Fixing Highway Traffic is My Main Aim in Life in Cities Skylines!

[@tilenkos2065]

Once you're done I'd really like to see you repeat this scenario again in one more episode using ALL of your regular mods

[@capedkat]

Yes that would be awesome. Plus the benefit of having learned from the first round, it's prolly going to be an exciting speedrun to watch!

[@elsalundqvist]

Would be only one episode KEKW

[@opallise]

Yes, this!

[@deekamikaze]

This version with no mods gives me bad anxiety because there's such simple fixes but they aren't possible. It's like a nightmare

[@wolfguy423]

hard agree :D

[@arnekamphuis31]

*I think in vanilla, having your main highway be 2 sepperate 1-way roads is the only consistant way of stopping them from crossing over. * Maybe also take a look at how cargo gets to the commercial troughout the city? * Once youve completed this challenge i would love to see you add all your regular mods and redo everything the way you would have with them.

[@foamyesque]

The other way you can do it is to make absolutely certain your ramps are slower than a through connection. That means either long ramps or low-speed ones coupled with a faster crossing road, or both. But a strictly divided highway is the only way to be *absolutely* sure you don't have people doing the cutthrough.

[@LeeHalford]

I came here to say the first point. Undo the combined highway. Go back to the two lanes, and then the on and off ramps will not cross the traffic.

[@tyronepowers76]

Agreed, that “highway” road acts like a collector.

[@rfresa]

It also helps to stagger the on/off ramps so they don't enter and exit at the same node.

[@thebestspork]

You already built a highway tunnel for through traffic. Delete that highway that goes through the city and replace with an arterial that allows connectivity across it, reuniting the two halves of the city. At such low pop you do NOT need a highway slicing the city in two and therefore routing all the traffic through ~5 junctions. Also connect the edges of your metro to each other (I.e. you have a star shape, so allow people to use transit to go from the end of each spoke to another without first going through the middle).

[@juliahenriques210]

This. Double up on the tunnel and give it just a couple interchanges. Make a ring metro line linking your spokes. For less populous areas, BRT should work well: just tunnel it in (better) or elevate it (last resort) and make it stop where a metro would be (every 6 to 8 8x8 blocks in vanilla). Also... One way roads. Couplets wherever possible, and even local one way roads as well. There's a reason why most dense urban areas in the world use them.

[@DoctorWhat3]

I absolutely think you have to mulligan the highways back to seperate roads for the directions. I think that absurd turning problem is the key

[@meson183]

THIS. You replaced all the highways with two way roads. CS expects you to use highways as highways and the game's AI is probably designed that way too. And as @Farina here says, that would avoid most of the unwanted turning options.

[@andrewdangerwookie5887]

Absolutely this! I played this scenario and used two separate 2 lane highways and it worked perfectly. But I was also using mods so the roundabouts worked properly too! But watching Biffa meltdown is way more fun 😂

[@dalfgan817]

Or just use the traffic manager. I wouldn't call it cheating since the city is obviously build using mods.

[@riccolooser8395]

Well, Biffa, I think, there are multiple things that could help with the traffic here: First, you could build a few road connections to the big bypass-tunnel, so not everybody has to use the Highway trough the city. Secondly, your metro-system is in need of an upgrade. The citizens can't use it properly, because there aren't enough stations and all the lines end at the big hub. Also, some areas don't have a metro connection at all. So, I think, you should add in more intermediate stops, while also extend and combine several lines. Having them go through the big hub instead of just dead-end there allows your citizens to get around the place a lot easier. Also: have your different mass transit systems interconnect with each other, so passengers can change easily. Have a metro station directly at the airport and at the cruise ship terminal at the far end of the map. Small bus lines to take people to the metro are always good, you already have a few of those. There's also the train line you could utilize and extend. However, as the city is quite dense, that could be a bit of a challenge... Sorry for the lengthy comment. I just think, as you're playing without mods, getting people off the roads is more important than ever, because you can't do all these little tricks that usually deal with loads and loads of traffic. I know, this is a scenario, but the principals of a normal City do still apply. Non the less, this really is an interesting little series, really excited how it continues. :)

[@edwardmiessner6502]

☝️☝️☝️☝️THIS. In addition to my suggestions. (Except I would replace the bypass tunnel with a ring road on the surface or elevated around the city.)

[@turbotwo1]

Personally if you decide to do more challenges in the future, I wouldnt see a problem using QOL mods like the picker mod. It doesnt change how the challenge is done but just makes it easier on you.

[@jl61995]

As others have said with the two one-way highways, I think you should remove the roundabouts entirely and build interchanges instead. CPP has some good examples in vanilla Verde Beach, but if you lower the highway down (not a tunnel, just lower it with the land tools), then have a really basic interchange on top. This also goes for where you have a 90° intersection into the highway in the new development. Those really need to be an interchange. EDIT: Also regarding interchanges, you have some that are way too close together. Also, bike lanes! Give people a way to get around outside cars and metro.

[@ramont8020]

Roundabouts really don't seem to work as well as they should in vanilla Skylines for the same reason as the two-way highways: the janky default node intersections that allow/encourage bad behaviour.

[@arcticfox__original_arcticfox]

I saw you struggling on this vanilla challenge my dear Biffa and this series has been one of the best viewing experiences for a fellow creator to have witnessed in 2023 maybe the last few years! Y’all even got me watching this before 8am … Your road networks look exactly like the ones people used to send into you for traffic fixes, so lovely to see you re-creating these. This will be the Re-making of you my dear Biffa. On y’all interchanges I’ve had success with 4 stacks ins very tight spaces (vanilla builds) they don’t look like the regular ones but lane separation and entering/exiting at different points-staggered may work though I’ve not had the time to look into this scenario properly I’m sure y’all come up with the solution even if y’all have to ban some heavy traffic an force them to bike or use free transport I’ve always given industry their own separate entrances an exits to freeways an highways keeping away regular traffic and given regular traffic their own interchanges but this was only on vanilla builds of 9 tiles and were non scenario related so I had the freedom but there’s no point preachin to the choir or the student sharpening the professors pencil as y’all have all the tricks up ya sleeve 😉 I’m sure with my skills I could easily do a WORSE job than you and give up sooner but you however we’ll let’s just say y’all get there in the end ya always do gd luck

[@scottbradley2494]

Biffa’s first rule of highways through cities? Connect both halves of city without crossing at an intersection!! Also make the highway ramps longer to discourage traffic crossing. (This makes it a long way round to head back on themselves)

[@drjonritz]

I think you're on to something with the divided highway. Elevate it over an arterial. Refine public transport. Get industry decentralized, but access to trains/ports. Love to watch the struggle!

[@Poptartsicles]

I would recommend having a lot more overpasses over the highway that's cutting your city in two, to help reunite the two sides. That way people don't need to go through a giant interchange just to cross over. And put those pedestrian paths that you deleted back in!

[@TheKillerJW]

you are the reason for me to get cities skyline over 4 years ago, keep up the good work

[@thomascolybes4359]

Hi biffa, I think that the solution to traffic is redoing all your highway with two separate road.

[@scp2539]

35:00 The AI: hold my beer, watch me make the cars dumber "Cars then take the 2nd turn just to turn back onto the round-about" XD

[@edwardmiessner6502]

A nice new addition to the city, Biffa! 👏👏👏👍 Here are my suggestions for next time: 1. Have the metro lines run THROUGH the Metro Plaza Station all the way to the opposite end of the adjoining tunnel. This will reduce crowding at the station. 2. Make sure the cargo terminals at the north end can get back onto the highway. Right now trucks have to despawn. 3. Replace the tunnel with a circumferential surface or elevated ring road with service interchanges as appropriate. Right now there's no demand for it and the approaches to the portals are too steep. 4. At the highway junction by the solar array power plants I suggest a Y-intersection (you can plop one from the steam workshop) for the north, east, and ring road highways. 5. Replace the 4-lane highway through town with a surface arterial with surface roundabouts w/o overpasses. Big Roads are ideal for this. 6. Provide a service interchange or two for the new arterial through town somewhere near the solar array power plants. Same at opposite end where the ring road rejoins. 7. Provide direct connections from the new arterial to the recently developed additions and service interchanges for these additions, 1 each at the north and east highways. 8. Busses!!! Done! Your traffic should be fixed.

[@Bookwright]

Like many have said; get ridd of the highway, it will make the tunnel more effective and atractive to use. (maybe ad a possibility to get on and off it somewhere in the middle to) Ad a bike-highway with the space that you'd have gained when changing the highway to an smaller and slower road. Oh an conect the spiderleggs on your metro so they can go around without having to go to the middle. More walkingpaths woud be nice to. Do the all the smal roads that you started with have pavments/sidewalks? If not, change them. Biketunnels could be good to to get from one part of the city to another.

[@kulow7]

A Ring Seperated Highway around the outsides of the map with connections to give more access and spread out the traffic. Right now its just funneled through the one highway with a few bypasses. Loving the series challenges. Gotta think outside the box with them sometimes

[@starrwulfe]

1. Instead of having a mega hightway slicing thru town, make an expressway loop around the edges of your built tiles. Do this in conjunction with improving the collector roads that will run into the center of the townships. 2. Turn that existing expressway into a parkway with high capacity tram and BRT busway. This can serve as another public transport backbone for the metro area. All local bus and tram services can route into it and either orginate/terminate there or run thru-route to another township. Stick a few metro stations along the route to aid in transfers to the metro system... 3. Coordinate your public transport! You've got metro doing one thing and bus doing another. Put bus stations near metro stops and get those buses running all over; use smaller buses in the suburbs. Make sure your train service is also in the picture helping out-- it should be another main crosstown route, not unlike the Elisabeth Line in London. Speaking of which -- 4. You were on to something when you built that cargo/passenger station offshoot from the expressway to get folks out of their cars, but you forgot to put a ramp back onto the expressway to get them to return home! That setup will actually work, especially for cargo. If you can provide a way to get thru passengers and cargo off the highway and onto rails going into town and back off rails onto the highway on the other side, you may be able to kill 30% of the traffic right there. 5. I see an airport, but how are passengers getting there? 6. Forgot one thing: Short street segments! Make sure your collectors don't have road connections every 2 units! Kill some of those nodes, dead-end some of the small streets (but retain footpaths) and that will really help! I'd love to see what happens if you try any of the above; good luck and may the traffic odds be ever in your favor!

[@danielmiller8156]

I use speed limits to deter unwanted flow. Reducing the limits to 15-20 on the off ramps and slip lanes helps ensure that ONLY the traffic that needs to go there are the ones going there.

[@CouchPotator]

yes, he needs to replace the highway on/off ramps with slow surface streets

[@tobiasalexander4491]

It's been said before, but here's another vote for it - replace the highway with a six-lane arterial. Your lane maths will be easier and have better options for greater connectivity. When the 6-lane hits those big roundabouts, keep the slip lanes but reduce to a two-lane one-way for speed management.(one-lane would be better, but can't remember if that's a custom asset) and convert to a two or four-lane arterial for the bridge. Lane maths for the win! You're currently funnelling all the north-south traffic into those limited vanilla junctions/roundabouts. Increasing connectivity across the highway/arterial will spread that traffic out and those junctions will work better. Of course, being an arterial, you don't want TOO much connectivity, so add more bridges. Yes you'll have to delete a few houses here and there, but who wants to live that close to a highway/arterial anyway? You have plenty of room to add more population still. Oh - and a LOT more walking paths - especially in those new areas you've built with all the cul-de-sacs

[@nichole2757]

Yaay you did the continuous highway! Haha that was bothering me, I’m glad you took that suggestion. As a vanilla PS4 player (cuz mods don’t exist) it actually makes me feel better about my own city to see a legendary builder like yourself having the same vanilla struggles. Would suggest less service exchanges on the main highway, maybe 2 or 3 well placed ones with a good arterial network into the city from those points. You rock Biffa, thanks for another video

[@demarcusbutler7892]

No matter what changes you make to the highway, you have to focus on the inner city traffic. That's what's causing the highways to back up. Everybody getting off and getting stuck in traffic. Go through and make sure there are no areas with close intersections that have one or two cars between them at a time.

[@2KXMKR]

Biffa, that entire road is just disgusting. It's giving me nightmares at night! It absolutely needs to be two separate highway roads to eliminate the cars crossing lanes problem. I personally find the two-way highways in vanilla to be completely and utterly useless if used like this! I also think you rely a bit too much on roundabouts. Never underestimate the splendor of a conventional X-road with added diagonal slip lanes! Traffic continuing ahead will simply cross the X-road and traffic headed in other directions will use the slip roads uninterrupted instead of turning awkwardly at the X-road intersection. Also, don't forget, you can stack highways in this game. If you have a properly spaced pair of directional dedicate highway roads on the ground, you can then add another two-way highway elevated above them, effectively doubling the amount of traffic that one space can handle. You can connect the two with some skillfully placed highway ramps. You can then simply add a normal four-lane road to the elevated highway with a conventional T-junction with traffic lights, or a roundabout if space permits. The traffic on the lower highways will continue to flow completely uninterrupted. This method is so effective that it can all be done with single-lane highways, using the ramps, if space is an issue like it is here. The key is in the spacing and they just look fantastic when complete! I think that's absolutely what needs to happen in this case.

[@capedkat]

I'd try to get rid of some of the traffic. The industries are not doing much. Try to revive them here and there and have some warehouses so local shops can get it there. I can also see garbage problems. Perhaps those trucks have to ride a very long distance now, which might not have to be like this if you sprout some garbage facilities in various places on the map. You did solve the problem of passing traffic, so now it's just a matter of trying to keep everything within a reasonable distance. I hope this might help and I look forward to see what everyone else comes up with for the grand finale! I believe in you Biffa! You got this 💪🏆

[@CEplays]

It's an amazing scenario. I did it. Won, but slightly over 250 weeks. My tip... keep the motorway as it is. I just added a new one for external traffic at the edge of the city with 3 connections. Two junctionas needed change is probably both entrances into the city. Busses, choppers for services. I exceeded time because I forgot about zoning enough for population increase 😊 But overall. Amazing. I would like to see more scenarios from TeddyRadko. /I must admit I screamed couple of times 'Noooo...', but let's just see end result/ Good luck. And I love your channel. Your New Tealand was inspiration for me to finally upload my cities.

[@zippyj.r.4486]

Did anyone else notice at 15:38 that there was already a road? It was just covered with trees because it was one of those roads with trees.

[@SaltyPO]

Ive got a challenge to test you to the limits, Biffa. Build a city to 100k with no dead end roads, no one way streets, and no roundabouts. Dont think you can do it mate, it would break your brain 😆

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Easy, just make grids everywhere ;-)

[@jonathanmarsh8119]

Love watching traffic fixes! Keep up the great content. Not sure if you have 8 lane roads, but even 6 lanes would work as a main highway through the city. But look at a way to create at least three paths for top, middle, and bottom highways in the city. Add in T-junctions in the highways with a lot of space in between alternating left and a right Ts off the highways. Line up the Ts to get from one highway to another.

[@martinj1798]

Consider using one or more trumpet interchanges for the new expanded area. At 35.29 maybe the vanilla cloverleaf intersection will fit?

[@BWSC81]

15:40, I think you made a little road right next to a pre-existing road hidden by trees 😅

[@Valthalin]

I can't resist stating the most obvious thing, connect the two sides of the town across the highway at points that do NOT intersect with the highway. Go over or under to reduce traffic crossing from one side to the other at the highway access points. Forcing those limited points to handle ALL the traffic is bonkers. Or drop the highway itself underground for a few sections here and there to accomplish the same thing.

[@CouchPotator]

yeah, every block or two should have a local bridge over the highway

[@svenfg]

I really appreciate how Biffa thoroughly reads the comments and takes suggestions as well. Love the videos Biffa!

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Glad you like them!

[@bohs2000]

2021 Biffa would have thought those mini metro loops were too mini.

[@skay3264]

I love how you play with your mods! You have talent, experience and your mods, I can watch you build your cities over and over AND OVER again! So, unless you are loosing your audience, don't change.

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

That's why I'm doing a modded city and an unmodded one too 😉

[@ashleysmith2886]

Split the Whole Freeway bro !! then lane Maths !!! you know... like the last 4 years of fix my cities !!

[@harleyphoenix7563]

Couldn't wait for the next video in this Scenario, glad it's out! I have a 150k city i'm fairly proud of at 85% traffic, which I spent this month building up, but I have yet to turn off despawning! I did try at 100k, failed miserably, and just turned it back on 😂Fighting the urge to submit to you, and giving it another try!

[@WhatsleftofTom]

I feel like the best way to do despawning is have it turned off from the beginning - that way you can keep on top of problems as they develop without being caught out. A big city with despawning turned on is just a totally different thing to no despawning and you can’t just turn it off and do some traffic fixes unless you’re prepared to totally redo huge parts of the city. Basic stuff like junctions between collectors and collector - arterial junction spacing that allow routes and traffic pressure that no amount of cleverness with lane math and timed traffic lights can overcome. Start with it turned on, build slow, overbuild transit and build it before you need it (with an emphasis on stuff that doesn’t use roads, much as I love trams and big bus hubs), regularly check in on traffic and fix the small problems before they become big problems, and that will see you right all the way through the cities life.

[@harleyphoenix7563]

@@WhatsleftofTom @Scrunge Crimes 100%! Thanks for the advice. In theory it shouldn't be too difficult, I do have a good road hierarchy, around 7 highway junctions evenly splitting residents, all a fair distance apart. With an average of 9000 ish public transport users. My downfall seems to be industry traffic, most of my infrastructure relies on cargo trains, which works perfectly with despawning, but when turned off the rail lines become clogged, so trucks use the road network instead, which then stresses everything else and the city slowly grinds to a stop. You're definitely right, starting with it off is the way to go, and then make adjustments along the way.

[@WhatsleftofTom]

@@harleyphoenix7563 ugh yeah the cargo traffic. It always hits a point where it breaks down doesn’t it. Do you spread your industry across the city? I’ve been using RICO instead of zoning and I’m finding it more pleasing to spread small factory districts around and it hasn’t broken down *yet*. Trains are looking like they will be a problem though. What doesn’t help is that I like to limit myself to trying to not lay new highways, and to lay as little new rail as possible because I like relying on what the map comes with. What a game huh. Still going strong after nearly a decade

[@pedropauloribeiro2091]

​@@harleyphoenix7563 build parallel train routes, I always build three parallel train tracks to make it more efficient, every cargo station have two tracks to access, the third one is like a ring.

[@carriegarrisonvos4433]

It really is difficult in vanilla and I know you miss the mods! I miss seeing them too! How much easier it makes it to deal with crazy problems the game creates. You're doing a great job and if anyone can do this, it's the master traffic fixer 😁

[@ericheft6184]

I love watching you work through the no mod challenges like this and your snow build last year. I've never played the game so my advice is limited to what I've seen from your channel. More metro loops in the main city moving folks north / south across the main road. Add additional E-W routes though the city along the north or south edges. Might have to just put them in underground since you want to save the original buildings, or give up on that and rebuild the main road though with proper interchanges.

[@scorpianquking]

One thing I noticed and I could be wrong but your motorway exist and entry points are meeting at one node which means cars can do kind of u turn. If you change that and make entry/exit on different nodes then cars will stop U turn. You will also benefit with motorway marking not being messed and hence cars using more lanes or appropriate lane. However, I could be wrong but worth give it a go

[@rabitalha1836]

Nice video Biffa keep it up 💯

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Thanks 💯

[@drunkenkurage4123]

Adding in some more roads and pedestrian paths across the highway so people can get from one side to the other without having to pass through one of the highway interchanges might help some.

[@twylanaythias]

Two things: 1 ) If you haven't enabled the Free Public Transit policy, well..... 2 ) You can fudge the cheeky left-turners by downgrading the onramps to one-lane one-way roads. The high speed limits to the highway ramps makes them more appealing to the pathfinding for left turns - the lower speed limit of the basic road makes the proper direction more appealing.

[@gyngertano5409]

I think the highway through the city should change to just a regular 6 lane road, get rid of the horky borky junctions, and then focus on road hierarchy in the city centre. You can afford to lose a few homes now.

[@dalfgan817]

I did solve this scenario by doing two major things: 1. A new highway through swamp lands. I think 60% of the traffic just wants to get through to city. So an bypass highway is one of the key things to keep the main highway running. 2. Public transport system: You need a public transit in order to get people out of their cars. Because destroying things are pain since everything is historical underground metro system is the best solution. I also added few new train stations along the track. Buses can connect all the neighborhoods to nearest metro station. Also building some bike infrastructure helps but it is huge job since the city is build for cars and there is no bike roads.

[@John-gv9iz]

With a linear city as you have there, I would have had a metro that went end to end, and connected loops or spurs at intervals along it to reach local areas away from the main line. This would mean that travel to any point on the system would be more efficient, rather than having everyone move through the central hub and possibly backtrack to a final destination.

[@blackineese]

As a console builder, watching Biffa struggle without mods on basic things we know how to solve is epic 🤣🤣🤣

[@juliahenriques210]

Turnpikes are the king of vanilla. That said... I'd: - Double up on the tunnel and give it just a couple interchanges. - Reconnect the 2 sides of the central highway with bridges and tunnels, or just make it a highest capacity collector. - Make a ring metro line linking your spokes. - Experiment from there. For less populous areas, maybe BRT should work well: just tunnel it in (better) or elevate it (last resort) and make it stop where a metro would be (every 6 to 8 8x8 blocks in vanilla). - Also... Resort to one way roads. Couplets wherever possible, and even local one way roads as well. There's a reason why most dense urban areas in the world use them. That should help a lot.

[@larkendelvie]

I love this scenario -- it's absolutely great watching you tackle this challenge!

[@antoinemorel9654]

Some suggestions: - Maybe you could change your highway to two one way highways on the entire length (exhausting job but worth the try). You would avoid a lot of lane switching and there would be no crossing of your highway anymore. - Adding a passenger + cargo train station on the "peninsula"(?) and one passenger train station in the area you built. - check that there's no small nodes in the city centre (I spotted a couple while watching) to avoid people waiting in places where they shouldn't - a small ring kind of road outside of the suburbs to distribute traffic to these suburbs (probably overkill)

[@Mo0shii]

playing cities skylines again after 2yrs? Good to see you still around Biffa.

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

👍😁

[@StrobeFireStudios]

This just goes to show how the mods are literally crucial to gameplay. Without mods this game is so frustrating

[@stormfire962imastarcitizen5]

Biffa I have been given your highway situation a lot of thought and I think I may have a solution for you. Create two separate 3 lane highways where one is running East and the other is running West. Next when you get to the roundabouts especially where the space is very tight. Have one the let's say West of it running under the roundabout and the East part running over it. Then when you add the on-ramp and offramp's make sure you keep them separated from the other on ramps to prevent any jump over of traffic. Also, trying to use as many one-way streets as possible to force the flow in the city going in one direction well have any other flow going in the other direction which should help to control some of the traffic situation which if done right should give you at least an 85% traffic flow with less problems. I generally in my designs use a lot of one-way roads and it does work. Hopefully this idea might help if you decide to use it.

[@stormfire962imastarcitizen5]

Also one other thing you might want to try is create a single six lane by directional highway that is Xpress traffic only from one end of the city to the other end on the connecting highway with no offramp's except at the start point and at the end point.

[@33mjf]

Split the highway throughout! No more crossing over. Entire thing as a tunnel. Ramps bring it up to the surface

[@zdenekdolezal9646]

You have normal road under/over highway have lower speed limit than on/off ramps to connect highway to this street. So cars have quicker route through those ramps across highway. So you may change road unde higway to highway (and add walking paths around road) or change ramps to normal one-way road. Same thing works for roundabout. For cars in some places might be quicker to go over roundabout and then cross highway insted of going on roundabout. Again switch ramps to one way streets. Speed limit is slighly more important then great lane mathematics in those cases in vanila game. EDIT: Jeah, you actually started it little bit in the end with that roundabout, but not enought. Both on/off ramps have to be normal road all the way. Do not care of lane mathematics all that much. Also do a big highway crossing instead of that particular roundabout you tried to change in the end. Traffic there is too much for roundabout.

[@articzap]

Two things. 1) two lane one way on ramps, so the idiots turning left on to highway, don't hold up the normal people. 2) after you beat it, come back with mods and see what you can get traffic to

[@itsmehendrics]

loving the series Biffa! for the six lane road situation, what about using the six lane two way large 4u roads instead of a highway? speeds might be slower, but the update added a ton of new roads yea?

[@BWSC81]

Others are saying similar things but generally more pedestrian options will probably help a ton - aka don't get too myopic on the cars till you are sure you have everyone satisfied there. Some of your previous heavy walking / biking cities really improved my ability to build large cities simply by getting cars off the road. You still need to re-add those pedestrian overpasses for example. As you have said, individually they aren't helpful but in mass they can really help reduce the flow. I think there is kind of a critical mass of traffic that the roads can efficiently handle. If you can reduce the cars to that point hopefully they will be able to support the inefficient driving. Sometimes a big overhaul can really help. Aka Pause the game, completely destroy the highway, repave it entirely into two lanes, downgrade and re-connect all roundabouts. (the car AI really seems to be hurting things without TMPE).

[@deetoher]

A few intermediate metro stops. Where possible, split into two one-way roads on highway to stop crossing over (at points where slip roads connect).

[@rico4.700]

maybe having a tram boulevard instead of the expressway would be more economical? it seems a bit overkill to cut the city in half like that. also doing more mixed zoning might aleviate some unnecessairy car trips, escecially in your new district, the lack of connectivity there is going to cause you a massive headache later on lol.

[@michaelg7022]

Great upgrades! Thanks! I don't play so I don't really know what to suggest. But no mods seem hard

[@Hyper_nova]

Ok as a purely vanilla gamer there are several things I see. 1. Walk-ability, most of the roundabouts and slip roads use highway roads so no paths. The paths you did have you removed. Add lots more paths connecting across the highway and connecting ends of roads to main roads, interdistrict paths etc. 2 inter-district/local road connectivity. Most of the main road connectivity has to go down the highway or through the connection to the highway. Causing bottlenecking. Have more bridges over the top of the highway will help with people trying to use the highway as a local road. 3. I actually think the highway ironically has too many connections off it. The highway should be a high speed connection from one end of the city to the other. Reducing the number of junctions on and off will stop local journeys using the highway as a “quick” route. Combining that with more local connections across the highway. 4 Lack of public transport hierarchy. Lots of metro are all well and good, but no buses to take people home or for local journeys is a massive issue. Need bus routes everywhere. 5. use the in game road routes tool to see where people want to go. Lots of people in private vehicles leaving the city or entering the city? Then add more intercity connections like intercity bus hubs and train stations. See where people on busy roads are trying to go from and to, and see if you can provide a targeted public transit connection or a better local road connections. 6. Road hierarchy seems a bit of a mess. There’s a bit too much cul-de-sac-ing (if that’s a word). The new area just has 1 or 2 ways in or out. Good road hierarchy needs to also have good local connectivity not just the idea of highway(few junctions) to Arterial to collector to local roads. TMPE and mods has definitely spoiled you. People love to complain about vanilla being terrible for traffic and mods are the only proper fix. And yes true, vanilla AI behaviour isn’t great and not having lane connectors and dedicated lanes doesn’t help but more often than not the bad traffic in vanilla can be solved by solving the fundamental problems and cause of that traffic. I think of the meme of thin Homer with all the clips of skin at the back. The front reading “good traffic flow” and the back reading “ TMPE, mods, node controller etc”. TMPE can be used as a crutch to hide the real issues. I’d love for you to do a vanilla series similar to CCP so that you could re-learn some of the skills that mods have stolen from you 😂. Use of terrain tools, proper traffic management. Making road networks look good. Using road height tools properly to make nice looking bridges. Etc. (Sorry hope that doesn’t sound too much like a dig 😉).

[@Matej_Sojka]

Seeing Biffa struggle with a no-mods vanilla game is highly entertaining.

[@mike174mk]

In my vanilla city I use very simple interchanges for my major roads (not highways, but works the same): One road crosses another using overpass, and the connection between them is made using preferably four lane road. It works basically like one branch of cloverleaf interchange. I then leave both intersections without traffic lights or stop signs (it works much better without them) In some spots in my city this solution successfully replaced roundabouts and improved traffic flow.

[@iminay]

I'm afraid that you will have to go back to having the two separate highways side-by-side like the scenario started with. You won't stand a chance with them lane switching and turning across the highway

[@TMaekler]

It's quite funny seeing Biffa building the 'good old vanilla highway spaghetti' 🙂

[@doesitmatter3642]

I think you had the right idea with 'downgrading' the sliplanes to 'normal' roads - discourages the idiocy we witnessed at the end. As for any ideas - how about a train or metro that follows along the highway with regular stations, intersecting with a bus route near those? Might help if it's underground though.

[@elsalundqvist]

I think the main problem are: - Highway is not separated, so they are doing strange things. - Local streets are crossing same level train, so the train line is stopping cars on streets. 35:12 and 35:45 at right of the screen are examples of that

[@CouchPotator]

holy moly, I think that train crossing is the biggest cause of traffic lol

[@duskmoon181]

"I don't have mods I can't do any of the normal things I do" Welcome to a console players delight lol. But fr I know you'll fix it, you're a great player Biffa

[@simonlees2848]

they are using the slip lanes to go across the highway because the speed limits are higher then the road going straight over / under

[@vjrao20]

To decongest the traffic perhaps you could create Pedestrian Areas..... Or create a parallel highway system to the existing one.... 🤔

[@elimartin4984]

Those new areas that you've made could use some walkability. It won't do much for the total traffic though.

[@liyan00]

For the above ground highway, change it into the large transit road and have buses and trams going up and down it, cut it off from going through the city and have it terminate into interchanges down into the underground highway. I think also changing the underground highway into two one-way highways and then having have off ramps up to the transit road should work. Add some turn arounds outside of the city in case some cars decide to use the ramps for that purpose.

[@SuperMitchells1]

Biff I think you can circumvent some of those cross lanes buggery on the highway by moving down the on/off ramps down so they aren’t squared that way the traffic maths works out a tad better. Anyway love the content mate.

[@stevieinselby]

At the first roundabout where you put a flyover on it, I think one reason a lot of traffic is using the flyover and then making a hairpin turn to go back onto the sliproad is because the sliproads on that side of the junction are so much shorter, and because they have a lower speed limit than the highway it is seen as quicker to do that than take the long sliproad that they come to first.

[@hafizat6729]

Next? Maybe pedestrian road? Or pedestrian bridge? Or more metro? Like you can builds more metro along side of the highway

[@whentheisofthenot2050]

hey biffa, we 💜 your videos!

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Thankyou 😊

[@hassangias273]

Hello Biffa. Maybe you could try building a train line from one end of the city to the other end with a 5-6 stops in between. This way the traffic that needs to go through the intersections will be reduced. Secondly, you could try building underground metros that intersects the highway in a plus shape (+) and connects the 2 sides of the highway. That way traffic which is crossing over the highway from North to South will be reduced.

[@Jon-ov4nc]

Where the new parts of the city are you need to create some actual interchanges to help the traffic flow better in and out of those areas. Also just chuck bike lanes literally everywhere and turn on encourage cycling. The metro lines all terminate at the Central hub, just send them going through as one line so you stop people having to change lines, connect up the ends of the metro with an outer loop, and connect the metro with other transit options. You have dual platform metro stations at Bakau-Gunjur-Daranka but haven't connected them up. The upper platforms on the central hub have through lines where you can make express metros from one side of the city to the other Add more buses

[@Cpl.Punishment]

The reason for people crossing the motorway instead of using the underpass @09:15 is the speed limit. If you reduce the speedlimit on the merging roads that join the motorway to less than the underpass, they'll prefer the underpass. When it's the same speed limit, the cars see that for the 10m of motorway that they cross, the speedlimit is higher, and calculate it to be the faster route. Lowering the speed of roads is a great way to disincentivise traffic from using certain routes. For example, any time that you want traffic to bypass a roundabout instead of going through it, make the overpass a higher speed than the roundabout. Any city bypasses must be significantly faster than the main road through the city. Any time you want to make people use a tunnel instead of travelling through a chockablock city, make it faster than the main roads. Similarly, lowering the speed limit on side roads and service roads will stop people using them unless they need to, which is great for when you need to have a major import site, like a cargo port, a cargo train station, or a cargo airport, within city limits, as you can keep people from travelling down it and gumming up traffic if it's marked as slow enough. This leaves space on your service roads for several trucks to build up and start spreading out to their destinations. Finally, reducing the speed limit in residential areas may seem counterintuitive when it comes to reducing traffic, but if you make the max speed in high density residential zones, high density commercial zones, and around stadiums and other major tourist destinations 20Mph or lower, it will massively increase the use of trams, trains, metros and cycle paths, which suddenly are much more appealing to the speed-obsessed sims of cities skylines. Buses have to obey the same speed limit and so they as as unappealing as taking their car to the big game. This will behead the traffic issues that are caused by people trying to get from home to work, and the nightmare traffic that occurs whenever a match ends at a stadium.

[@JacksonOwex]

17:04 BIFFA! CPP is crying somewhere! ;)

[@Styrestian]

I would ban combustion vehicles, add Old Town policies and some places electrical cars only. I would also add a lots of biking lanes

[@mat80m]

i use all off your tricks for traffic , i love this channel, i hope you will continue with cities skyline 2 soon ;)

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

I certainly shall 😁👍

[@mat80m]

@@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines super bro

[@andromidius]

Also another idea - make a second highway taking a shorter route from one end of the city to the other. You might need to demolish some buildings - but give traffic options rather then forcing them all through one choke point.

[@QemeH]

Biffa: "I am finally going to do what you all have been shouting at your monitor since episode one." Me: "Oh, is he finally getting rid of these silly roundabouts in high volume areas? Especially ON THE HIGHWAY?" Biffa: "So, I am going to rework the highway interchanges..." Me: "Yeees...." Biffa: "I will just put the highway over the top and then put in simple ramps to..." Me: "Yeeeeeeees....." Biffa: "...connect to the roundabouts." Me: "Nooooo! You were so close! What is it with Brits and their circly roads? Why not simpy built a service interchange...."

[@clement137]

Thanks Biffa to show us this game is a pain without any mods

[@epraikc]

With limited space maybe you could consider stacking the one way highways one underground and the other above ground.

[@quoniam426]

Offices don't generate truck traffic, you can put them on roundabouts no problem. About tight space junctions, go to Paris South Eastern part, near Avenue de France and rue Brunesseau, the interchange is very nice and simple. I use it in my cities to great effect. Seperates traffic per Highway directions on two different streets, you can add a one way pattern around the interchange to maximize efficiency.

[@Earthangel76m2]

Remove roundabouts, add parklows, diamond interchanges and single point interchanges. Or remove the highway entirely and reconnect the two side of the city. Bu5 be sure to add a highway bi-pass around the city so through traffic doesn’t go down the new arterial.

[@Simon.W1]

vanilla struggle is real 🤣, Good video Biffa👍. noticed you not used any 6 lane roads that might come in handy next EP?

[@toprock9500]

hmm sneaky cheeky i know but how about cutting the outside connection on one end of the motorway within your playable area thereby cutting through traffic?

[@WhatsleftofTom]

You need an alternative to the highway for people moving along the city - I think the junctions are overloading because people have to use the highway to move between areas of the city. Can you look at the collectors meeting the highway, and add direct connections between the ends of them - that is, have them loop around so they connect in multiple points? And some more roads parallel to the highway along the coast? Maybe some direct routes between the new area and other parts of the city that bypass the highway. Take the pressure off the highway and it’ll work better

[@87vortex87]

What I do on very busy roundabouts, I build in a road over the top for straight on, but also a road underneath for the other road to be able to go straight on. Then, the roundabout on street level is only for turning left or right from any direction. Then the roundabout is only used for lefthanders from all directions.

[@aaavellone]

I know there is a huge vanilla cult of players, but imo CS isn't CS without a full mod suite. TMPW should be in vanilla and move it too. You can do all those things in real life, no reason you cannot in game as well.

[@CouchPotator]

the cult is called console players who aren't allowed by the console makers to have mods

[@aaavellone]

@@CouchPotator I'm aware. Was trying to be polite.

[@ArnoModelstate]

11:44 Would a 2 lane, 2-way with medium solve that or isn't that in the pack ?

[@OliverK1]

You don't know how happy I was to see you struggling without Mods, i have been playing without many mods, and was wondering how my traffic just wont use all the lanes at times..

[@AdamHinckley]

6:26 you could have downgraded the bridge parts to a two way highway

[@evanderflowbeill]

One of the first times I could feel Biffa wanna frisbee his computer screen out the window 🤣🤣🤣

[@eliashernandez1423]

Hey Biffa, looks like your my favorite content creator in city skylines. Hope your doing well. I’m learning from watching your vids, your the Man!👍

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Very kind, thankyou 🙏 😊

[@eliashernandez1423]

@@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines I’m looking forward to watching more of your builds.😇

[@stephenrowan8128]

You have plenty of money. Add walking paths everywhere. Add bicycle paths everywhere. Add internal trains underground (or just a direct metro) to connect the two ends of the city.

[@nusbaumtanner]

What I am guessing is the reason for the cars cutting across traffic is simply the speed limit. The 4 lane road has a much lower surface street speed while the highway ramp has a speed of 50mph. Thus the ai traffic sees it as faster to cut across the highway than to just follow the road. Probably the only way other than redoing the entire highway to separate it would be to change the highway ramps to a one way surface street. Doing that would change the ramp speed to i think 25-30mph and make it no longer faster to use the ramps to cut across the hwy Also adding crossover bridges for traffic to not cross over the highway would release some stress on those interchanges