Will I Regret Going All In on BIG U.S. Roads in Cities Skylines?

[@jackson3190]

A tip here as an American: Make there less lanes available to use and have construction dioramas set up in a lane or two to be ultra-realistic.

[@oKnuTo]

he already brock with the a realistitic city by setting up efficent public transprot

[@jackson3190]

@@oKnuTo Fair point. @Biffa Plays Indie Games have minimal public transport that only has busses and all routes lead to a central hub with no interconnectivity.

[@reggie69.]

@@jackson3190 sounds like my city dublin everything goes towards the city centre with stops to shopping centres on the way

[@samlukas2299]

Chicago seasons. Winter and construction

[@BKPrice]

And an auto accident at every other intersection.

[@BeinDraug]

The first offices spring up in the city today, providing plenty of jobs for the cities highschool graduates. Construction is slow though as mayor Biffa Vetos anyplans for high rise blocks. A new garbage collection has also been built and its staff have been put to the test as road workers struggle comprehend the mayors ever changing plans for the cities roads. Progress is being made though as fire and police HQs are added to the new district provideing rapid and far reaching support to all citizens, and high density appartments provide afordable living. A fire at the geothermal power plant resulted in a brief black out some areas of the city though a quick response from the emegency servicies ensured minimal damage. Electricity wasn't the only shortage in the city today as the population growth puts increasing strain on the cities water supplys. Citizens say that new water towers are not enough and demand and more stable water supply going forth. Finally trafic is slowly worsening despite the Mayors best efforts and many fear the the introduction of intercity rail and buses will only make things worse. The new transport hub does provide the option for a metro system though which may balance things out. We will report the results in the next issue of City News.

[@_vinterthorn]

36:30 - congrats on finding out why so many roads in the US that function as main arteries are in a desolate shape. Few entry points for huge crowds. Love to see how this evolves.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

I admit for a typically badly designed US city he's got it quite realistic, an excellent job!

[@lordraven2264]

16:15 it placed railroad crossing markings on the road, that is pretty cool. Haven't seen that before. America has yield signs. And most citizens treat a stop sign like a yield anyway, lol.

[@jake01756]

Especially at roundabouts!

[@miadouvres4020]

Yeah, treating a stop like a give way is called a "California Roll"... or so I've heard lol

[@thejericho]

i feel like most of this series so far is you setting up dedicated turning lanes, putting up yield signs and upgrading roads 😂

[@lotfem]

And we love it!

[@artistfkaW]

Half my lunch breaks now are taking a sandwich and cheering on Biffa doing what I’m too lazy to do in C:S, saying things like “oh that is nice” or “idk if that’s gonna work man”

[@jwalker86125]

You also want to make sure there is a path connecting the rear of the station to the bus terminal road

[@jdicke1017]

You are getting how US roads work with turn lanes in the middle of big roads. One thing you might want to think about is 'frontage' roads. Those are very common in the US and serve as parallel side roads to major roads or freeway roads. Typically they are 2 lane roads or maybe 4. Love your channel!

[@JacksonOwex]

To preface for some context, I live in the Upper Midwest of the US, basically in a very small town surrounded by all that corn you hear we have(there's also soybeans too)! 17:08 Can't do that Biffa! America LOVES its at-grade crossing! My town(which is about the same size as this city) has two, and they are the only two city roads that go from one side of town to the other! There is a highway near the west side of town that goes UNDER, there is also a LOOOOOOONG, dark, dangerous tunnel(it's ALWAYS got a decent sized hole in the road)! Basically the two at-grade crossings are the most convenient to use, ESPECIALLY if you walk! On the subject of Public Transportation I have to agree there is too much! My town has basically NOTHING! There is a small bus service that costs WAY TOO MUCH but they get real uppity if you aren't old or disabled in some fashion! Did I mention it costs WAY TOO MUCH! Someone once told me it was THREE dollars! I lived in a MUCH bigger city, that also had a university in it, and the bus was ONE dollar most of the time I lived there, they did spend most of the last year I was there debating whether or not to raise the price to 1 dollar and 25 cents, which they eventually did! Apparently my city thinks we are a gold mine or something lol

[@artistfkaW]

It would be cool to have a neighborhood with townhomes like you get in Baltimore/Philly/Brooklyn and there are workshop assets for that

[@jasoncarlaritz5558]

At 41:02, the road you add in for the bus hub could also be connected to the large horseshoe road you used to connect from one side to the other earlier in the series. This will help with the traffic for those from that original section of the city who want to get on the bus or train. They won’t have to go around the horseshoe, down the road, u-turn, etc.

[@magicalmac7505]

I could also imagine Costco wanting to add a store in this community

[@Transformersgirl]

Or Sam's Club

[@ZadaSmith]

Loving the series Biffa! I would recommend adding in some more parking lots to make this reflective of an American city 😊

[@dirkdieters5773]

It's kind of funny hearing the term tenement when referring to an American city. Yes it's accurate, but here the term has an old-time feel, and is usually associated with Victorian era city slums than modern buildings. The more commonly used term here is "apartments".

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Exactly! 💯 percent. When I heard the word "tenement" I thought he was going to put in some of those five and six story brick tenements that New York City is famous for!

[@MB-ww5ej]

Nice video Biffa - the city Is growing nicely. You’ll need some schools and probably a few more parks too to keep your new high-rise residents happy. Also perhaps a taxi depot in your new transport hub area?

[@braderwin6093]

You've lost pedestrian access from the paths that cross from the older part of the city to offices at the Hickory district. The new big roads don't have sidewalks. They are more like highways (also why there's no zoning on them)

[@ReptilianLaserbeam]

THIS! it was bothering me so much he lost connection across the rail line, and didn't notice even while connecting the park entrances. Hope this comment gets more upvotes so he sees it.

[@braderwin6093]

@@ReptilianLaserbeam now that I've finished the video it seems like all the paths in the new area aren't connecting either. 😐

[@Khotetsu]

@@automation7295 Was gonna say...they've got sidewalks, they're just about half the size of the normal in-game sidewalks because of the grass strip next to the road.

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Yes they do :-)

[@stephenclark9917]

Dedicated turning lanes reduce the capacity of roads to discharge traffic. At 9:10 you have one lane feeding two straight on and one lane three lanes right (easy) turn. Allow the straight on lanes and the right lanes to each do both at straight on and right turn.

[@lokio_games5015]

I have been waiting dearly for this awesome series to continue.

[@PerfectAlibi1]

Ah yes the zoning all along the American stroads. Kinda missing the giant parking lots between the stroad and the actual store though... 🤣

[@xanityx]

I always enjoy watching your city builds 😊 You did forget the schools in the high density district! I reckon you'd need a few.. Love this city (but Blightea is still my absolute favourite)!

[@macsound]

Everyone says we don't have Yield and Give Way (except freeway entrances) but truly, every suburban intersection that has no stopsign or stoplight is technically a Yield, just without a sign.

[@williamhuang8309]

Actually you can put the train track back. Use Move It to duplicate a train track segment and then use NMT Union Nodes to connect it up. Great little trick I use to reach the node limit even after hitting the "cannot build more of this type" limit. Also: NMT Create Parallel mode can be used for roads that are very far apart, just use Shift + or - to get a larger increment. And ensure that your high density area is 50% parking lots!

[@veramartinez2469]

Yea, that's what I do to put track back.

[@anikaboelhouwer4196]

I laughed so hard at the intro 😅

[@AllenClaudius230]

Absolutely loving the new series.

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Thank you Allen Bob Claudius :-)

[@plutodwarfplanet]

Really nice city! Maybe add a freight station when you unlock it.

[@EmmanuelLeroy798320]

Hey Biffa ! Awesome video as always. Love the American styled city so far. I saw a video from YumbleTV that had an amazing mini interchange for big high density 4 ways intersections ! Highly recommend watching him if you end up having too much traffic. It helped me in my cities. The important thing is to pay attention to where the traffic is coming from/going to.

[@TuomasLeone]

Looks great! Loving this series. One question is the train station accessible from the street on the bus station side? Once everything is up and running there's sure to be a ton of foot traffic btwn the two!

[@RKFlinspach]

Morning Biffa! At 14:35, we'd solve that little intersection with a traffic light methinks. Also, those large intersections could really do with some painted lines to guide the little cars and trucks and things into the correct lanes! Love this series - makes my heart smile.

[@119princesskida5]

It would be cool to have an elevated (or underground) pedestrian walkway directly connecting the new Intercity bus station with the bus hub across the street

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

Speaking of American-style traffic lights, you should have an 11-foot-8 bridge somewhere. 😂

[@crokydriver1521]

It looks like at 10:22 the path coming from the starting area doesn’t connect anymore to the BIG-roads. Later on seems to be the same with your other pedestrian bridge! And oh dear i’m not sure ANY of the paths at 23:30 connects at those roads… or it could be just a visual thing..

[@jefferystube]

Came here to say the same thing. I think the type of road doesn’t connect to the paths the same way as it didn’t have zoning.

[@lucaslieberenz5094]

With the big roads - at larger intersections you can add 2 left turn lanes for more realism

[@C.Kado18]

One thing I think would be very interesting to represent an American city is doing a medical hub. Its very common (at least where I live in the US) for a hospital to be surrounded by a bunch of different doctors offices, specialists, therapy services, imaging, etc. Also in every city/town I've lived in, there weren't those long parks. At best there might be a walking trail that runs through the city/town. Instead the city/town would have one or two large parks where everything recreational would be located (playgrounds, baseball fields, skatepark, dogpark,etc.) Just some suggestions that you will hopefully consider

[@Awen24]

Don't forget that train stations can potentially have access from both sides. Where your new metro/bus terminal is, if you connect the road there to the other suburb, it'll be one more connection from side to side (you may not want this, but there are ways to work with that) or you can at least give both suburbs access to the train station in the middle without forcing people to get out and walk, or drive the long way around. They could use the car park next to the bus terminal and walk into the train station from the back side. Maybe just get rid of the road going over the train line and into the bus hub, then you won't have people using it as an access road.

[@chiv4s147]

Some thing i like to do is but the tram lines in the alleyway like where you put the paths, running parallel to the longer roads. It keeps them off the 2 lane roads so causing less traffic. The peds could still use them as paths but keeps the tram stops easily accessible. I find it makes more sense in high density just cuz you wouldn’t want a tram line in your suburban back yard lol

[@mountainmangames3613]

Please add right turn on red. as an American seeing an American build, and seeing people in the right turn lane not turn right as soon as they can boils my blood 😂😂

[@BuckHypervisor]

The kind of roads you're putting in are usually found in low density suburbs and exurbs. They're probably most common in unicorporated areas that are very low density, between towns or on the outer edges of suburbs. As those areas fill in with tract housing and strip malls, they inevitably get clogged with traffic, even on weekends. They also have more than their fair share of crashes because they're designed for speeds that are no longer safe with higher traffic volume and more intersections. It seems paradoxical, but the higher the density, the smaller the roads.

[@modernist927]

As a sort of professional with BIG Urban and BIG Suburban… FOR GOODNESS SAKE USE CONSTANT MEDIANS PROPERLY The median only pops in when you use stop or give way, this works best using Ctrl-click with TMPE. And there’s a reason there’s BIG *Suburban* and BIG *Urban*, Suburban for of course suburbs and urban for high-density areas. BIG Urban has zoning, so that’s what you’re looking for. The suburban small road also SUCKS for anything that isn’t from BIG Suburbs building pack because it has a grass overlay that stretches beyond the road itself that obscures concrete surfaces, use the BIG Urban small road which has parking and works much better with concrete. I highly recommend BIG Urban for literally anything that isn’t suburbs

[@elgarooje]

If makes you feel better about the yield/stop signs, most Americans treat stop signs like yield signs anyways.

[@ksubi78]

Definitely reckon you should add a path going over the road from the bus hub to the new transport hub! Loved the vid Biffa!

[@jellyfilledgiraffe3971]

Hey Biffa, just to let you know that your bus hub is being used as a roundabout by vehicles who can't turn left at that close junction

[@haleyp898]

I mean, its pretty realistic for an American city. Random places being used as turnarounds is such a problem where I live they've put up all sorts of markers and cones to stop it; and those get run over within a week.

[@rachelbird2440]

@@haleyp898 I often do that when I go to someplace new for the first time. If I miss turning into the right parking lot, I just turn off and flip around to drive back XP

[@johnterpack3940]

if you really want to question your life choices, check out the "blank" roads packs. Dozens of highways, streets, bus roads, bike roads, asymmetrical, etc. And none of them have any lane markings. They're great for creating a uniform look across a city since you decide what the markings looks like on every road. But... you decide what every mark looks like on every road. That's a ton of work with the intersection marking tool. It also means that when you plop an asymmetrical road you have no idea if it's turned the right way. You don't know if you grabbed the 3-lane or the 4-lane. Lots of fun opening TM:PE over and over to see what the lane arrows look like.

[@A_Lesser_Man]

@Biffa: :) when adjusting a node's size, ensure none of the green lines turn red! red is bad, very bad. red slows your vehicles down to a slugs pace!

[@mikenelson6630]

I don't know what's normal for UK cities but in the US, we DO use Yield signs. Before watching this channel, I don't think I had ever heard of a 'give way' sign. I was surprised to learn that the UK uses MPH rather than KPH though.

[@MrsHeeroYuy01]

at 16:07 there are road markings with an X on each lane surrounded by R's & you thought it meant you couldn't turn onto the road. Those were actually Railroad crossing signs. Even though it wasn't attached to the rail at the time the road clearly had a guard bar to stop traffic from crossing the train tracks at the end. Good looking roads, nice detail there.

[@fallfaith6590]

For an American city, this one has a depressingly low amount of parking lots..

[@magicalmac7505]

Love this new series. Just an fyi, there is a law in the US that states that there has to be 1.5 parking spots per bedroom in residential buildings. So if you have an apartment building with 20 units, you would be required to have 30 parking spots

[@guy_autordie]

That's smart! (For once)

[@magicalmac7505]

@@guy_autordie is that an insult to me or to the US? Lol

[@daddad87]

@@guy_autordie I don't think it's smart at all. The abundant parking is one of the reasons why US cities are so ugly. Also it encourages people to have more than one car per family which is not smart at all. Instead of building more car parks the US should probably try to redesign their cities to encourage walking and cycling.

[@jordan9961]

@@daddad87 Yeah, but we need those cars to get anywhere in town or outside of town. Mostly outside of town if its anything besides a large city since most of the U.S. is rural and the people dont live in large cities but around them.

[@daddad87]

@@jordan9961 we have public transport for that in Europe and also cycling paths (not everywhere though)

[@ExperimentsOfThought]

Biffa dealing with glitches is my new favorite thing lol. Keep going Biffa. This is 🤩 fun

[@OneNTwentyOneMillion]

My city's standard block seems to be a 10x2. 10 houses down the block by 2 houses up. With an alley that splits the 2 rows of houses. A rectangle, not a square.

[@jwalker86125]

The intercity bus road could just connect to the curved road behind the other bus station

[@citrusklam9949]

Best intro on this channel. If you ever make a channel trailer be sure to put that in the trailer

[@jonblair5470]

I think the bus station road should be one way and “bus only” lanes, add a parking lot across the street. To keep the traffic that’s forced to turn right from going in the bus loop to cross the road to essentially make a left turn. 15:29

[@Derek.Mitchell]

Love this series! In America we would have demolished the high density housing and added wider roads and more parking lots as soon as traffic became a problem

[@RemyJustice97]

Hilariously, my city is currently doing the opposite. Knocking out two big parking lots just up the road from a knocked out commercial block in order to put in high density housing

[@Michel-fv1lb]

There is an option in the traffic manager to always have dedicated turning lanes when needed.

[@Moshimulations]

It auto enables on every junction. May be good for some but for a lot of my junctions, that causes more traffic so having some lanes doing 2 different things is helpful.

[@ismerobert8884]

A tip as a european: Build more prisons are make taxes higher. It's American type.

[@capedkat]

This city is SO different from your other work, but again so incredibly cool!

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Thankyou 👍

[@tinmanzeek]

Your content is brill bruv. I do miss the traffic fixes, as they showed all sort of fun builds with their problems. Be cool if you’d throw in a fix every once in a while. Cheers!!!

[@liyan00]

Once the downtown and older areas (if there are going to be any older downtown type areas) start being built, I would highly recommend putting a 5 point junction (usually near the city hall/old church/old clock tower/town center)

[@jake01756]

Here’s another American tip, in America we have some at-grade railroad crossings. You should add some.

[@OldManBadly]

I was also going to say that putting your intercity bus terminal in mid town rather than closer to the main highway generally will add more bus traffic into your core. I have a feeling that you main road from the highway is soon going to be very overloaded.

[@Metrikon9000]

I watch both you and City Planner Plays quite often while I am at work. It really helps me get through the day. I love moments like 15:48 where you can clearly see the free exchange of ideas that ultimately helps you both improve. This community is so creative and works excellently with one another!

[@stevengalloway8052]

"These small little ones here." Redundancy, thy name is Biffa! 😆

[@memofromessex]

This is too well thought out and pedestrian centric for an US city. It's looks suspiciously Canadian 🇨🇦

[@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356]

It is not actually too pedestrian centric. Notice that most of the BIG roads Biffa placed this episode… don’t have any functional sidewalks. Pedestrian access is actually just about right. 😂

[@RryhhbfrHhgdHhgd356]

@@automation7295 Ah… The pedestrians behave the same as the cars, and just glitchily jump the grass barrier.

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Bingo

[@natejohnson2013]

Using the 'Nickel Plate Bridge' and elevating the train line over the roads instead of sinking it under would be more realistic to the US.

[@tilleisbaer3560]

Some names I can come up with: Teatroit, Teacago, New Orteans, Teatramento. Love your content ^^

[@jochem2029]

I really like this USA series so far!!🙌🏻🙌🏻😃😃

[@johnxeero4160]

"Oh, traffic got really bad." Biffa from the past: makes 45 minute video fixing traffic Biffa in this episode: we're going to ignore it lol

[@djrakman3909]

cant wait to see you build american south bronx style ghettos

[@jcrowder33]

You need a Twin Pines and a Lone Pine shopping area along with a Lyon Estates neighborhood. IYKYK.

[@GamerKei]

Awesome video as always Biffa. I have a suggestion for the name of the new park. I have to make the suggestion it's too good. Iced Tea Terrace Gardens

[@BKPrice]

I know the name voting is over, but I just got a great idea: San Teaego

[@t0b1HH]

18:48 road forced to ground depends on picket mod. picker mod copies the settings for the elevation mode from the picked element. Check picker mod settings (there is also a shift-Click shortcut) and also its description in steam workshop

[@citrusklam9949]

5:54 if you look at the office building you placed there with move it it seems to be gone and it seems something else being built there. I think its kinda the same as what happened in the recent blighttea episode when all those houses dissappeared. The cause of both those things happening might be related. Or not. Oh you fixed it 😅

[@auntkrispy]

Don't forget to add schools to those new high density residential areas!

[@aprilharward3946]

Feel free to yield sign to your heart's content. We do have them. I grew up with a yield sign in the corner of our yard. My brothers even hit it regularly with the soccer ball. :)

[@A_Lesser_Man]

Re highway roundabout, may I suggest preventing vehicals from going all the way round. that can often reduce traffic within the circle to a noticable degree (requires lane connectors and careful thought). finally, is it just me, or is this a glitch: I have traffic circles all over the place, and the branches entering the circles are 3LEW, but the traffic entering the circle from the right lane doesn't/won't "choose their lane". In TM:PE I have dynamic lane selection set to like 70% (i think).

[@edwardsr70]

The US has so called bypass highways that essentially goes all the way around the city with multiple on an off ramps.

[@fradefly]

Considering that the stop signals are not a good options for the bigger roads, and give way signs are not realistic for american cities consider having timed traffic lights in all of the connections to the bigger roads/avenues Also, when it comes to rail-roads, just thinking about costs and stuff it would be more realistic that instead of them being sunk to the ground the roads would pass on top or bellow the rail-road

[@vegastjg]

You'll thank yourself for building what you'll need in the future right now unlike what we did in Vegas

[@michaelvazquez7533]

It would be very cool if u make the land between the two rivers look like Manhattan. Not sure if that’s possible it might not be big enough but thought that would look very cool. Man-hat-tea.

[@djerykhornubis2466]

Thanks for the content Biffa! But careful! Now that you point your services to specific districts you have to set them up when making new ones, right?

[@rachelbird2440]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@Gametube321]

Please make a scandinavian build in the future

[@ChristerSelming]

You can use that Trainstation as a pedestrian overpass of the railtrack, thats how i use it, if you want to remove the bridge right next to it.

[@FullOfBradells]

17:02 thoughts. With the highway planned beside the rainline, why not tee off at the river and use that for some industry transport or even ferries? It could connect to Brook heights and Hemlock District.

[@NameRedacted0]

A US inspired city that plans for public transportation rather than shoehorning it in at the last minute? Don't be ridiculous

[@zamboughnuts]

16:09 - Those are railroad crossing markings! Any time there's a crossing in the US they'll be put on the roads.

[@S4B3R117]

I kinda like the look of the random high den residential, looks more natural

[@Illkiron]

The transport hub needs walkability! Some pedestrians will have to go around the long way to get from one hub to the other.

[@stevengalloway8052]

🤔 Offices and Biffa are like oil and water: they do NOT mix, apparently... 😆

[@42meep13]

I feel like replacing the old bus hub with the intercity-metro hub might have looked better given how much finagling has to be done to get the road back up to go over the tracks. (I'm pretty sure the inter-city bus terminal can be used as a normal bus terminal with extra functionality, maybe just with fewer platforms for buses.)

[@JoliBaePop]

That middle lane that connects the 2 new areas… maybe I’m seeing it wrong but it looks like traffic can’t go straight, only right or left lol

[@shuvendudebnath2616]

The blocks are taking out the aesthetic of it. Maybe take some inspiration of real world. Love your builds BTW.

[@ArnoModelstate]

14:43 It's the left 'priority' that would be set to 'give way' I think to slow the crossing.

[@Jozef_Bastian]

For zoning adjuster just click the force zone radial button before you lay the road down and youll be good.

[@JonTheGeek]

Oh my God being able to search and then toggle all, of your search results Is, PEAK menu design.

[@mantabloke8141]

mabe instead of digging in elevate the train line and use one of the elevated stations and then you can keep it all flat

[@nzmcmt]

So much public transport. Are you sure this is still an American city? ;p

[@BiffaPlaysCitiesSkylines]

Hoho!

[@Transformersgirl]

Some US cities do offer varied public transport I'll be it tends to be focused less in residential areas and More in commercial and tourist areas

[@simongeard4824]

@@Transformersgirl Yes, that's been my experience... good connectivity between commercial hubs, but coverage of the suburban neighbourhoods is often weak. Buses tend to stick to the main roads rather than the residential streets, so you may need to walk further to reach a stop than might be typical elsewhere - though that does mean that the buses are often more direct once you find one.

[@Benmarkk2009]

If you want to make your town to look more like a US city then you need to make parking lots in between the streets and stores. Cityplanner always does this. Unless you are making an old school main street.

[@Sparkiebc]

Ah the lack of walkability. Everything scaled for cars. Transit an afterthought (for the poors). Truly american city biffa

[@Joemamahahahaha821]

I would say transit isn’t even a thought let alone afterthought most of the time 😂😂

[@aitcheymoo]

I feel like i spend so much of my Biffa watch sessions screaming "you forgot schools!"

[@mvpete6004]

Does not look like the small or big roads from the new asset packs support pedestrians. Neither the new large ones introduced in this vid or the small ones used in the new high density area. I also suspect the same for the older areas as well.