Which is THE BEST highway interchange layout? Cities Skylines!

This time we're back in Engitopia in Cities Skylines (City Skyline) challenges whilst we wait for Cities Skylines 2 (CS2). As a professional highway engineer with over 10 years experience, I want to test out a range of realistic highway interchange layouts and see which is the best!
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#realcivilengineer #CitiesSkylines #engitopia

[@usrrnaming]

Only this man can keep me entertained with highway intersections Only this man's community can keep bringing me back to this 4 month old comment...

[@xantoqdat]

79 likes and 0 comments lemme fix that

[@AP__Studios]

Fr

[@bacon8837]

Same!

[@Tyuf_]

ikr

[@bob20011]

I was unreasonablely upset when he deleted the first intersection tho lol

[@Snowwie88]

5:35 - You CAN actually angle those nodes using "Node Controller", select the node, then Node Controller, and it gives you several options, including "Slope". 🙂

[@mcwolfbeast]

^this. And it may already get sloped depending on how you make the first connection in vanilla, too!

[@RedSaint83]

I was about to comment this. It's not exactly obvious until you've played around with the tool, but once you know, you know. A shame it's not the default 😿

[@wilkoufert8758]

Matt using Node Controller ans Network Multitool would be fun

[@frtzkng]

There's also a setting to make all nodes Slope by default, because otherwise you sometimes even get wonky curves when a node gets transformed to "Bend" instead of "Middle", and "Bends" are set to Flat by default.

[@collin4194]

Also the network multitool mod hels with slopes! But for nodes, yeah node controller is best

[@3snoW_]

I actually love when you use real engineering in these games and how you explain it, it's really interesting.

[@attepatte8485]

I have the same pfp on discord, feels weird seeing it out in the wild or at least the same character! :D

[@Thoran666]

Back to classic RCE highway engineering. With the exception of bridge building my favorite videos of the channel since they are entertaining and help understanding the real world a bit better.

[@Lavourrin]

Wish he would put some real life pics just to see how it ideally would look like.

[@EscapeintoGames]

@5:35 - Node Controller will do this. You can change the node from flat to sloped.

[@takumi2023]

lol i wonder how many people commented this

[@pseudotasuki]

​@@takumi2023I just posted, then deleted mine.

[@speedingoffence]

I find that just tweaking the angles with MoveIt far more effective. Node controller is a bit hit-or-miss. If the angles line up, the road will just 'snap' into a seamless transition.

[@speedingoffence]

You need node controller to slant a junction, mind you.

[@TheProphetOfNoGod]

one advantage of the Clover over the stack, is that on the clover you can turn around, on the stacks you can't.

[@majoood21]

thats what i was thinking 👍

[@ogxj6]

Wow, that’s a major shortcoming. I totally missed that

[@skeleletonboi4533]

same for the turbine, cant turn around

[@TheAmorphousGamer]

Also as someone who has encountered the stack in real life, it's really fucking confusing and ridiculous. You're just looking at a giant web of bridges and there is absolutely no intuitive way of looking at them and figuring out which one you actually want to be on

[@bastardowl]

The difference between being able to turn around or not is not the infrastructure of the city but rather the bravery of the heart. - Plato

[@NiyaKouya]

9:30 you can almost instantly delete those messy junctions since you already have Move it 😉 Set it to only select nodes, draw your selection square over the junction, and then use the deletion tool from Move it. Poof, gone is the mess. The angle restrictions for roads can also be "fixed" with mods, including the anarchy ones and precision engineering ^^

[@bugle-clowncar]

Dude. This video is brilliant! There's a lot of magic going on in that basement of yours.

[@KNR90]

The first 2.5 minutes was him explaining why every interchange into my city's main artery is awful. But the city council has spent $100 million figuring it out. And it will be fixed to support 2018 demand by 2027

[@ocirMZ]

"we don't want many curves, and short bridges" And then there's the highway in Fukuoka, Japan, that is two bridges often stacked on top of each other going over the entire city, bending like crazy

[@new_simsons]

Shutoko ?

[@ocirMZ]

Fukuoka toshi kousoku That's the one I'm aware of, i wouldn't be surprised if other cities have their expressways laid out in a similar way

[@BluishGnome]

My man, the lore for this map spans years at this point. Glad to see it. New viewers can only fathom what the rest of us had to mill through to get his serious civil engineer’s take on Engitopia…

[@ITriedDoingAThing]

You always know that it’s a great day when RCE post city skylines!

[@speedingoffence]

You can deal with both the 42 degree problem and the 'lump' problem with MoveIt. For the former, just pull in the angle after placing it. For the latter, just tweak the angle until it 'snaps' together, making a seamless transition.

[@popodood]

I cant believe you can do all of this so smoothly while teaching us while it is all reversed from what you are used to working with in the uk. Awesome job.

[@TheSCPStudio]

Reverse orientation doesn’t matter when the roads are one way lol. Besides, the game has the option to switch the orientation. So I think he’d just do that if it were an issue for him.

[@vincentking2552]

Today RCE has finally watched Biffa's episodes of road building, and learnt lane mathematics!! Give a cuppa tea. 😜

[@ano_nym]

You know it from the "jiggery pokery" at 10:15

[@NiceNoob01]

Idk if you know that, but in the TM:PE settings u can enable advanced vehicle AI, then they'll use more Lanes and the traffic gets better

[@karelpgbr]

In the Netherlands we have a common interchange (for urban areas and low speed),it's called a "turbo rotonde", where two lanes arrive at the roundabout, the right lane has a direct turn over the roundabout to the right, the left lane goes into a divided lane on the roundabout and can go straight, left or back. Look it up, the photos will clear it up!

[@marcor815]

If you want traffic to be able to turn around for what ever reason, you could replace the four left turn ramps with one roundabout, where the on ramps are inside and the offramps on the outside, with adding/subtracting a lane at each ramp. If the traffic stays in lane it‘s like the turbine, but it would allow other movement via the spiral by switching lane

[@marije179]

I have been sick at home with a throat infection. I can't sleep, eat, talk, barely drink, go outside... This keeps me up! I love your content man!

[@rpgaholic8202]

So... this is the video for people who didn't watch his play-through of Freeways. All that's missing is a score of each of the interchanges.

[@zacharywebb7197]

That Freeways play through is awesome 🥇

[@DanielP-jq4dj]

I’m from Baltimore and on the northeast side of the city where I-95 crosses I-695, there used to be a multi grade diverging diamond interchange with bridges instead of traffic lights. It doesn’t diverge anymore, likely because of the express lanes they put up along 95, plus I guess they don’t work with freeway junctions, but you can still see the wasted land use, and how the divisions still spread out as a result of the initial diverging design.

[@mctuble]

Man I'll tell you... anyone familiar with a particular Poughkeepsie NY knows there is a section just like this where there's a highway on ramp and off ramp with a very short section for people to slow down and exit while the on ramp is speeding up trying to merge. Very nerve racking.

[@yyflower]

This was like a throwback to Freeways! That series introduced me to RCE and I've never looked back!!

[@new_simsons]

Same

[@resh6469]

FINALLY someone remembered

[@michaelsinclair9703]

3 years ago I remember you saying “ let’s make this realistic as possible.” And now 3 years later we have this crazy engineering land.

[@soplander]

Love RCE's videos, highlight of my evening. Shame he hasn't discovered a few extra mods like network multitool, intersection marking tool and node controller. Might have made his life easier designing these. Thoroughly enjoyed it though - Keep up the great content

[@sebeans]

I loved this kind of video where you explain real freeway engineering in a fun context. Its entertaining and educational!

[@gankedirl]

It actually is pretty entertaining to watch real world engineering be applied to the game. A nice change of pace from the constantly spiraling chaos normally found in Enigtopia.

[@alexseguin5245]

Real world engineering that should never be done in real life lol

[@TheTransitDiaries]

RCE do railway junctions next with realistic slope gradients for railways 🙏

[@HangLooseMongooseYT]

The word for “parallel circle” would be “concentric”

[@rodgerdodger2459]

20:05 the dog jumpscare 🥰🥰

[@RJ_Eckie]

Freeways was my first RCE video and then series and then gateway drug to RCE addiction! Just intersections all day baby, absolutely loved those vids!

[@Squidgen]

Just when I needed something new to watch, RCE delivers!

[@seamorington2760]

21:03 I like how he is genuinely disturbed by the cars just following the camera lol

[@darylwilde1955]

Cool intersections gave me a small idea for an intersection of my own. Using a 3 lane highway with a 4 lane for a short section where traffic leaves 1 side and joins the other

[@jasonswayden9802]

Very good video explaining all the intersections and it’s always appreciated when you relate it to experience with your profession. And I saw a drum set! I play drums too!

[@tyrannus5157]

I love junctions and I love Cities: Skylines. This is my favorite RCE video! It'd be nice to see another video like this covering more junction designs + RCE's own designs.

[@keirnicholson9255]

I had to do my driving test in Swindon, they don’t actually use the magic roundabout on any test routes, but it does work really well. Even when it’s busy the various routes are great as you can find another way around, avoiding traffic.

[@trdawjaxh]

To sort out lanes, use TMPE and use the lane connectors to force the cars away from the busiest lanes. Ensuring only the leaving/merging traffic uses that lane

[@Sw0nk0]

Or by just using proper lane math.

[@colli020]

The reason I subscribed in the first place... Freeways. Don't know exactly why, but when Matt explained real life highway concepts in an entertaining manner, it kept me coming back. This video and the many like it are awesome. Keep it up, Matt!

[@stevenjlovelace]

We have five-level stack interchanges in Texas, one for each highway, then two more levels for the left-turn ramps, plus a fifth level for the frontage roads, which form four at-grade intersections of two one-way streets. Plus there might be more ramps for HOV/toll lanes. The best example has a name, the High Five in Dallas, which connects US-75 and I-635.

[@MegaLokopo]

The right side of the road is the right side of the road to drive on, that is why they call it the right side of the road.

[@TyinAlaska]

Matt, there's nothing wrong with the cover leaf. You just have to apply lane management.

[@MikeDCWeld]

Putting in slip lanes between the leaf sections would help too. There's a reason they're there in real life.

[@corbinplugge5922]

I love your videos! I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico and I think we have a turbine interchange in my city. I never really thought about how cool it was until watching your video. I guess I was wrong the Internet says our interchange is a complex stack interchange 😊

[@ccoeltrains]

I built my own stack interchange in my CS save a long time ago, it has definitely done wonders for traffic flow. I chose the stack because I live next to a city that has quite a few stack interchanges (San Antonio)

[@felipegomes9646]

Lane mathematics will always be satisfying

[@joecross8954]

I love it that the cars almost tip over 2:04

[@corysmith9975]

I think it's so awesome how he can be so playful but still know what he's talking about in his field and be able to carefully replicate it in the game. Master of many skills sir!

[@sigispider]

As an American truck driver, I have opinions that I feel matter. The clover leaf is a standard and a classic. I really like the stacked one as long as there's good signage and lane indicators. The diamond ones seem to work really well, but Americans aren't used to them. They've popped up in the last few years and people seem a little confused in them. As far as round abouts go, I have two middle fingers for anyone who thinks they're a good idea. As far as the turbine goes, I'd be game to try it.

[@hello_its_em]

Not the magic roundabout that's a nightmare! We've been in UK (plus in my country we drive on the right side) and we have been literally stucked here for like ten minutes, we even went the wrong direction one time and we couldn't find our way out. IT WAS HORRIBLE.

[@jdlech]

I achieve my best traffic flow by elevating all highways and spacing them apart so I can lay a standard two way road in the middle. I give just a little more than 4 squares of space between the edges of each highway and the medium sized service road. This usually allows for upgrading to a large or downgrading to a small service road. Then I add on and off ramps at junctions, so I end up with an 8 way junction. Two roads cross in the middle with on and off ramps. it should look very symmetrical. That one node turns an angry red, but turn the traffic light off and it handles an extraordinary amount of traffic. You can ease traffic by adding on and off ramps on the outside of the highways so traffic doesn't have to go through that one busy junction. Overall, it works very well for its simplicity.

[@MattJDylan]

Maaan, I like these real life-based videos a lot! Almost makes me want to try engineering school again... almost... 😂 Anyway, you can't tell me that driving on the right is wrong... it's quite literally in the definition being right...

[@AUSPetrol]

8:09 at the moment he talks about merges and diverges, a little pink car perfectly cuts off a truck 😂

[@Gavchung]

It's like watching Matt play Freeways again, but in 3D! 😄

[@wtpauley]

Washington state built it's first divergent diamond a couple of years ago as a "test". We now have two more planned and being built at key traffic congestion spots. It's cool to see it in action here.

[@asawauicikiwir9513]

15:07 can't stop laughing, "i love that people already using this just to turn around"

[@MrSacheverell]

Came for the efficient Cities Skylines tricks, stayed to learn more about actual highway engineering principles :D

[@crm247]

There is a diverging diamond in Utah (USA) with traffic lights and almost everyone who drives it hates it. It is on Bangerter Highway on the way to the airport and it slows down traffic so damn much and they need a better interchange for it.

[@BennyLlama39]

Matt: "If we compare that to Swindon'd Magic Roundabout..." Me: F@^kin' *hell!* You'd have to be off your trolley to even consider driving around that thing.

[@grozaphy]

my top 2 favourite series: poly bridge and citiea:skyline

[@tankhistoryfordummies]

A good way to handle traffic for a really busy interchange is to add side lanes to the more trafficked highway. What I meant was to have an exit on the really busy highway and have 2 new lanes on the sides exit off but stay parallel to the main lanes, then have only the 2 extra lanes access to exits to get to another highway, this solves the cloverleaf issue for the main lanes as the extra 2 lanes only merge in about 1 km from the middle of the interchange. Best for 8 lane freeways.

[@tehgerbil]

This is brilliant content actually. Gives me ideas for improving my city.

[@kratix0469]

I really enjoyed the freeways series, love seeing something similar again

[@CrxzyYT]

using a mix of 1-3 lane highway roads and TMPE you can setup proper lane math for the interchange. If you use intersection marking tool, you can customize the look of your interchanges and junctions. Lane math will help your traffic a lot. --------------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------- - - - - - - - / / -------------- idk how well this shows but a 2 lane highway turns into a 3 lane highway to give merging traffic their own lane. then with diverging traffic, 3 lane turns into 2 lane and 1 lane is a dedicated turning lane so 1 lane only leads off.

[@stephanienoire1892]

Those interchanges where one lane is a merge lane for cars joining the highway BEFORE becomming an exit lane for cars exiting the highway... There's multiple of those in my city! They drive me crazy!

[@captain_-tj1ww]

It's been a while engitopia!

[@Faravid829]

Can confirm that we have a bunch of clover leafs here in Iowa. They suck the Dot is slowly replacing them. I believe they just finished the I-380/I-80 interchange with either a turbine or a modified version of a stack junction.

[@manuni88]

To smooth traffic on the stacked junction, reduce the number of lanes for the thru traffic highways between the exits and entry. Great video!

[@Makro3d]

This is one of my favourite videos ever on this channel. Although as a traffic engineer, I may be slightly biased.

[@numberyellow]

In the U.S. that section you highlighted in red is a dedicated "lane" for entering, and exiting the highway.... or at least it is, on the big interstate highways. i'd also like to note that i am absolutely gutted that you deleted that beautiful interchange. it was so perfect.

[@rachelcookie321]

I was way too excited to see that RCE did a video on motorway interchanges. Probably the most excited I’ve been to watch a KZbin video in weeks. This is exactly the content I wanted.

[@VivaMattiee]

In answer to the smooth gradient for roads, yes I saw that confirmed and mentioned in a dev diary for Cities II

[@CMPac1737]

2:23 exactly what happens every day in my town with the exception that I have a highway, another big road to link it to the industrial area and a road under it where everyone goes when they go home. So basically you cannot move

[@laubeltman7110]

My building engineer father says thank you for finally getting me interested in building stuff :D I love your simple explanations, I’m finally starting to understand why things are the way they are

[@moredac2881]

I love it when you teach a little about civil engineering in your videos. Super fun!

[@Ninjakiw1]

"It did stop in time" he said calmly as the garbage truck ploved through 2 cars

[@NiceNoob01]

Engitopia: A place for creativity & *_RealCivilEngineers_* - a place, made for fun and the community. 🗿

[@bcorlis1]

The problem Matt describes with cars merging onto the highway directly into the exit lane with no on ramp is exactly how every exit on I-H1 in Honolulu is built.

[@AH-64EApacheGuardianHelicopter]

This is the only teacher i would listen to in engineer school :)

[@BabLuPlays1]

bro you made custom round while you can use pre made round about and delete half xD your videos always fun to watch

[@engineeringismyblood5212]

AAAHH I waited for such a video so long 😍 educative but still funny

[@user-ul1yj8fk3d]

One day this city will be bigger that New York and los Vegas combined

[@captainsnekk]

He really made the middle roundabout left hand drive😂

[@Riann_Reaper17]

My city just finished a diamond diverge in one of our busier places off the interstate. They posted the diverge on the floor of the mall so people could understand it. It does have stop lights.

[@casuallysophie6212]

I grew up near that magic roundabout in swindon, my driving instructor directed me to cross it on like my second ever lesson, can confirm it felt as confusing as it looks from that aerial photo haha

[@grodsney]

I've missed RCE doing highway engineering so much. Just need someone in my life to explain merges and diverges.

[@rob_i208]

The stacked junction and diverging diamond work well because it's pulling traffic off of the left hand side of the road. Not something typically done with right hand driving unless it's necessary due to the topography. However unless there are exits on the left hand side of the road the AI in Cities Skylines doesn't see much of a purpose for that lane. At the end you see it's all right hand exits to the Pokeball, so the traffic is just sticking to the right hand lane as that's the lane they need to be in to get to their destination. Also, everybody drives on the highway at the same speed anyway so again, there's not much purpose for them to be in the left lane.

[@LostInTimePod]

You only KZbinr I know that can keep me entertained with talking about highways

[@marconiandcheese7258]

Thank you for explaining divergent diamond! I was in a meeting at work and one was mentioned!

[@Foggeer-von-Dreitveld]

I really like the look of that turbine. Turbine goes BRRrrr! I prefer to make stacked interchanges in game, because in the game they are quite cheap to make and really efficient. However, seeing how cool this looks, I might make a turbine in the future.

[@andreassjoberg3145]

It seems to me that the easiest way is to make right-turns on ground, then take left turns off on the left side, and up to a roundabout then out where you need to go, including u-turns. Also making the merging traffic have it's own lanes to not have slowdowns. if it is a 3 or 4 lane highway can be decided by how much of traffic goes straight ahead.

[@joejoeington6899]

This is the most almost educational KZbin channel

[@red.panda8659]

This man is giving the creators of city skylines (2) the best ideas that everyone wants

[@ajsharerbcc]

RCE! I'm from Springfield Missouri where we had the first Diverging Diamond interchange in the US!

[@chloeparkinson6615]

Feel like I need to see him replicate Haydock island and give an honest review because it’s the most stressful place I drive😭😭

[@ethantreece8245]

RCE, that term for a circle that is parallel with a secondary circles edge, I think I know the term for it. And my introduction to solidworks class, we learned about a term called concentric. One circle is locked to the center of another circle, so their edges their parallel. Sounds like that is the term you wanted. Concentric.

[@Donnerwamp]

One thing that will improve all of the junktions you made is "lane mathematics", Biffa made a great video about it.

[@felixcaskey4193]

I love how he said that right-hand drive is wrong, and showed a google search saying that most of mainland Europe uses right-hand drive. Things are done differently in other places mate.

[@MrSnowMen]

MX Road needs a small fortune, Would be nice to see Good Luck

[@fredashay]

6EQUJ5! Even though that "diverging diamond" was meant as a joke, I think that's brilliant! I'm gonna build one in my next city!

[@just_some_blocks]

Saw this in the wild, its where theres an urban road crossing with a frontage road on a bridge above the hwy and theres like a roundabout on either end except it doesnt go full circle. Looks like a dumbbell on google maps

[@tsvshsbsjbs2745]

As a swindoner, I am so happy to see magic roundabout appreciation on my favourite channel