Traffic seems to be a never-ending problem inCities: Skylines 2. If you have a bustling downtown area, you may see the high-traffic icon appear many times in several locations. This traffic can cause noise pollution, and delay many service vehicles from reaching their destination in a timely manner.

In this guide, we are going to take a look at how you can manage the flow of traffic to be as efficient and straightforward as possible. This will include some tips for managing existing traffic, as well as how you can prevent future issues later down the road.

Cities Skylines 2 overview of city

Natural Traffic

Before we look at how to combat traffic, it’s important to note that sometraffic is natural.When your city grows, more people will be driving around. In real life, you may get stuck in traffic every once in a while, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. In the game,traffic won’t completely ruin the success of your city;as long as you try to avoid constant bad traffic, it’s okay.

Cities: Skylines 2 hasa clock that your citizens adhere to.When it becomes afternoon, these citizens will drive home,causing some rush hour traffic.There is no way to completely avoid this, so don’t worry if you have a traffic jam every once in a while.

cities skylines 2 highway exits

Create Multiple Highway Connections

When you first start your city, you will most likely make a four-lane road that connects to the end of a highway. As you work on the beginnings of your city, several things will branch off from this main road,creating a central traffic location.This means that anyone who wants to drive through the city will eventually go through a main intersection.

This is a quick way to build up a lot of traffic, which isn’t great. To combat this,we suggest creating several exits that lead off the highway.Rather than having your citizens drive through a high-traffic area, they can simply use a different highway exit.

cities skyliens 2 roundabout

In the image above, you can see ahighway with two exit points,letting citizens drive a little farther instead of going all the way through another neighborhood.

Utilize Roundabouts

Roundabouts in Cities: Skylines 2 build on the simple version from the first game; this time, you just need toplace a little ‘island’ on a road, and it will automatically turn into a roundabout.

Roundabouts only flow in one direction and do not have any attached stoplights, allowing you to create a constant flow. With a few exits from the roundabout, you can havesmooth traffic that doesn’t stop too often.

Cities Skylines 2 train on the tracks with factories in the background

Be careful though, too many exits on a roundabout can cause problems, asthe inside of the circle becomes a jumbled mess of pathways for cars to take.

Create A Public Transportation System

With anefficient public transportation system,your citizens mayopt out of driving to their destination.There are multiple types of transportation networks that you can set up in your city, with the bus being a method that unlocks early.

By strategically placing bus stops around your city, you cancreate a route that citizens prefer.Additionally, you canlay down roads that are meant for buses.This helps avoid any potential traffic jams caused by buses.

cities skylines 2 pedestrian street

One method of transportation we love istrams, especially when placed on pedestrian streets.These trams don’t cause traffic, asnormal cars don’t drive on these streets.you may place tram stops all along this street, taking citizens to points of interest in your city.

Build Pedestrian Streets

Speaking of pedestrian streets, try using this street type in your city!These do not cause heavy traffic,as they are meant for people who walk around. Service vehicles can use this street, allowing them to quickly get to their destination without waiting behind other cars.

Once you unlockparking lots,you’re able to place a few near the ‘entrance’ area of the pedestrian street, where citizens can park their cars.

cities skylines 2 adding sign preventing drivers from going straight

Customize Street Lanes & Turns

Normal streets have an even number of roads, split going in both directions. If you notice that the street has a higher flow of traffic on one side, you cantweak the road to be asymmetrical.This will createone extra lane on one side that can handle the incoming cars.Upgrading to an asymmetrical road will not cause it to become bigger, so you’re able to add this to already existing street grids.

You will also have the option toalter turns that cars take on the street.For example, if you don’t want cars to turn left at a certain area, you can simplyprohibit left turns.This will allow cars coming straight from the other direction to drive without slowing down too much. This is alsogreat if you want your citizens to take a specific route to a location.

cities skylines traffic overlay map

Use The Traffic Map Overlay

Lastly, we suggest utilizing thetraffic map overlay.From the upper left-hand corner of your screen, you can see the’Info Views'.Clicking on the car icon within this menu will bring up the traffic overlay, showing youwhat areas have high traffic, as well as what times have the highest amount of traffic.

This time information can also be looked at for aspecific road if you click on the street name.If a road has high traffic,consider placing more connections along it.For example, if a housing area has a small two-land road as the only ‘entrance’, you canplace another exit road,so the first intersection doesn’t become too congested.

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