COMPLETE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT in Cities Skylines | Town Planner Tips

[@SamBur]

Hey Betchez, thank you for watching ! If you want to download this city, you can! Also the map is of Los Angeles. Here are both links. Enjoy :D Game Save: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1567879803 Map: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1555543207

[@marik354]

How did You zone the bus road?

[@benbrown3253]

It reminds me much more of midwestern American cities

[@randomperson1687]

too bad you used that many mods to create this map. Doesn't seem to work now. I think the new update made the savegame usplayable... :/

[@marik354]

@Tyler Carter the base game doesn't have a bus only road

[@fransmith3255]

Hey! :-) Thanks for the video. It's exactly what I was looking for. I know you did this video over a year ago, but... I listened in vain for which transport to use in high-density residential areas. Buses are too small, better for low density residential. Trams are too traffic-interfering, better for medium density in general. Monorails and subways are too loud, better for event, travel and tourism venues, and for high-density areas excepting residential, respectively. Trains are too big, better for long haul stuff. So could you possibly tell us what to use for high density residential? Thanks! :-)

[@andrewprytherch]

Sam "just ignore the city, its something I threw together in an hour". Proceeds to show off something better than I've ever managed in the game. :) :) :)

[@adamgray1753]

Exactly, Andrew Prytherch. Then again Sam Bur was also doing Infinite Money with everything unlocked. So he was able to build his "dream" city stuff uninhibited.

[@andrewprytherch]

@@adamgray1753 so was I!

[@pedrobrazon6610]

Lmao my thoughts exactly, he just nonchalantly "threw that in under an hour" and Here i am, cant even Start a proper shanty town :(

[@TheGomesTuga]

*Draws Mona Lisa* it's just something i drew in 1 hour, please dont's judge too much

[@bakeryclerk7434]

I must be the only person who isnt impressed when people use infinite money. Now for the sake of explaining masse transit I get it. But it would be nice to see someone do something like this within the games economy and explaining practical progression while maintaining a positive budget.

[@watchthe1369]

Trains are high capacity general purpose long distance link Monorails are an express for dense urban areas, with a semi-dedicated link between high volume terminals. Subways are like underground monorails, only used in a bus-like mode with well spaced terminals. Trams are medium density feeders looping thru a master planned neighborhood area or the edge of high density. Busses are good for neighborhood circulators that connect to the amenities like shopping or entertainment. That is what I understood from what you said.

[@SuburbaniteUrbanite]

watchthe1369 subways are OP

[@jaybuss3447]

ProudestSheep yeah I look at a station and a million people walk out of it

[@anthonyg7584]

Bro Where you even paying attention! XD lol 😂 why you just repeating some dumb af facts

[@rev_dude]

@@anthonyg7584 why the hate? This is a pretty good summary.

[@sik3xploit]

@@rev_dude I agree, I think it made me understand my misuse of the bus system. I was using them on pathways maybe a bit longer than I should be. I was having maybe 250 out of a total population of 10,000 using my buses.

[@phorewhoresman1897]

Lived near a monorail and train station in Seattle Washington, trains are so much louder, devs got it backwards.

[@tungstenwhizard4361]

Yup, I live next to a train track and it shakes my room every night.

[@HPD1171]

monorails use tires just like cars which are great at absorbing vibrations compared to the steel on steel of trains also monorails are elevated so all the vibrations are able to be absorbed into the support structure as well where as trains just dump all that energy directly in the ground though they use ballast to help mitigate it some, street cars or trams also have this problem but they are light and travel slow enough for it to not be as much of an issue. I really wish the devs would fix this.

[@epiccollision]

I always mod the monorails to realistic sound levels, otherwise I’d never use them,

[@aswd45-mk14]

It is just impossible to use the god than monorail. I tried really hard and can’t get over 300 people using them. Sound it is really absurd. But let talk of the biggest flaw. Impossible to construct. Those monorail station are a pain in the ass. Most of the time, your better with subways. And it is a shame. It is make me sad :(

[@elgoog-the-third]

Just because US train tracks are in an abhorrently bad state doesn't mean it is like that everywhere

[@quartzlump]

For people who are using buses inefficiently - perhaps they're people like me who grew up in cities where buses were all you had. Take cities like Detroit or San Antonio. Undeniably huge, but yet no trams, no subways, just a single rail station in the downtown area with like a two or three trains per day at an absolute maximum and the first stop isn't for hundreds of miles. All you've got locally are buses and your own cars. So many people will be building cities based upon their own, and that's all they know. Where I live we do have trams and we do have suburban rail services (no subway though), but despite all that, the majority of public transportation is done by bus. You want to go from the East side to the West side? Odds are you'll be doing it by bus. Everything else ferries into the city center. The buses do that too, but the vast majority stay out of the downtown.

[@Lekurishkun]

Yes! I live in a city where buses act as really dense public transport

[@OOZ662]

That, and how spiffy they were in the various SimCity games.

[@thedumgamer2046]

Thats also kind of London, but we normally use busses to take us to our Underground (NOT METRO OR SUBWAY) and then we use our underground to take us to our trains, then we use our trains to get to the planes then we use planes to get to places where public transport is non-existent...

[@peger]

That. If you want to get from A to B you take a bus. The train is rather to move out of the city into other parts of the country. We also have an electric bus powered from the cables located above the road.

[@diciabadines2886]

Manila, Philippines also have buses as the biggest dense population transport, with monorails as the secondary so yeah that's probably why my city is experiencing worse traffic as it gets bigger lol

[@eliasrieger5537]

Also, looped routes are pretty inefficient, unless you have two routes - one going clockwise and one going counterclockwise.

[@advancedloiterer1820]

Thank you for the informative video, Sam. My husband is now addicted to Cities:Skylines and constantly has trouble with trains and public transport. He has been learning a lot and we have both been appreciating your tips as we watch your videos. I am still testing your tips of distribution of industry throughout the city. That is difficult to set up with ground pollution affecting residential, and I just love my green cities, LOL.

[@FutureChaosTV]

You don't have to. If you use cargo train terminals for internal use and seperate terminals for outside cargo, you can feed a big section of industrial area with very little traffic from trucks driving around the other parts of your city.

[@Admiral45-10]

I always start the game with industry really far away from residential (I do it this way: at the very beginning of the game, I build some form of motorway from that unconnected road. Then, using one-way roads (which then after become messy to be honest), I build two symmetrical rectangular districs - one exclusively for Residential zone, and secound - for Commertial and Industrial zone), and then after, I don't build ,,general", or non-renewable industry at all - only agricultural, or Forest ones, or Office zone if I can build one. But what's imporant to note is, that when building a city you have to have separate ,,dirty zone" already planned (it's the place where you'll place general industry, landfill sites or incineration plants) and make sure your residential areas will *never* be even close to it.

[@nicolasblume1046]

If you use taxi stands, don't forget to build taxi depots otherwise you will never see taxis! That's what I had to learn first 😂

[@iLaeyes]

Nicolas Blume doesn’t your city have Uber??🤪

[@michaelhope8899]

TRUTH

[@sockshandle]

Actually you do its just that they have to go back to the depot at the end of their shift

[@BlueSkyEntertaiment]

@@iLaeyes is there a mod for that?

[@iLaeyes]

BlueSkyEntertaiment not that i know man..

[@Izmael1310]

You forgot to say one very important thing related to trains. You should ALWAYS keep your train stations divided between local trains and outside world trains. Dont let outside world trains use your local train network. Build few stations on the outside world track and some stations could be close to your local train network but never allow outside world trains use your local train network. The same goes for cargo trains. You can build 4 stations at the edge of the map or you can create train station for outside world trains and next to it build your local train station to allow people from outside the world transfer onto your local train network :) Believe me it helps you a lot when you will have larger city! Also one good tip for PT in general is people in this game are simple and they are not social = they wont go visit their friends. So you need to setup PT in a simple way meaning - Cims want to get to a shops/schools/work/parks nothing more. If you want to reduce a lot of traffic metro is the number one. If you would like to see more traffic on the ground you have to avoid using metro and use buses and trams :) Last tip I can recommend is to subscribe for few buses, trams, trains on the worshkop. This way you can get yourself a bus for 80 even 110 people trains for 300-500 and trams for 120-250. So if you want use articulated buses in your city you definitely can :)

[@digawira1859]

Overlord This is exactly what I do to my city. Instead of Trams, I build Bus Rapid Transit Systems which are cheaper but can be just as effective as Trams especially with articulated busses or Solaris' Urbino 24 Bi-Articulated Bus

[@destynnee]

I continually forgot this! Thanks for the reminder.

[@chanachon56]

There's even the rail whale double decker tram floating around in the workshop that has a 412 capacity. No idea what that wouldbe good for but I just plop it in my city just for the lols.

[@Admiral45-10]

Can't more agree on that - I remember when I forgot to disallow intercity trains to go to other train stations and they kept making congestions.

[@pixynowwithevenmorebelkanb6965]

There goes my nonexistent train lines :(

[@KiNASuki]

SB made a quick 1 hour city to show a short tutorial on public transport. Still look prettier then my long time city look :\

[@Admiral45-10]

Or than my 2 days-built city - but at least I play without inifnite money, and it procudes +8,243$.

[@hugonordin]

@@Admiral45-10 nice profile pic jeb

[@dyrcosis]

This is probably one of the better and more useful transportation explanation videos I've seen in quite a while. It makes me want to go back and redesign the transportation layout in my largest city. Thanks!

[@mrsneshi6748]

I’ve just recently got the mass transit dlc and them realised I didn’t know how to use it all properly. Thanks this was a lot of help

[@kulkarniprabhanjan]

well this is a great starter for you but you can easily mix and match the requirements like replacing a very popular bus line by tram line etc have fun.

[@Admiral45-10]

At first I didn't know what to do with Blimps, Monorail or Cable cars. Now I use Blimps to connect parks (if you surround station with trees stops won't make that much noise), Monorail as ,,Office version of busses", but I've never had occasion to use Cable cars.

[@mikek4isr972]

Boat ferries: low capacity "bus on the water", good if used with actual busses on the roads. Still, due to their slow speed and low capacity, it is suggested for small town area to another low population area. Cable cars: personally I love these, while individually they are lower capacity but tend to have quite a few cars. Cims tend to love them, can be used to get them up above busy road ways in unusual routes, or across hills/water ways, and not slowed down by traffic. Still helps to have busses for more local transport. Additional note on monorails. I have used them for longer distance runs, especially as a replacement for trains. When you have long straight flat runs, they actually run pretty fast in game. Add in that once you connect any train line to the outside world tracks, especially if shared with cargo trains, then the tracks get clogged and cause a rail nightmare. This is why I keep inter-city train connections/rails separate, and like the multi-rail stations for this purpose. Still, I've seen these Cims walk all kinds of long distances, even when there is plenty of public transport, so sometimes walkways over/under busy highways is all that is needed, especially to keep them from slowing down traffic.

[@Grumpy_old_Boot]

You should see how far they will bicycle then … you can *really* move a lot of people with some good bicycle paths. 😊 In fact, I don't think there is an upper limit as to how many bicycles / pedestrians there can be on a path. I've had one where mobs of people filled the pathway, and it didn't seem to bother them .. like.. at all! If you really want to do mass transit, make them walk or bike! 🤣

[@wombat4191]

@@Grumpy_old_Boot And damn those guys run fast! The seniors with their walking canes and world class marathon speed are hilarious :D

[@Grumpy_old_Boot]

Ha ha, yeah, they are in a great shape. 😁

[@qooke7876]

I’ve played 160 hours of this game but I’m always learning new things from you, thank you so much!

[@moody_goose]

Thank you for explaining this. Public transit is one of my biggest issues other than lack of creativity when building my city roads lol

[@rubenjames7345]

I don't know about others, but I find this fascinating. I've actually got Skylines in my Steam library, but I've yet to give it a fair shot. I assume that it also allows for other infrastructure considerations, such as sanitation, waste processing, utilities, road maintenance, etc. Great job!

[@simonanderson6166]

Yeah there is a lot to manage in the game to keep residents happy

[@imwithstupid086]

Hey Sam, here's how I use my mass transit systems. I use taxis to primarily service tourists. Sometimes, tourists don't go to places covered by metro lines. I came to this conclusion because I noticed that the vast majority of taxis in my (mega)city queue up for tourists coming from my space elevator. Trams, I use to connect adjacent districts. The idea is to concentrate short-travel private vehicle traffic into the tram lines to give way for freight, which is the main source of traffic in my map. I use them for both low and high density areas. I don't use buses at all precisely for the disadvantages you outlined. That said, I'm thinking of changing that by creating bus lines that connect nearby districts not currently covered by trams. The metro gets the lion's share of ridership. I use it pretty much conventionally: long distance travel options connecting disjoint high density residential, commercial, and office areas with each other. No monorails. I don't use them because I genuinely don't know what their niche is in my current system. No blimps because they're too whimsical/impractical, no cable cars because I don't have high-altitude areas. Trains are dedicated solely for freight. No passenger lines. Just from all that, what do you think can be improved?

[@Ensivion]

I regret putting in monorails, subways are far more superior, create less noise and move more people. Monorails only make sense in really hilly cities where the metro would be poking from underground and even then you can great creative with metro going farther down but that seems silly and very unrealistic.

[@Admiral45-10]

Wait, the Trams and Taxis aren't from Mass Transit DLC - they're from Alter Dark DLC...

[@Thepissheadman]

@@Ensivion Watch me casually reply to a 4 year old comment. As far as I can tell, the best use for monorail is short distance high capacity travel. Metro systems do have higher capacity and they take up less space on the surface, depending on the type of station, but it is very difficult to put the stations close to each other compared to monorail. that and Metro technically takes up more space, especially when it's on the surface. Ultimately my best guess is that monorail is for high capacity short distance travel, where Metro is higher capacity but also longer distance. Think of it as comparing collectors and arterials, in this analogy buses and trams are local roads, monorails could be considered collectors, Metro would be arterial and Highway would be trains. One end of the spectrum is access and another end is speed.

[@Ensivion]

@@Thepissheadman I think back then metros were only underground, and it's been a while lol. I think I was referring to the stations that monorails take up road space, i.e. there was also less number of roads, less customization (couldn't/didn't bother with mods). Monorail was better for shorter distances for that reason and were restricted to above ground stuff. Nowadays there's overground metros for even more flexibility, monorails are just worse. It comes down to personal taste. The analogies to roads, collectors, arterials, highways is realistic in the sense of reality (but iirc monorails irl are very, very rare and niche) but within the game they can be used a little more flexibly, monorails and metros can do very similar things their capacities are different. weirdly enough I also commented on a 4yr old video recently, just talking to the wind methinks.

[@Thepissheadman]

@@Ensivion I know that there are above ground metro stations now. I still think monorail is better for urban areas as they are faster and take up less room. Underground metro also exist but ultimately monorail station or a smaller, the tracks are smaller, and their turn radius is especially a lot smaller than metro. I think monorail is better for short distance while metro is moderate.

[@Simaritan]

Thanks, Sam. Although I'm a 3000+ hours player, I always like a refresher. This video covered old ground BUT also gave me quite a few "I didn't think of that" moments.

[@Chef_PC]

I’ve been playing since pre-release in 2015 and I still love your beginners’ videos. It really helps to refresh me on a lot of stuff I likely either haven’t used in a while, or have learned to use them inefficiently and never retrained myself. Great videos. Keep up this type of content too.

[@marnegrense]

These taxi stops you shown don't create taxis. This is a place for taxis to wait. In my 100k population town I have about ten taxi depots, but still always zero taxis availabale at any stop at any moment, they are all always busy. I wonder how many taxi depots is needed for 100k population. Before I always put one taxi depot and many taxi stops. I saw that something going wrong, but mostly I had never really been concerned about taxis and just let it be like that.

[@sockshandle]

Tourists use the taxi the most in my experience

[@TVegaC]

is the same in my city, I use taxis because I like the feeling of them, specially at airports but they are so useless. One taxi depot gives you like 10 taxis I believe. I want my city to feel like NY

[@sockshandle]

@@TVegaC there is the Large taxi Depot mod that has a higher capacity [I also have different taxi's to represent different companies for realism]

[@FutureChaosTV]

@@TVegaC 25

[@AbrasionUK]

in the video you mentioned that you shouldn't rely on busses, because they increase congestion, but surely if a bus can carry 30 people that's maybe 20 or more cars that are not on the road, thus reducing congestion? Or does the game not work that way?

[@Kibbelingg]

I was thinking the same thing, but I guess he means you will have more congestion when you rely only on busses compared to also using other modes of transport like trains.

[@Kibbelingg]

What i did just notice is that when you put bus stops in busy areas, commuters pile up at these bus stops, which results in big lines of busses. So in this case the busses do create more congestion.

[@digawira1859]

This is a reason why I personally rely much on the Bus Rapid Transit mods and articulated busses on my cities. They work as efficiently as trams with capacities of around 100 and having dedicated lanes

[@sh0werp0wer]

@@Kibbelingg This always seems to happen with me. It's mostly just a giant crowd of maybe 300 people waiting on each busline that is the problem. If I try to remedy the problem by adding more buses and lines going from that area, it just seems like nobody really gets on them, and they just create a lot of congestion. I don't really get this. I even clicked on each person to see where they were generally going, and made lines to that area :S

[@imwithstupid086]

@@Kibbelingg That's called bus bunching. It's a perennial problem here in Metro Manila. The staggering number of buses causes severe traffic issues, making a 10km travel distance last 2-3 hours during daily rush hours.

[@Vimes.]

All things being equal, which they aren't, I find that the most popular form of public transport are... 1. Metro 2. Buses 3. Trams 4. Trains 5. Monorail 6. Ferry 7. Cable Car 8. Taxi Putting aside ships and planes, the are kinda specific for tourism, cables cars are somewhat niche as well. Don't even think about blimps, apart from their fun element. I can completely swamp my bus services as well as Metro. Unrealistically perhaps, altho I have seen photos on Google of people hanging on the outside, I have increased the bus capacity to 100...! I see that you could also edit transport capacity. It was either that or have so many busses on the road packed 30 at a time that they were making congestion. Metro also is typically popular, outer and inner rings fill well when used in relation to a central bus hub. Each other form of public transport, with the exception of trams, can be a poor second to Metro and Buses. I could totally isolate an area from a road connection and then force a monorail or train service for them to commute, but it does seem that I have to force them to use that over their own cars or either buses or metro. Might be my city design that could influence that, but in any situation taxis are useless, unless they and their stands are for decorative purposes. Using mods like demand master and not being bothered about your city budget can greatly change how you build and style a city as well as considering public transport choices, they can be very costly to run on some occasions. Good video again Sam.

[@jimjoerobinson]

What's so bad about blimps? I had a blimp network in my biggest city and they're pretty good for getting people up mountains and across the rivers and sea.

[@morrissmith5338]

Thanks for this - I've had a tendency to just slap some roads down and go "hey, maybe I'll put a monorail here but idk", which has essentially made my library a wastebin full of crumpled up paper balls. This knowledge should give me a better framework for my overall layouts.

[@kulkarniprabhanjan]

in Public transport there are many modern thoughts like: Cable car can be used as transit system, trams are used two connect two small town or light rail to be specific Bus rapid transit can take over as trams , this is your video so cycling deserves a place as well, Monorails are used as a tram as well subway with small distance in between station can be built in your downtown areas as well. another thing I thought you should mention as well as the number of people carried by a system is imp as well. and carrying capacity of vehicles in this game is seriously screwed, trams can carry way more than 90(vanilla) or 30 for the bus so I suggest the use of IPT2 mod to fix it. thanks.

[@nicolasblume1046]

You can definitely use trams in busy downtowns! Your overall capacity just needs to be big enough, maybe in combination with metro. That's what is done is many cities around the world. I recommend to make these areas an "old Town" zone to keep private vehicles out

[@SamBur]

You can do whatever you want. It’s just that most people don’t know how to manage the issues caused by it. That’s why I said I don’t recommend it since this video is about beginners.

[@nicolasblume1046]

@@SamBur 10 points to Gryffindor

[@momsspaghetti9970]

What I've learned from 1,500 hours playing this game. Still too many problems though. - Cluster parks, offices and businesses near train stations. Make sure you make mutiple clusters and not centralize them if you haven't implemented a robust LRT/High Speed Rail hub. Dealing with more traffic headache in of itself to deal with (especially at double digits) - External connections I think should be paired up. That means external rail connection should pair up with your airport or seaport. - Make sure you plan ahead when you expand certain parts of your cites. This means a bigger/multiple connections between districts. - Certain policies can have a butterfly effect on your city. This ranges from upkeep costs, land value, pollution, crime rate, etc. Hard stuff. - Don't practice Urban Sprawl, its really bad for the environment and a possibility of wildlife roaming your streets. - Green tech isn't always great.

[@boomerix]

There are train/road crossings? Damn I always had roads and train tracks go above/under each other......

[@Admiral45-10]

I always tried to do so, as I really wanted to avoid traffic problems.

[@donalddavis303]

Depending on your train frequency of is often better to grade separate on your arterial or higher volume streets

[@unkl115]

As a fairly experienced cities player, I can say that this is a great tutorial for beginners! Well played sam. Keep it up.

[@magnav2490]

I tought I knew everything, but some details really surprised me! Thank you! Oh and I didn't know your were a town planner, that's interesting

[@leopold7562]

This is a very useful video. I've always struggled with the hierarchy, but then my style of city building is very haphazard and I end up with situations where I've got one or two ludicrously busy roads where public transport only ever adds to the issues. I shall definitely be taking your advice here! One thing that bugs me with trams is the need to create a loop. The trams we have in Manchester can reverse (as do the trains, subways and monorails in game) and I'd have hoped they'd fix this, but clearly I'm not going to see it any time soon. One thing I've tried to emulate is having off-road stops for the trams, where they either take up their own lane in the middle of the road, or spur off to the side of the road for a stop. It does help lighten traffic when they are stopped, but the cutting across the road negates it a bit.

[@Grumpy_old_Boot]

I ususally place Taxi's next to hotels and entertainment areas, like the Panda Sanctuary. Tourists seems to like them, taxi's and Panda's both. 😊

[@ameralhamvi5680]

Well, I LOVE buses. They are the main way to get around in my city. Cuz they are really flexible, cheap (looking and doesn't coast much), no need for infrastructure, and I use double-deckers for long-haul-high-demend-lines.

[@CruelViper88]

Like to see you make a town/city on a steep mountain 😏

[@builder396]

Did that on my last city, steep mountains around a splitting river. Turns out it looks very natural because you have to really follow the terrain and making stuff blocky doesnt work at all.

[@traxagenda3445]

That's a pretty good challenge

[@lagg3sbd394]

Questions I have: Metro vs monorail Ferries How to profit I also would like to learn a bit about cable cars, have you never used it?

[@SamBur]

Besides profit, you could answer all those questions by watching the whole video 😂

[@lagg3sbd394]

Well, you said metro and monorail have the same use, then why choose monorail, when it's more expensive and louder? And I don't think you talked about Ferries. Why would I choose a Ferry instead of subway?

[@sebastianalvarez2584]

Ferries go over regions that are largely separated by water and they require less infrastructure than metro so they’ll be cheaper and also I think they have a greater capacity

[@sebastianalvarez2584]

On profit, it’s all about not putting too many metro stations, and ensuring that you actually have a big population to sustain the cost; mostly I start making profit once my city is at around 45k+ citizens; also make sure you cut down costs by removing the amount of subway carts that are in use, normally the game automatically uses an X amount of carts to make waiting time less, but sometimes the carts aren’t even full, so just cut down the amount of them to the capacity of each being full

[@lagg3sbd394]

Ferries have a capacity of 50, compared to 180 of subway. And they are noisier.

[@patrickr6553]

I like the way he keep telling "i know its alot, i hope you can follow" Bro. No one forces me to watch this. But i do cuz its pretty helpful and trust me english aint my motherlanguage but i still get your points on 100%. Awesome Video.

[@kaih.471]

your cities always look great (and full of "life") and realistic, my always look like a sh... you know what I mean. When I'm satisfied with the looks, it doesn't work, when I try to build efficient, it looks bad :(

[@kailomonkey]

GREAT VIDEO I love public transport but I have struggled to use them right, using mostly buses despite dense populations. Your real world experience shows in how naturally you understand the hierarchy and uses for each type.

[@92thorstein]

Bus loop sound so terrible wrong. We Demand more TERMINUS! Proper Bus Line Warior Squad here!

[@marktheshark8320]

I agree Sam uses too many circulators. With just one line, he can have a route that goes through the small village picking up passengers, go to the next village and drop them off all without a transfer for the passengers.

[@nyankosensei1183]

Lets see some ID, I respectfully disagree. I tried the approach you've mentioned to connect three towns to forestry area and eventually it became disaster. Two points here: 1) Buses will start piling up on certain bus stops. It's like the game tries to calculate waiting time based on average distance between stops. So basically it expects that all stops will be same distance away to function properly, and when it's not - well, you can see two or three buses of same color waiting on bus stop for people, effectively blocking other bus routes. 2) It's multiplied if you have several bus lines from different places going to one place, like I had with common forestry area. They are just killing all traffic (in bad sense). So what Sam does is actually very right: intercity routes should not handle inner city travels. Not in C:S at least.

[@92thorstein]

@@nyankosensei1183 You can turn off or shorten "debunching time" and problem solved. Sadly you can't set "debunching zones" on terminus stops. Proper local bus line should have >10 stops. And be a line, not a loop.

[@nyankosensei1183]

What about small scale applications? Like less then 10 stops? Sometimes there is no way line will be effective and often combining lines and loops give you nice results. And take a look at metro maps for example - larger cities often have one or two loops to make travels easier. So no, I don't think that loops are absolute evil. They aren't universal solution, it's true, but when used properly they are as viable as any line can be.

[@JeffreyMeijer1]

Wel Michal, that complety depends on the situation. In cases where there is a prominent travelling direction a circular could be used in the neighbourhood the bus is ending since there is virtually none inner neighbourhood traffic. In other towns it is very common to have 2-way circular lines linking up the neighbourhoods in town for example. Every line requires its own route and soluition.

[@mattbowdenuh]

I usually have the large train hub in my downtown with lines that go out into the suburbs. Each suburb has a bus line that circle around the suburb to drop people off at the train station. I never put buses through high density areas. Then I usually have a subway in the downtown/high density that may also connect to an airport, cruise ship harbor, stadium, etc. And then a decent road and highway network will handle the rest. The only issue I usually have are trucks that are lining up at the cargo terminals but they are far enough away from main arteries where it doesn't disturb the other traffic.

[@SigmaRho2922]

Please keep in mind that custom public transport vehicles found on the Steam Workshop have increased capacity, and therefore work the best using the Realistic Population and Consumption mod. In addition, there is specific consideration with regards to elevated and underground train stations, which are available on the workshop but require the Extra Train Station Tracks mod. Constructing a rail line underground costs higher than constructing a metro line or a monorail line. There are some metro/monorail/train stations available on the workshop that have two or more sets of platforms, thus reducing congestion; Advanced Stop Selection is required in order to make them function correctly.

[@SigmaRho2922]

Custom public transport vehicles are available in steam workshop. Most of those vehicles have higher capacities (eg a JR East train has a capacity of 720 people) because they use real life capacities. There are also custom transit stations available on the workshop, and most of those (elevated/underground/multiple tracks) require steam workshop modifications. The realistic population and consumption mod results in overcrowding of the public transit system. I have used buses with a capacity of 60 people to solve this problem, as well as custom metro trains with a capacity of around 400 people. When I start building up a city, I use buses until I reach a population of 50,000 to 100,000 people, when I convert certain high congestion bus routes to metro or monorail.

[@dabeamer42]

following on the heels on the comments that say "this thrown-together-in-an-hour" city is better than anything I've done", it would be nice if we could get a video of you doing the basic build for this kind of city (or set of cities). It looks like you've got infinite money turned on, which no doubt helps a lot. Also, a master plan is also nice. If we started (like you probably did) by buying several areas, and putting in the various downtowns and their road & rail connections, it would (theoretically) be easier to get this kind of result. Thanks for the video. Very informative.

[@jandraelune1]

There is elevated train track asset, so the advantage of monorail is gone with that.

[@donaldmartin3057]

I've picked up some pretty good tips from your videos but I feel you're dead wrong about buses. They do not increase traffic - they decrease traffic because people aren't driving their cars. You mention how buses increase traffic three times in the video I think... but if there are 30 people on a bus, that's 29 less vehicles on the road. Furthermore - you say not to use buses in downtown areas, and I'm not sure about this, but it seems like people will only be able to walk a certain distance from the train/tram station and get to work.

[@CheshireCad]

You are correct about buses decreasing traffic, both in game and in real life. However, I think he was speaking more in comparison to other transportation methods. So, they're still great, and probably the most versatile and common transport you'll be using. But, if you rely on them too much, they'll become overwhelmed as your city grows, until the maximum number of buses per line isn't enough.

[@siggyincr7447]

Bus stop placement makes a big difference too. Don't put bus stops in congested areas, as the bus will clog stuff up as they weave in and out of traffic.

[@ulysseslee9541]

I think 1. To maximize the transportation usage, the route need to connect: ResidentialWorking areacommercial, so that u can earn $ from your citizens. 2. Exclusive transport mode, so only that transport serves that area, such as only Ferry can go that area directly, other transport type need to interchange several times/travel long distance to go there. 3. Using "Improved Public Transport 2" for route's fleet control if u don't like using budget control. 4. Better cover percentage of your city, so your citizens can use city's transport more. Bus: 1. I usually do as main local transportation, such as Expressway express, local loop(Train/Metro Shuttle), local area connected with road Buses if goes on Expressway, I would make a bus interchange & place the Bus route stop there for passengers interchange bus. 2. I avoid to use built-in bus hub coz it is useless. Build a customized bus hub with NE2 one-way bus road for it and it is much more useful, at least buses will use as a "stopping bay" for their hub stop very smoothly. 3. Bus routes usually planned as line & looping for terminus. 4. Using the bus assets, such as Double-deck bus assets(Enviro500, so on) for larger capacity fleet. 5. Giving too much buses on one route and many bus routes with using same road and spoke out to suburb area will be look like the Hong Kong's Nathan Road. Train: I am not often to use Railway for my city passenger transportation, Mainly I plan for using railway, build it like the Tokyo Yamanote line, as a rail loop for the inter-downtown/early urban area connection. So, I usually reserve land if I planned the city to have railway. Metro: similar to railway / your Monorail idea, but I would do as an underground railway along the main road & downtown area, connect residential, workplaces and commercial area. Place a park nearby if need to reduce the noise of Metro station. Sometimes, I will close some bus routes which also use the same route service & giving an exclusive service to Metro. Tram: I usually planned the route service look as bus. Tram can have its independent track, so it can use as low-capacity railway transport and it can goes on road. Ferry: The best way of bay/harbour/water crossing which u don't want/hard to build road, giving an exclusive service to ferry can maximize the usage.

[@FermiToll]

Thank you, this kind of video is what I was searching for about public transport: planning pros and con show to use each type of transport….most videos are how to make up a line and use the interface, but that can be learned I the game

[@mitchapalooza7949]

Thanks for the video. I learned a few cool things in it. I also learned that I've been setting my cities out so stupidly since I've been playing this game - Starting in the middle and just sprawling outwards in random directions as I saw fit.

[@strander88]

I like how you said it took you an hour to make, that would take me weeks to make!

[@uksimgaming]

Hi Sam, brilliant video, when I watched it s pretty much common sense once explained. I am now going through my Taveeno City and changing some of the public transport elements to try to take advantage. I basically have three large areas and I’m now changing the most recent one I created the utilise metro in to a commercial area, with trams running around that commercial area with buses going into the residential. I noticed that my commercial area is pretty small, so it looks like the CIms walk from the metro to their destination so the trams aren’t needed. One other area has two large area connected via a bus only road, linking that with a bus terminal. I have changed all the bus routes, they now target smaller routes but all go back to the terminal. Anyway, great video.

[@ArturdeSousaRocha]

It would be interesting to see further development of this map. You picked an interesting landscape with the valleys downstream.

[@SamBur]

It feels weird that hardly anyone is commenting 😵

[@TQM11686]

It is ok.

[@mrk45]

Your video was so good, we just don't have anything to add. :P

[@ewaru]

You can try to check your audience demography and try to find out the sweet spot for most of them.

[@Palpatine001]

Heh. Given it came out 8:41pm GMT +13 (or 5:43pm your end) and that most of the USA is asleep while the UK/EU are having Sunday breakfast Im not surprised :-P

[@nicolasblume1046]

Time zones. Most viewers are sleeping or just woke up

[@playeronthebeat]

In my big City Squares, I use nearly all public transport available with the hubs etc. Usually I put Bureaus and Commercial around the hubs since it's more realistic in a way. And also I do divide them up as you did. Besides a few main hubs there is good interchange but not to evrrything (i.g. Monorail around and through the most dense parts paired with Metro to reduce traffic on the street where Monorail really is for connecting the inner core to the outter parts of this structure and sometimes even a bit further (when trains or busses aren't worth) and in the outter parts where there is less traffic they have to change to either train (Main Station) for long distance, busses or trams for local cities where I even seperate busses and trams since I think both in one area are unnessrcessary. Aka: One area relies on busses the other on trams just the way I like it. Also I do use canals and therefore ferries if the map let's me do it. Ferries are like a mixture of monorail and train so to speak: Short to medium range. Never used zeppelins and cable cars though. Need to integrate them at one point, I guess. They seem kinda cool : D

[@PratikPolicy]

This is one of the best vudeos you have ever produced. Got to know many things.. I was doing many good/bad things but you kinda summarised all in one. Keep going 👍

[@desertdwellaz]

I live in Vegas and the monorail is much, much quieter than any train. Whoever thinks a monorail is louder than a freight train, lives inside a shoe box!! Fix your shit Paradox, monorails are quiet

[@DonKangolJones]

Thanks for the info. You’ve convinced me to tear down bus routes and give my city more diverse public transport.

[@kckunkun]

Welp, there goes my crosstown express line. Thanks for the vid, definitely gonna be applying these concepts.

[@lanewang1283]

Reall relax and beautiful city! And all those bus lanes trams and small town just remind me of Melbourne.Which is my favorite city. Thank you! I am new to City skylines.While I am watching your work I just notice that not every city should be big and have a big amount of population. It has so much fun to complete every detail in every corner of the city. Which is my next goal of my city.

[@Fergunator]

I always struggled with anything else other than road placement in this game. Thanks from the bottom of my heart lol

[@javierpedreira9212]

Barcelona, Spain follows the same bus strategy IRL. They have lines that cross the city up and down following the 2 axis, parallel to the sea and ortogonal to the sea. And then they use subway and trams to connect the a is between them

[@RPMiller]

Check out the city of Dubai for public transportation layout as it has everything in a small space. There is a monorail that runs out to the end of Palm Island, a tram that runs from the tourist area to old Dubai, a rail that runs between all the commercial areas, and tourist areas, and buses that run between the commercial and tourist areas. Taxis dominate throughout the greater area. I was just there in September and will mention that the local do not like the Tram at all. They stated that it wasn't planned very well. It was a little confusing to figure out its "zone" system, so I kind of agree.

[@canacau1303]

Sometimes in my cities I like to make them realistic and if the area is a small village I might connect it with buses, but have very few as that is the reality in most small villages

[@davidlawrence5091]

I've played this game for ages, but this video was still quite helpful. I kind of knew most of it, but monorail placement has been an issue. Also I never know the correct number of taxis to have. I have never managed to get blimps to work. You missed out ferries.

[@MrSoerenschannel]

Hi, Sam thank you for your dedicated work. You have made many aspects of the game more clear to me. I’d love more vanilla videos, since I am an Xbox player. Cheers!

[@davidhouston8251]

Great, helpful video, transport is something I can never seem to get right. Your city you knocked up in an hour still looks a million times better than mine I spend days on lol

[@macdailey]

Your videos have helped me more than you know and has stimulated a lot of creative thought in my own cities. Thank you!!! It is MUCH appreciated :)

[@someoneelse9427]

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for, thank you so much

[@teenageanarchist861]

Cable Cars are actually a great way of public transport for citys in mountain areas. if you look at medellin/colombia, you can see what they achieved with cable cars

[@soundoftoday10]

I'm from Colombia and there are some cities with cable cars (Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Pereira, Manizales). It's a great public transport not just for tourism and people who lives in mountain neighborhoods. I love it and a lot of Colombians love it too

[@skynonym4840]

This is super helpful. I'm struggling with public transportation a lot. Thanks!!!!

[@Rhogardium-oq5xv]

Yes, i was using the buses terribly bad. Thanks for the heads up Sam!

[@marcuzzigd2326]

I live in Toronto and it has one of the most simple yet genius metro and tram setup ever.

[@D2SProductions]

I lived in Pittsburgh, PA for a few years, they have a tram system there that's a little different than what they have in Cities Skylines. The trams in Pittsburgh, outside of the downtown area they are pretty typical trams, but inside the downtown area the trams are the subway system. Directly outside of the downtown area the tram tracks branch off of the road then submerge into the subway tunnel system.

[@motherreaper7287]

Thank you for making these videos. I have only recently had the chance to start playing it and I am utterly lost, now I can at least start addressing my congestion issues. :D

[@itstony5076]

Sam ! Please build a domestic airport on the mountain at Samivostok. It would be awesome to see plane fly in and out, and the airport would be unique and cool cuz it far from the city and up on the mountain.

[@SamBur]

i will, i will. Its just so hard to find a spot! The map is so hilly :D I think itll be on the smaller side of airports but it'll still be cool! "Coming soon"

[@itstony5076]

Sam Bur thanks a lot Sam ! I have been waiting for a airport for month. Good luck with your town planning. You should build a mountain resort, too. Or a temple/pagoda high up on the peak of the mountain, and we could get up thee by a cable car.

[@spamfilter32]

@@SamBur Try Googling Mountain Air airport North Carolina for some inspiration on how to do a mountain top airport.

[@Admiral45-10]

Build an airport in mountains and take revenge on your pilots.

[@WoodBlock707]

I’m definitely will start using your train and bus tips!!! It makes more sense to use buses in smaller areas instead of using the for my main transportation and then use the trains for them to use to transport between towns.

[@kimberlyostertag9840]

Thank you so much for this video. It is nice to have alittle bit more explains on the public transport uses than what is available in game . I am new to your site , but would love a video on sightseeing buses and sightseeing tours .

[@ZidAngeles]

Bus - LDR areas only Trolleybus - Fancy Bus / also for LDR areas only Trams - LDR/HDR areas, best for HDR areas Monorail - Inside downtowns, business districts, busy streets; connector between residential to commercial/industrial Metro - Almost the same as Monorails; I prefer using crossover terminals over the underground metro stations, it looks so weird besides tall buildings). Trains - Totally agreed with SAM BUR. Don't be lazy! Watch his video. Ferries - Fancy but not just fancy. No need to explain. Airport - No need to explain also. Taxis - I don't ride taxis. They're expensive. Haha Heli, Blimps, Cable Cars - tourism purposes, mix and match with the parks.

[@e1123581321345589144]

You should see the city I live in. The main public transport y is a lot of buses. Usually lines, very few loops and most of the lines of go through the city center from one side to the other. We also have a couple of tram lines connecting a high density residential area to the train station, the stadium and a former industrial zone. What's crazy is that the airport is connected to the train station by a 10km long bus line that goes through the city center, even though the train track passes within 200m of the airport, but there's no station there. Talk about a wasted opportunity.

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Having lived in or visited several US cities and visited a few more I know from experience how lack of good public transit can make getting from one part of town to another to be a chore or worse a traffic nightmare (I'm looking at YOU, Miami!)

[@reganbrannigan3006]

I like to try and use monorails whenever possible simply because it worked in Ogdenville and West Haverbrook and by golly it put them on the map

[@starfireonvf]

It was a great idea for Springfield.

[@omermirza3210]

Owesome video! I watched it yesterday but wanted to test the idea. So i tested it today and am amazed. Bus and metro are the best combo. Alot learned and alot more to learn. Great tips and amazing explanation. Thanks sam👌

[@RPMiller]

tl;dw version: Trains-->Monorail/Subways-->Tram-->Bus-->Walkability. Blimps for hard to reach areas. Taxis to move between hub locations or as needed.

[@stun3282]

It’s a good city even though you built super quickly. Also I put trolleys in a busy area and it works ok

[@geofff.3343]

I think you're underestimating the power of subways a bit. They're great for moving people around densely populated residential, commercial, and office zones. I think they have more flexibility than monorails because they're underground you can do large loops that connect numerous stations, but you can also do crosstown lines and express lines.

[@kcgerkid]

He stated that he normally does not use Monorails because of the noise. He just placed them here to show off and said he could/would use a subway instead. So, he is not underestimating them at all, you just didn't listen carefully.

[@totalrevengeance3904]

As a Londoner, I can’t imagine living in a city with buses as a primary source of public transport, I try my best to use trains when travelling and not buses.

[@semanticsamuel936]

As an ex-Londoner now living in the southwest, I concur. You really miss London's public transport when you move elsewhere in the UK!

[@drudle]

As an American, we typically have one train station per city (or two, if it's an especially big city). It isn't really viable to use trains as a primary source of transit unless you're looking to walk an hour and a half to work. The only alternatives are subways, light trails, or buses. And outside of the city, you're looking at just buses.

[@Admiral45-10]

In Poland our busses are used usually only in the region of specific county (e.c. Wejherowian MZK connects also 2 nearby villages), and there are several trains. At least in Pomeranian Voivodeship it looks like this: SKM (Fast City Train) - links every minor station from Wejherowo to Gdańsk Śródmieście PolRegio - connects major stations of every city, usually from Słupsk to Bydgoszcz, or Malbork InterCity - connects major stations of major cities, coursing through diffrent Voivodeships and connecting them.

[@julianduquette7790]

Good work, I really enjoyed this video. You seem to know what you're talking about and that is refreshing.

[@NeverlandSystemZor]

For a new player to the game, this is fantastic info! Thanks!

[@NeverlandSystemZor]

@Sam Bur do you have a video of recommended mods to use (and/or mods to avoid)?

[@ute.fritzkowski]

Cable cars and Blimps are great to connect parks, especially nature parks that are in mountainous regions. People love them.

[@Admiral45-10]

Does it work the same even without a Parklife DLC?

[@HannahHäggAutisticTransWoman]

Let's say you have tram going from transport hub through a high density residential area towards another transportation hud with shops this will make the tram realistic and good since you rarely see trams go in loops.

[@grazzer88]

Do people even use your buses on such a small scale like that? Cims have very specific travel patterns and don't move between residential areas unless it's to get to another transport mode, the rules are quite strict. R>C, R>I and back again (IE to and from work or shops). They don't go R>R, C>C, I>I, C>I, I>C. They make very specific one way trips to and from home. It's not so complex that someone will travel to the shops on the way home or do a shopping trip across multiple stores in the city like many of us would. Also note, Cims will also walk quite a distance. The loops in those little towns don't make much sense because Cims will happily walk that kind of distance, so making those buses needlessly adds to congestion and city expenses (though i hear buses can turn and are the easiest at turning a profit). You seem to be operating on quite a small scale, certainly your trains are nowhere near capacity and you don't seem to have a metro which i find to be the biggest boon to a city given how they operate underground and can shortcut your whole city whilst avoiding generating noise anywhere besides the terminals. I would say they are the most important addition to any city and they weren't even mentioned.

[@thejai28]

Funny how you comment on how to go easy on the layout of your city and how you did that in an hour... id be overly happy if i built anything close to this at all tbh... thanks for the vid!

[@FrankU_]

Anyone else think this is such a paceful city? Edit 7 months later: I think this a Metropolitan city, cause the little towns around the main city.

[@RenatoShishido]

this is the best video about public transportation i've ever seen. congrats. can you, one day.. maybe, tell us about boats and taxis?

[@MrThorp1]

i actually dig the layout of this city. im in the us, so the lanes bother me, easy to get over. Very informative. I absolutely am a noob, so this helped a lot. my sities are awful, haha

[@EezeeEmporium]

Wait train tracks can cross roads!? It's too late now but next time this changes everything

[@GhadyKhalil]

Thanks sam you are the most helpful skyliner ❤

[@stevengalloway8052]

Never thought about this. Thank you for the info. What do you think about a highway bypass encircling a city? Would that help traffic congestion? 🤔 I say this because all traffic does NOT come to your city, some of it comes THROUGH your city, not stopping. This adds to the congestion. I figure a bypass could address this issue....

[@coloradobrad6779]

Yes, just bought it so really helps the newb here. TY.

[@curseuchris]

Every time he says "area", take a shot 😂 😂

[@ziff5739]

Thanks Sam for the good tutorial. From what you've said about buses: I'm an abuser. LOL. Thanks for keeping it real.

[@andrewcunningham3447]

Use trains to bring in people from outside connections but use subway for getting them around the city connections. Subway has 500 capacity vs 240 for train and is the same travel speed. Plus the underground subway station is OP. Just plan accordingly with tram/bus routes to take people from the subway to suburbs, shopping, tourist areas.