Traffic Lights DECIMATE Traffic in Cities Skylines. - Intersection and Interchange Light Setups

[@YUMBL]

Thank you for the tips everyone, but not allowing traffic to turn right to merge with through traffic was intentional. In the US we have “right on red” in that situation. Right turns are allowed on red as if it were a stop sign. I also wanted to leave the possibility of reallocating a left to a straight on a whim using lane arrows. Keeps it flexible ;)

[@dynamite2776]

I think there is an option in traffic manager to allow “right on red”

[@David_Granger]

Right on red is also a thing here, at least this German city.

[@golemofiron7250]

What about Xbox edition cuz I’m too poor to get computer/laptop

[@tls5870]

Will the game allow right turns yield on red?

[@YUMBL]

Yes! I the traffic manager settings. This situation really doesnt require it.

[@kokololipop2206]

Feels like yumbl and Biffa is having a traffic flow "dance" battle. Love it. Keep up the good content

[@YUMBL]

Thank you!

[@CVinhas]

waiting for next the round

[@brunoglopes]

And Yumbl is winning handsomely!

[@mrxmry3264]

@@brunoglopes yes he is. biffa tried a GINORMOUS roundabout, and it didn't work anywhere near as well as biffa expected.

[@00negative]

It's kind of like YUMBL is [insert professional dancer you like here] and Biffa is, well Biffa.

[@ColinTheMC]

Quick tip for anyone: If you’re lazy like me, you can use TMPE’s default light cycles on the SPUI, just delete one of the off ramp turning cycles and add it to the other one. SPUI has become my go to since watching your video on it.

[@YUMBL]

Its really great. And space efficient!

[@japes7]

I also learnt SPUI from you! And now can build it without referencing one. I love how they flow, and I feel like you can scale them up. I have less lanes overall for less traffic but you can add two lefts, and also more straight thru when needed

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

People complain about the traffic light requirement but it's a red herring. There aren't many configurations that shove as much traffic through the same footprint.

[@hfbdbsijenbd]

Thank you for doing these. I thought I was losing my mind because roundabouts kept being pushed as the end-all of traffic management when that wasn't my experience in the game at all. If I find myself wanting to place a roundabout, I'm always better off putting in the actual effort to do timed lights, separate out a lane or two, or do some sort of interchange.

[@YUMBL]

Glad to do it! People need to know

[@sebione3576]

Shhhh Biffa will hear you 😳

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

I think it's because they're a good option in vanilla due to lack of lane management and signaling options in the base game.

[@PColumbus73]

I don't like using roundabouts in most situations because they consume a lot of land, and I don't want to bulldoze a well developed city center for a roundabout.

[@achillesa5894]

A tiny little thing on the four way light: if you turn off right turns during the straight phases (and only allow them during turn phases), you can have pedestrian green lights parallel to the straight lanes. Now, I know you can technically do both at the same time with little penalty in this game, but I like my pedestrian traffic to look realistic. Also, the right turns can work during both turn phases so even though it's only one lane it gets double time compared to the others so it all evens out. Love the interchanges by the way! And thank you for spreading the greatness of the traffic light!

[@lukasmax6984]

What happens if you have straight, right and pedestrians green at the same time like in real life?

[@droe2570]

@@lukasmax6984 Blood on the highway.

[@PunkVoter]

True but I think his approach is the typical 'American' setup: cars yay, peds nay

[@YUMBL]

@Punk Voter we get to cross here too.

[@mimikal7548]

@@lukasmax6984 This is how the majority of traffic lights on medium size intersections are set up in Poland. It's kinda annoying - pedestrians have priority so a green arrow doesn't actually mean that it's safe to turn.

[@LeeHawkinsPhoto]

Great parclo configuration! I like that it's simple, and timed to be continuous flow. One thought on the SPUI though...and this may be more of a limitation of what's achievable in Cities: Skylines, because I definitely have issues with SPUI intersections not working 100% correctly...but one major advantage of a SPUI is that it's able to be slimmed down to take up less space than even the smallest diamond interchanges, yet still handle a TON of traffic as you demonstrated. Sadly, it seems that SPUI intersections I've built end up leaking traffic through on red lights, which is obviously not realistic. I'm curious if you've experienced the same "leaking" problem I have and what you've done to solve it...or if making the interchange take up more real estate is the solution. Also, I love when someone demonstrates that the simple old-fashioned solutions are often the really awesome solutions like you did with the parclo. Thanks for keeping it real(istic)!

[@YUMBL]

Yes!!! Short segments (close nodes) break the light. I bet you had a small segment immediately before the light. Watch for it ;)

[@LeeHawkinsPhoto]

@@YUMBL how long do you suggest?

[@YUMBL]

I’m not sure. If there is a mid ramp node that can be removed then remove it!

[@Spido68_the_spectator]

Short segments also break give way signs too

[@hawthornhobbit]

two of my favorite CS folks chatting about traffic. Please think about doing something together. THAT would be awesome.

[@CJLloyd]

Thanks for all this tutorials, YUMBL! They're really informative and enjoyable. On another note, would you agree with this statement?: IRL, roundabouts are actually supposed to make everyone slow down and improve safety, not necessarily to handle large volumes of traffic. Since CS doesn't care about safety, the primary advantage of the roundabout doesn't translate into the game, and thus other solutions were always going to be better. Figuring out that roundabouts are not so good at handling large volumes of traffic is really just finding out that you've been trying to use them to solve a problem they were never meant to solve.

[@YUMBL]

I would agree with that, yes. The average cities skylines player seems to overestimate their potential.

[@poruatokin]

Yeah, well said. If you took into account how often this light crossing would be closed IRL by fatal accidents, then yes, the roundabout would still reign supreme.

[@Anti_Woke]

"Like" button is not enough - I have to tell you I'm really enjoying your Skylines content. Thanks and Merry Christmas.

[@YUMBL]

Merry Christmas!

[@VestedUTuber]

Regarding dedicated turn lanes, I'd actually say it's more important. I've had default lights that were fixed simply by setting up dedicated lanes.

[@YUMBL]

Agreed! People focus on the timings, but getting traffic stacked properly is the real trick

[@lukasmax6984]

First make sure you have turn lanes. If that isn't enough, set up traffic light to have separate cycle for left turns. The timing is least important but it can make a difference too. You can make use of turn lanes even without traffic lights!

[@DustinBKerensky97]

I think if you're playing vanilla CS the roundabouts dominate because the default traffic AI is kind of dumb; this is where the cult like dedication to the roundabout comes from. But as soon as you introduce TPE and timed lights the balance switches back to normal intersections; add in asymmetrical roads with "Lane Mathematics" and it's no contest that intersections rule. So people aren't wrong in their dedication to the roundabout, but they need to download the TPE mod and get more realistic roads, traffic, and AI. Then you can get roundabout (or better) traffic flow in a tiny intersection footprint. Also is it just me or should Cities Skylines change it's name to "Traffic Simulator"? That's really what this game is.

[@YUMBL]

I think you’re right. I’m glad to show them what can be done though :)

[@MadocComadrin]

I disagree. Roundabouts in vanilla (if they're even done right) are usually just used as band-aids for bigger problems: poor road hierarchy and "lane math" (which are the same problems that also result in vanilla cars not using every lane). Fix those two issues, and you can get away with lights and vanilla stop signs/priority roads.

[@ashlyy1341]

the UK just loves roundabouts. they work great for lower density service interchanges (think dumbell) and servicing local areas and feeding local/collectors when set up properly. they're not suited to high density at all (as is proven by having to introduce lights to roundabouts, particularly in many high density service interchanges like off the M1, which is an awful bandaid solution)

[@Jame5man]

10:56 I see you are a man of culture as well. The PARCLO is a wonderful interchange. I use it all the time

[@BruceRichardsonMusic]

This is high value content, and thank you for taking the time to demo the light setups in detail. Should City Skylines ever implement "wrecks" into the traffic AI, I think a lot more assumptions about high-velocity roundabouts would be quickly exploded. They're just not meant for that. People complain the AI actually works against flow, but not to the degree that a realistic wreck aftermath would. Those 60 mph three-lane roundabouts would be wreck city.

[@YUMBL]

Much appreciated :)

[@Trashman_worx]

One problem I see for this map for testing is that it only has vehicle traffic. I found that traffic lights have added problems when pedestrian traffic is added. Any way to add that to the example?

[@YUMBL]

Id have to build a bit of a city on the test map. Something simple so others can do it too

[@niklasrudde7124]

It's a love / hate relationship with those little sims. On the one hand every pedestrian more means less cars on the road, which is good. But On the other hand each pedestrian more on the sidewalks starts to block the remaining cars on the roads at every intersection, which leads to increasing Traffic jams. :D

[@good4nothing887]

When i set up traffic lights i give the pedestrian there onw 1 second walk phase followed by a 1-3 seconds (depends on the road) red phase for all

[@adam6806]

I just make pedestrian bridges over the road. Nothing wrong with a little pedestrian roundabout in the sky above a traffic light intersection lol. Looks cool imo as well.

[@Trashman_worx]

@@YUMBL It would take the challenge of the best intersection to the next level.

[@caseycornett5182]

Thanks for the ParCLO. I have been using it in many different ways. You mention lane math and I think with lane connectors and such the right hand turns can go with the straight through traffic. It can cause weaving issues on the bridge though if traffic is using the interchange to switch to the opposite direction on the freeway.(which for whatever reason seems to happen frequently in this game) Great video love your content both on youtube and your steam assets.

[@YUMBL]

Thanks a lot! :)

[@randallcromer66]

As always some of the best information and insights on Cities Skylines that can be found anywhere. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us because it really does help make the game more enjoyable.

[@YUMBL]

I’m glad to help! :)

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

A note on lane management: options after the intersection are also very important. If a large proportion of the traffic is using the same lane at the next intersection, it might stack up in the same lane with the other empty at the current intersection. There are band-aids, like the suggested manipulation of speed limits, but the ultimate solution is to improve flow at the subsequent intersection(s). Lane connectors often don't help as much as one might think as they tend to introduce conflicts at subsequent nodes. It's like pushing the lump of dirt around under the rug.

[@YUMBL]

I generally use lane arrows instead of lane connectors. It can also help to run the two or three lights as a junction

[@ItsIdaho]

I found a small trick I love to use in high density crossroads. I use 5 "second" long light periods, right turn always green and each of the periods has everyone going straight (both directions so twice) and then everyone just turning left (here I can alternate if the straight traffic volume is smaller and turn on both the left and straights. It works miracles in my 200k population town. Edit: I call them "5 Second bursts". Eventually if there is a period where longer no traffic passes through. I often just remove a straight/turn only and merge them into single straight+turn. Or I can change the higher traffic Volume periods to 10 or 15 seconds. Eventually as the city progresses it will turn into multi light intersections, where the "straight through"(often off the highway directly into the city) will get the longedt phases. I hate roundabouts. Unless you use the bypass road that goes straight over (it's a mod, forgot the name but you have a 6 lane road where the middle 2 lanes go up and over the roundabout in the middle and the 4 lanes turn into the roundabout. That works fine aswell. But a pain to set up.)

[@sandyf4931]

Tell me I'm not the only one who finds the SPUI timelapse being kinda in sync with the music so satisfying!

[@samsawesomeminecraft]

can this me edited to be safe for pedestrians?

[@CrabbyGameGuy]

Love these videos. Keep them coming. You might want to mention how to handle pedestrian traffic on intersections. I've had CIM AI screw up even the most ingenious traffic light configurations.

[@scottanderson8167]

The benefit of a roundabout is that you can slap the same one on every major intersection and know that they’re all going to do the job adequately. Fine-tuning light cycles takes more time and effort. I use both kinds of intersections.

[@YUMBL]

Use both is the right answer imo as well.

[@kris.monroe]

These video are so good and easily digestible! Thanks fo making them! It'd be awesome to see this comparing only pure/true vanilla intersections, roundabouts, etc- for those who don't play with any mods whatsoever! Even if it time-lapsed, seeing them in the same situation would be cool.

[@YUMBL]

The vanilla light is so bad though

[@gnexjeff]

As always, a great walkthrough video. For certain lower traffic density standard 4-way intersections with protected left turn lanes/lights, I leave the left turn light green while the straight/through path lights turn green. This makes the left turn lanes "yield on green" which still gives priority to through traffic but allows left turns to continue when there are breaks in the through traffic.

[@YUMBL]

That can work! It makes a two phase light as long as left turning traffic is low density.

[@frans97]

I see new video, I watch. I see SPUI, I like. I see PSUI with proper lane mathematics, road markings, and well-managed traffic manager stop lights, I LOVE!!!

[@haroldramislives]

Thanks Yumbl. You always make something that looks complicated easy. Happy new year btw.

[@RustyWalker]

Intersection1 - optional step 5 in heavy pedestrian areas - switch all crosswalks to "manual" and green together in their own phase and red in all other phases.

[@YUMBL]

Excellent idea!

[@adam6806]

That's a neat idea!!! :D

[@Robbedem]

or remove the right turn when through traffic is allowed. Then you have safe passage for the pedestrians in the same direction. This makes it a 4 phase light instead of 5 phases.

[@RustyWalker]

@@Robbedem Having pedestrian only crossing phases has been shown to be safer IRL. The game doesn't care about that, of course.

[@YUMBL]

I wish a “scramble” was possible in CS

[@sjguy1962]

@YUMBLtv I have to say that since watching your videos I have found new enjoyment in playing Skylines I started a new city build after watching about 12 of your videos and have really been able to beautify and improve the traffic in the build. Thank you for the detail and great ideas you present on your channel, well done. Can you do something on death and power outage waves and the industries being built, Again love what you do, thank you!

[@vambranzukizumofu223]

Question: How does this fair IF there were civilians crossing? will you add another phase in the lights? And would you use this set up of lights for smaller volume or a different set up in the case of having civilians without pedestrian overpass so in the ParClo, if the middle road has 6 lanes, I can permanently make all traffic from the highway always come in? Why did you not choose 6 lanes? This is so interesting sorry for the long post... truly a person who has no idea about traffic and what not. I just want to try it to in the game :) I'm adding SPUI and ParClo to my City now I hope I use them right.

[@nickbroekhuizen8858]

Two thumbs up. please come to South Africa and help them with their timing of traffic lights ... they are totally not synchronized... an excellent tutorial ... 👍👍

[@DokisKalin1]

What about pedestrians? I like to add a final step so all pedestrians can cross...Is that a good way? thanks 👍

[@shaneintheuk2026]

I love the relaxed presentation style. It makes me want to listen. The simulation can’t cope with 5-3 roads on a roundabout without massive customisation using TMPE. This means traffic lights are a much better option in the game. Maybe it will be fixed in CSL2. After my tests I decided to use lights instead of my usual roundabouts. I found I didn’t manage road hierarchy as well and I’m struggling at 30k population. It’s interesting that my failings make lights less effective and I think it’s because roundabouts are harder to build so I plan a bit more.

[@YUMBL]

Someday I want to make a city that is one traffic light junction controlling all major intersections. Working together to move the whole city

[@balazskuglicz614]

You also need tm:pe for the traffic lights to work efficient, most roundabouts work fine with just yield signs.. most of the time both solution fail because the city’s structure, so you need to give more connections and routes, so your residents have more options to chose from

[@everythingiswonderful.ever8651]

YUMBL, I watched a stream of yours from a month ago where someone was arguing with you. You were explaining why communication skills matter in order to properly persuade others, using Not Just Bikes as an example of the opposite. I wanted to say that you did a great job explaining your standpoint, and I completely agree with you in that obviously the "burden of proof (persuasion)" is on the accuser/claimant. The premise of the opposing argument is the equivalent of closing your eyes while driving - that it is the responsibility of everyone else to not collide with you. Obviously ridiculous. Keep up the great work!

[@eXcalibre_]

I’ll pay for a mod that allows for small slip lanes (for right turns) to be added to any intersection. Maybe someone could make it take up a 1x1 tile on the corners of intersections without adding any extra nodes right next to the existing intersection node. That would be awesome!

[@oneclumsysnep]

YUMBL, I think it's time for you create your magnum opus, your greatest work, the pinnacle of your career. Today is the premiere hour to tackle the final challenge in interchange design, the culmination of all urban planning throughout history, the last interchange any city will ever need: the Diverging Single-Point Urban Partial Cloverleaf. I look forward to this fantastic breakthrough in interchange design soon.

[@YUMBL]

An excellent idea! 😂

[@knightriderlv]

Thanks for this video. This has helped me understand how to use the time traffic lights. You mentioned we have right turns on red in the US. How do we implement this in cities skyline? Please keep these videos coming, I enjoy them. Merry Christmas

[@YUMBL]

Thanks! There is a setting in traffic manager to turn on right on red. Merry Christmas :)

[@catman64k]

on your SPUI setup i would setup the light differntly. i would have setup the left turning lanes from the highway as phase 1 then both left turners and straight from one side of the service road to green as phase 2 then both left turners and straight from the opposite of the service road to green. traffic wise it shouldn't make much difference if you have equal traffic to all direction, on asymetric traffic it really depends where traffic wanna go, which one of those setups is better. But that partial cloverleaf setup is just genious :)

[@YUMBL]

Thanks! Everything is case by case, and yes the order of the phases can change. I’m unsure of the benefit either way though.

[@CardboardArm]

Will YUMBL make the CS fandom abandon their love for the roundabout in favor of the timed traffic light? Time will tell.

[@YUMBL]

No, but hopefully we can all have reasonable expectations of when to use them.

[@japes7]

Love SPUI, but now I need to run to the workshop to get me a pre-built ParClo

[@YUMBL]

Linked in description ;)

[@japes7]

@@YUMBL oh crap, for real? Should've checked. The one's I saw were all kinda bad-looking. Thanks!

[@_jiba_]

Simply love the extremely clear and crisp explanations!

[@jerome718]

Really useful guide. The only thing I would change is on the first setup, have the throughs go right after the lefts to be more in line with driver expectancy (at least in the US). Really hoping to give the two stage signals a try soon.

[@therealfiamd8750]

The Clash of the Titans continue!!!!! \o/

[@krisculin9679]

I LOVE the partial cloverleaf you posted on the workshop. I actually made a few minor modifications to it (local only) and I use it in nearly every city I build now. The traffic management for it is absolutely amazing. I use a 6-lane overpass instead of the split 3+2 on each end and use TM:PE to setup the lane assignments. On occasion there might be a slight pause for left-turning traffic but it does not happen very often. I also setup a pedestrian bridge so that the crosswalks don't interfere with the traffic. This was a great video. I've tried both regular and timed traffic lights at major 4-way intersections, but they tend to clog up and cause my traffic flow % to go down dramatically. Just turning off all traffic lights seems to keep my traffic float in the mid to high 80's (averaging 85-88%). I've tried using the 3+2 asymetrical roads but even using those it still causes backups. I guess I could try a 4+3 or 4+2 and see if that works better (with 2 straight-on lanes). I'll have to play around with the configuration and see what really works best, I suppose.

[@alandab]

Dude, you rock!!! Thx for this tutorial.

[@madzap]

The other item I've found that really helps traffic lights is to turn on the "allow vehicles to enter intersection" button at the junction. I've notices it really helps clear the traffic a bit faster and the vehicles do honour the traffic lights when the change to red, they just ignore the yellow phase more, like real traffic does... ;-)

[@YUMBL]

Yellow? You mean the “speed up” light? 😆

[@adrianb3869]

based upon YUMBL's recent videos I decided to start a NO-roundabout city just for fun, although will add a larger roundabout if it adds a particularly aesthetic quality to an area. I was a bit tired of seeing roundabouts everywhere in my cities

[@YUMBL]

Enjoy branching out! :)

[@adrianb3869]

@@YUMBL pun intended? :)

[@Sk00byDoo]

I feel like probably the reason that roundabouts are such a meta intersection in CS is not that they're objectively the best, but that they work about as well no matter the context they are placed in, whereas traffic lights need traffic to be waiting at the intersection when the light turns green and because of this requirement, there can be some really destructive interference in an area with multiple intersections that aren't sync-ing up perfectly right. E.G. light 1 turns green, and just as traffic arrives at the next intersection the light turns red. In the exact worse case, traffic waits an *entire light cycle* at *every intersection it comes across*. This case of course cannot happen everywhere, but if you've just got a giant grid of all traffic lights, it or something close to it will be happening somewhere all the time. You might say the answer is to just set up some magic combo timed light intersection deal, but even figuring out what the optimal intersection configuration for your city looks like *at this moment* is hard, and then consider the fact that adding a district anywhere on your map might change the dominant flow across potentially every timed light intersection you've optimized; and even optimized lights generally can't optimize to help traffic move in every direction across the city--e.g. you can help sync lights to promote a smooth flow east to west, but that will annihilate the rhythm of the reverse flow. You could alternate the optimization of alternating streets in a grid pattern, but then CS traffic AI doesn't know that it's travelling on a road optimized for the opposite direction. At the end of all this, you're pretty much left either getting potentially very reduced traffic light performance, fiddling light timings forever, or just going roundabouts. The other (probably best) option, is to understand the combinations of circumstances that create those suboptimal light situations (I know close intersections are one of the worst) and make sure your traffic light intersections are at least somewhat optimally situated. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[@Selrahcnedder]

I think one of the big reasons roundabouts are so common is that most roundabouts people use only use 1 lane for each direction. For example a turbo roundabout is one lane for straight, one for right, and one for left. Without getting lanes and layout balanced the AI would still only use one lane at a traffic light and lose the benefits of the extra lanes. Traffic lights have the benefit that doubling lanes doubles throughput where as doubling lanes in a round about doesn't because you just increase the amount of weaving traffic without an inlet light.

[@YUMBL]

Yea. Roundabouts are easy and once a player learns how they work they generally stop looking for other answers. Leaning on other arguments to avoid learning other options.

[@Mythriak_]

Yumbl's Traffic Lights vs. Biffa's roundabouts: The epic battle!!!

[@Mythriak_]

Have to say, so far, Yumbl is winning.

[@alandab]

I can hear the cries and screams of the Biffa MOB right now!

[@YUMBL]

“Just because a roundabout can’t do it doesn’t mean you need an interchange” -Me

[@Aethid]

Traffic lights scale to many lanes, whereas roundabouts don’t. In the real world, roundabouts are much better than traffic lights for roads with one or two lanes in each direction (which is almost all roads outside of North America), or when there are other close intersections (as continuous flow impacts nearby roads less than lights do). Yumbl’s videos don’t test either of these cases though. The biggest advantage for roundabouts irl is their safety, which Cities Skylines does not account for at all.

[@YUMBL]

@Aethid I suppose it has less to do with lanes and more to do with volume of traffic. You’re describing a low volume situation where a roundabout would work.

[@whoawhoawhatsthis]

I really like the look of the SPUI, but my issue is with the drivers not always stopping for some of the red lights and it seems like it's not all of them (as in some stop, but others don't).

[@whoawhoawhatsthis]

I slapped a Turbo roundabout on there in it's place and cranked the toll booth fees to max😀...then proceeded to raise the tax for everyone, coz I was mad. How dare they disobey my traffic lights! Those were really expensive to set up.

[@YUMBL]

Look for short segments and fix them. If nodes are too close together traffic lights and yields stop working

[@Ian-uu7st]

5+3 asy traffic lights > any kind of roundabout

[@YUMBL]

In terms of flow absolutely!

[@LealMafor]

Wow!! great video! thanks

[@YUMBL]

Thanks! Love your work on ig ;)

[@LealMafor]

@@YUMBL thanks 😁

[@theone-eyedcat2641]

Roundabouts are very useful for placing crappy decorations, you don't take it into account! Joke aside, I've been working on synchronized traffic lights and found that they become very complicated when you take care of the pedestrian crossings. If you don't want cars going through a pedestrian crossing that is green, or if you don't want pedestrians starting late blocking the cars that just started you need a tons of steps. Also the buffers Akruas recommend in his tutorial can be very helpful. All in all it's a lot of work but that's very rewarding. I suggest a challenge: synchronizing the lights of a very crowded avenue with big crossings so a car can drive it all the way up or down not encountering one red light and pedestrians can cross safely everywhere. Accept it or not but you shall accept my best wishes for the new year!

[@alexmason2595]

Sometimes roundabout are the easiest things for vanilla players if you think about it, not everyone has the privilege of mods.

[@YUMBL]

Very true, but even those that can expand their games continue to rely on them almost exclusively. I think its a lack of knowledge surrounding lights. Hence: this video.

[@alexmason2595]

@@YUMBL fair

[@HackerReportBFH]

Instead of doing the speed limit change to get traffic to choose lanes equally, sometimes it can work to prohibit certain vehicles from a lane. For instance, if a lane has lots of trucks, prohibit cars in that lane. It's not realistic, but neither is having one lane 60mph and the lane next to it 55. The main problem with lane prohibition, it can cause problems with turns close after the intersection, but it also works in many other scenarios. Also, in TPME, there is an option to have trucks prefer outside lane, but I don't have much experience using this.

[@HornetsNestRebel]

I love using timed traffic lights. They save so much space. Something I like doing is making a six-lane arterial function more like an expressway with ramps and a few traffic lights when needed. The third lane gets used as a right-in/right-out auxilliary lane. It's fun to get creative with no-left-turn signs and right-turn-only signs. This "expressway" style arterial saves a lot of space over divided highways.

[@lifeoftheparty2121]

i love that the biggest war in the CS community is some very polite gentlemen showing and teaching eachother the pros and cons of different traffic setups politely

[@seankrake4776]

I really enjoyed this video. I thought traffic lights were awful, but seeing that parclo spread traffic to two lights that function as one is brilliant. I will be using timed lights in my cities from now on

[@VAN17INO6]

THANK YOU

[@NottsKnots]

Hi Yumble, On the first set of traffic lights you show in the video, if you used lane connectors to do it, you could have had all 4 right turns constantly on green because you had enough lanes on the road leaving the intersection to allow a conflict free flow. (2 +1 in > 3 out.) One thing I'd love to see from You/Biffa in your little 'roundabout spat' so to speak, would be to talk/show some junction size-concious designs with as high flow as possible in them. Both of you have talked about how roundabouts and not suitable for some things, but how about trying to make the smallist roundabout possible with the most features for conflict free flow included in it. People would love to see what either of you could come up with in terms of this, as I think it's something that would be very appealing for people to use in their existing cities to help with their traffic problems.

[@YUMBL]

I know, but thats not generally how they work irl. It becomes a yield in the US (right on red) not a green

[@reverse_engineered]

Here in Saskatoon many intersections will have short slip lanes for this purpose, bypassing the light. They will typically merge with the oncoming right lane, but on higher speed intersections they will have a dedicated lane that merges further a few hundred metres down. We almost exclusively use symmetrical lanes, except near the intersection, where additional lanes will be added for dedicated left and right turns. This saves space on the main roadways while allowing the benefits of asymmetrical lanes at the intersections. I'm not sure how Cities Skylines handles the scheduling of traffic in those cases, though.

[@ayou2470]

Thank you Yumbl! When I'm working on time traffic lights I'm usually so flustered. You're so calm. Thanks again.

[@DynamicHobbiesYt]

Hi, do you have any ideas on any W2W building, I’ve been looking to build a rustbelt town, thanks

[@AB-sg3wi]

Huge video for me. Now i can setup proper lights instead of just guessing!

[@MarkFitzgibbon]

I await Biffa's response to this...

[@CharlieKiloSierra8893]

Hi Yumbltv Thank you for creating this video tutorial I really appreciate your knowledge on this game.. Btw I have some concern related to timed traffic I used your Custom Single Point Interchange and follow the steps on how to setup the timed traffic but unfortunately the cars coming from west part arterial even the traffic signal is green some car will stop after 2 to 4 car pass. Sims in car also using just 1 lane to go left turn in interchange I already setup the TM:PE points. I'm couldn't find what is the problem maybe you can help or give some advice.. Thank you :)

[@WatchingTrainsGoBy-PassingTime]

Using "no one is driving" instead of "more waiting than driving" for really high volume roads is an important tool as well. One thing I've found that helps, is forcing certain traffic into particular lanes to help use both turning lanes when they don't do that naturally because of where they want to turn afterwards. I literally (obsessively lol) go around my entire city as a I build using lane arrows to create left only lanes in key places. And from 6 to 4 lanes sometimes they have 2 right turning lanes where it's not warranted. Its especially important with 6 lane roads or above. No joke, I do the entire city starting with the larger boulevards because the default traffic management of this game really isn't the greatest. TMPE is an essential tool. Lane arrows everywhere for traffic flow. Lane connectors for more controlled traffic management. And timed traffic lights for high volume areas like industrial and highway to boulevard connections. I can't even play this game without them.

[@madzap]

I was going to mention "no one is driving" but you got that. I've also used "when someone is waiting" in situations where I have garbage or other facilities on a side road. Set the time on the traffic light to min 5, and max 999, and if a vehicle comes up to the light then it will change, otherwise it's effectively always green.

[@YUMBL]

Very interesting. I need to learn applications for those settings

[@WatchingTrainsGoBy-PassingTime]

@@madzap that's a good application for that too, that I hadn't used yet. MAN, TMPE is so much more robust that it seems. I think it's the most powerful tool/mod that the workshop has given us and most of us only scratch it's surface.

[@josephaltman460]

Like in REAL LIFE! 👏

[@EgnachHelton]

I'm not sure if this is better than yours or not, but the most common traffic light scheme I know is the following: Phase 1, green lights for traffic and pedestrians going straight from North and South, lasting 1 unit period Phase 2, green lights for traffic turning left from North and South, lasting 1/3 time unit period Phase 3, green lights for traffic and pedestrians going straight from East and West, lasting 1 unit period Phase 4, green lights for traffic turning left from East and West, lasting 1/3 time unit period Right turn is always green but yields to pedestrians and straight through traffic.

[@kassarc16]

Is it possible to make optional phases? Specifically looking at empty left phases where no traffic turns but through traffic is forced to stop. Can TMPE actually work for a setup where the left turn phase is effectively skipped when there's no traffic waiting?

[@chrisgurney2467]

I wonder what a city built by Yumble and Biffa would look like? XD

[@AustinSauter]

I think if you had restricted the second left-turning lanes to the middle lane, the right turns would be free-flowing.

[@liesdamnlies3372]

Would like to see examples of how and when to use the other triggers for adaptive lights. The only one I use so far is if someone is waiting as a priority light for public transit (unfortunately that only works when the junction is _only_ with dedicated transit networks, not more complex situations; wish we had lane-wise adaptive lights too).

[@tonyc1956]

Yumbl strikes back! Take that Biffa ;) Seriously tho, good vid. I've used TMPE extensively and never played around with that sensitivity slider. Parclo's have been my goto for awhile as well but after watching your SPUI vid a couple weeks ago I'm up for building one, maybe in my next city if its warranted. Thx for all the vids Yumbl, they're presented very well.

[@YUMBL]

Thanks a lot! Have fun :)

[@brown1971]

Brilliant work!

[@lordraven2264]

On the first intersection... I used lane connectors and forced all of the turns into the 3 exit lanes. This allowed me to make all right turns a green for all 4 directions in each cycle. I was able to keep 83% traffic, which isn't too bad.

[@berenscott8999]

How about this, your ramps are on the outside of the freeway. This is in reality how freeways work because of your fast lane being a fast lane. But, in this game, you don't really have a fast lane, and most the time this lane isn't used because it's the furthest from any exit. As such most the time your outside lane is always full. What about exits from both the outside and the inside? So, the exit from the outside is your smooth turn with no traffic lights, and it just enters the other road. But, your inside goes to a traffic light in the middle. But, let's make that even more complicated, the road in the middle goes around the intersection such that the lights in the middle are exclusively the turn lanes.

[@bunna65]

Great video,and I always use your junction from workshop

[@alyx6427]

one of the things id definitely like to see is a roundabout with traffic lights, we have a lot of them in the UK (combined with spiral roundabouts) and if you did the lane connectors correctly you can make them very efficient (tho depends entirely on how much traffic flow)

[@rlenn6512]

Finally found it. How to correctly set up my PARCLO lights. Shoutout to Biffa for mentioning you a couple times, you both have improved my understanding of this game so much and I love your videos!

[@YUMBL]

Thanks a lot!

[@wm-nu1yf]

Thanks for this. I rarely use roundabouts anymore and just use the timed lights. Your ParClo and SPUI interchanges on the workshop have been my go-to interchanges since you posted them and I rarely have problems with them.

[@YUMBL]

I’m glad to hear it! :)

[@ytkevingamer]

I’m a spanish user and wished this video for a lot of time with those explains. Thank you.

[@YUMBL]

¡Gracias! Me alegra que te guste :)

[@Anti_Woke]

Feliz navidad

[@DeanShirley818]

My biggest issue is getting traffic to use multiple lanes. I can have 2 turn lanes, but traffic only ever uses one. Annoying.

[@pmman4232]

My problem is that the industrial zone itself gets backup which messes up the intersections, not the intersections themselves.

[@thenamelesspoet]

Out of curiosity, saying the top is North and bottom is south for this example (6:03 time stamp)... Why not let South turn Right when West is going straight? You have 3 total lanes, 2 going straight, and 1 going Right, all into 3 lanes. Is it because you want West to pick their lane when they go through? That changes obviously if yo do not have it set up the way you do 5/3 1 always going right 2 going straight

[@YUMBL]

Its just unrealistic. Right turning traffic could rely on “right on red” laws, but they wouldn’t get a green light

[@prophet_215]

I was trying to figure out for the longest now how to add lights for turn lanes, Thank you so much!!!

[@BeachLookingGuy]

🤙🤙

[@TerraBort]

This is the video I was waiting for! Beautiful.

[@boriscareaway5862]

Thank you so much for those explanations! I was(and still is) struggling with roundabouts, but I also failed to study how timed traffic lights work. Now I will try to do them more. Thank you!!

[@YUMBL]

Have fun!

[@PhattyMcdugen]

Nice.👍

[@ScottKorin]

I love this KZbin war Yumbl and Biffa have going on

[@peter_player]

muricans love trafic lights... treat me like i'm an android

[@dylanrawls3665]

the real problem is creating enough traffic to use a parClo in my city.

[@yeeeehaaawbuddy]

As always, wonderful explination and example. Thanks!

[@YUMBL]

Thank you :)

[@dozenlime]

I downloaded this interchange from steaworkshop. Should i set traffic lights manualy? Thank you

[@YUMBL]

You will have to as timed lights don’t come with workshop assets.

[@ScottKorin]

wow ok that's weird. I asked a question about the walk signals, yumbl replied, and then my original comment disappeared. I think because I tried to edit while my VPN was on. Anyway, to repeat, for the first intersection I assume you would want to add a step in the cycle for crossing pedestrian traffic in a scenario where the intersection is within a a walking area like downtown? Especially since in that setup there is always traffic going through the crosswalks (either right/left or straight/right).

[@YUMBL]

I would do peds on the straight through cycles. Parallel ped crossings.

[@stuchly1]

Such a beautiful interchange!

[@PColumbus73]

There are a few different ways you could play with the signal timing. For major intersections, you could try running a lead-lag cycle on one or both of the cross-streets. With lead-lag, one side of the intersection has the left turn arrow "leading" with the thru traffic, then there is a period where the leading arrow ends and both thru directions proceed normally. Then, the oncoming traffic gets a green left arrow "lagging" at the end of the cycle. Setting up lead-lag can be a bit of a challenge because you are overlapping the turn signals with the thru signals. For intersections with a major arterial and a cross street with a lot of turning traffic, you can run your intersection as a split-phase. When the intersection is run as a split-phase, the main street runs normally, but each approach on the cross street gets a separate green light. (Example: You have a North-South Arterial Road and an East-West Minor Road, the North-South Road traffic proceeds through the intersection assuming no left arrows, then, when it's time for the Minor Road, the East approach gets a green light, and then the West approach, but the approaches will not get a green light at the same time.)

[@PColumbus73]

*Split-phase also works if your side street has a large volume of traffic from one direction and little traffic on the other side

[@s4098429]

I think it would be fair to compare this intersection to a vanilla 4+4 lane road intersection. Adding more lanes, of course, improves traffic. I would expect great results with a 8 lane road. It would be nice to know what is the optimal 6 lane road.

[@YUMBL]

I dont think there is a vanilla 4+4 road

[@timm1328]

i foresee a Yumble vs. Biffa throwdown.

[@KeinNiemand]

Why are dumb trafic lights on fixed timers better then the vanilla adaptive trafic lights that take waiting cars into account? Shoudn't adabtive trafic lights be better then simple timed ones?

[@YUMBL]

The vanilla lights are absolutely awful. A two cycle light for four directions is not a good idea.

[@Oyamada13]

Do you know if there is a mod that will copy the lane math and apply it to a different lane? I find if you kept making changes as the city grows, it becomes very tedious and it starts sucking the fun out of the game. Copy and paste makes micromanagement more seamless and gets back to growing your city. New to modding Cities Skylines.

[@YUMBL]

The number of lanes depends on what roads you use. So yes, you can upgrade roads to match if you need.

[@clnetrooper]

I'm interested in a comparison between the parclo and a three level roundabout with slip lanes now. They must be quite similar in how much traffic they can handle but i might be wrong. Three level roundabout might be even better in the sense that there is no traffic light and so one way doesn't stop to let left hand turn pass (that's the roundabout's job). Or they might be worse because the roundabout will be too crowded to work properly.

[@YUMBL]

Three level roundabout is a system interchange. Parclo is a service interchange. I bet it still competes though.