lane also doubles as a straight lane, effectivelydoubling the number of cars that use this lane.
Rather than having the lane feed into two directions, you cancreate a dedicated turn lane.Above, you’re able to see ‘Robin Street’, which functions as a dedicated right turn. Rather than cars waiting in the lane behind cars going straight,they can use this right lane.
You can implement this on each right turn of the street, or just at the busy points. There is a likely chance that not all four directions of the intersection have heavy traffic, so you cancustomize this based on your situation.
How To Use Asymmetrical Streets
Asymmetrical streetsare another way to create dedicated turn lanes. Above, you can see astreet heading north with four lanes on the right and three lanes on the left.On the other side of the intersection, there are only three lanes on each side.
When this happens,the fourth lane becomes a dedicated turn lane.In this case, it creates a right turn onto the four-lane street.
How To Use Roundabouts
Stoplights are meant to help create a sense of organization at intersections, but sometimes, they feel quite useless. You may notice cars going at any time, regardless of what the light shows. This can be quite annoying to deal with, butroundabouts may ease this.
With a roundabout in place, you are essentiallycreating a constant flow of traffic.Cars can continue going straight without stopping, orseamlessly go around and make a turn.
Decrease Foot Traffic At Intersections
If your intersection handles traffic perfectly, but you are still noticing a traffic jam,you may have a pedestrian problem.This is more likely to happen if you have a school or popular public transportation spot nearby. For example,a downtown subway station can let out hundreds of citizens.
When this mass of people leaves the station, they may need to cross the street. If you have several lines at the station, this may mean that huge crowds of people are constantly trying to cross the street. To avoid this, you can use the Advanced Road Services tab todisable the crosswalk.
After doing this, you cancreate a sidewalk that stretches over the street,allowing traffic to continue flowing while crowds of people safely cross the street.
Avoid Parking Lots At Intersections
Parking lots are a great place for citizens to store their cars while they travel on foot, but theentrances can get pretty backed up.Because of this, it’s a good idea to avoid placing parking lots directly at intersections.
We suggest creating a one-way street to place your parking on op; this can help toavoid any traffic from cars trying to cross over a lane.
When To Place Stoplights And Stop Signs
When you create an intersection with two-lane streets,stop signs and stoplights don’t typically appear.Sometimes, this small road handles a lot of traffic, and you will need to add one in manually.
Take a look at intersections of smaller streets; if there is a lot of traffic with no light or sign,consider adding one.This can helpdirect traffic and prevent future accidents.
Utilize More Than One Intersection
Lastly, it’s important toutilize more than one intersection when considering traffic going into a specific area.For example, if you have a residential area with one two-lane street leading into it, then this road will be quite busy.
Even if you enable the Gated Community policy,residents will still need to reach their homes.We suggest having multiple intersections leading into an area or district, allowing traffic to be distributed evenly. This putsless stress on each intersection.
