Just started studying geography, and although QGIS and ArcGIS are powerful, wonderful programs, I will always use the ADS/CDT City Planner showcased in this video for Cities Skylines planning. Remarkably resource-efficient, too, you can plan whole city blocks with minimal RAM and GPU power. It's an astounding piece of software that can't be beat, it's weird that we haven't touched upon it in my studies yet.
I literally did this after watching your first vid about road hierarchy. And it really improves not just the traffic but the overall function of my city. :()
"I'm very new to this advanced drafting software, but I'm hoping we can all learn how to use it." God, I hope it's MS Paint. "And here we are inside of the drafting program! It is called Paint!"
@@YUMBL In all seriousness: It's a program that every Windows user has, which covers *most* of the players that'd be playing. Mac and Linux have similar ones that are easy to get a hold of. It really goes a long way to making this kinda thing accessible to everyone.
MS Paint has felt like a meme for as long as i can remember, but combined with a screenshot its incredibly useful. And yes, most of us have access to an equivalent. :)
Road hierarchy has been something I've always struggled with maintaining, much easier to plop down a bunch of 4-6 lane roads LOL Thanks for breaking this down, it genuinely helps a lot!
I’m not into wasting space, so breaking down to smaller roads is great. Also, I think road hierarchy is best thought of as managing connections logically. To avoid bottlenecks.
@@busTedOaS Yeah, the problem with bigger roads is that the speed limit on those roads is all the same. By using road hierarchy, you set it up so that cars will take the route that takes them the least time (i.e. using roads where they can travel faster, as long as it's not too far off the direction they want to go). You generally don't want a lot of traffic trying to go through places that have "driveways", meaning houses, businesses, etc, since new cars entering the road directly blocks traffic.
25:40 "The median is now functional" - enforcing the median with either Ctrl-S lane connectors or with lane arrows (as you did here) works well with adding a parallel bridge or tunnel. The result is basically a non-highway version of a parclo (AB2 configuration) or folded diamond.
my last project is a "one-way ONLY city". So I build only 1-way roads throughout the city... and to no surprise, the mass transit (subway etc) and walking/bikes are the most used way of transportation because some distances became too far due to the one-way only roads. Which is, ideal in my opinion.
i like this video, but planning a city from scratch is les fun than trying to ad hock the entire thing as it grows. i would like to see you take the role of a city planner in an existing city with culturally important buildings and stuff, that you should try to preserve att all costs. the challenge is to make a working road network hierarchy in a city with a different type of layout.
Interesting. I disagree, but I understand your point. I see the game as a program like photoshop. The milestones just stop me from building what I want. Instead of money and unlocks my limitations are plausibility of appearance and the traffic/transit system.
After watching this video, I am starting a new city mixing both concepts. I still like to play with milestones limitations, but I will develop a previously designed layout. I always spend a good time analysing the map anyway, so having an established plan sounds good.
Again, you've taken something that is simplistic in concept yet difficult in reality (at least for a newbie), shown how to apply some forethought and logic while utilizing some nifty mods and come out with a workable, eye-pleasing design. NICE!!
Thanks for the video! going over network multi-tool again, is a great way for me to remember how. Pre-painting in MS Paint was a genius move, I am not that creative, so...plop the roads
I enjoyed the video. I am Korean, and you are the first foreign RUclipsr I subscribed to. What you explained was easier to understand and I was able to learn a lot more than a Korean RUclipsr did. Thank you
I’m not sure if you’re getting the recognition you deserve for that build up and punchline in your intro. There’s something about the way you said “paint” that got a good belly laugh from me. Well done, sir. 👏🏼
@@YUMBL You should do a part two where you take this exact product and go into more depth into certain other things, where you make the city come to life. Turn it into a mini-series. It's fine if you cover things you've already covered in previous videos, because you might explain it better if you do it again, and people will still enjoy it :)
I'm on my 3rd attempt city and at 45k population with 91% traffic..... this is about where things start going nuts for me but I'm constantly learning from videos like this, thank you :)
My 2 major concerns with this layout (not counting the triangle, I can see turning that into a "single" intersection): a) why is your arterial not continuing along the river and turning into a collector instead? (bottom left) Why collector rather than local (to make use of the river land value)? b) isn't your arterial/collector network packed a bit tight with full intersections? Have you tested this area with high density residential/commercial, or is it meant to stay low density?
@@YUMBL wouldn't you want collectors near the river then, to provide opportunity for local roads along the river, rather than the partial arterial you've got?
I was about to ask the same question; the way I understand it. the lower you go in the hierarchy the more intersections you can have without disrupting the flow of the larger roads. But you have arterials full of intersections, actually I don't see any difference between arterial, collectors and local, just the number of lanes. I thought I had the concept right, but maybe I'm wrong. Confusing!
I am amazed that no one uses planning roads. They cost nothing and are great for initial planning. I also use them to mark out areas like resources to make laying out the road network easier.
Once again a video that engages thinking while being entertaining at once. Very enjoyable! I would add safety islands with a yield or stop sign to help traffic flow on the intersections that ended up having a sharp right turn angle.
Now that I've had a while to think about it, I'd be very interested to hear how you use this process when planning where to put residential, commercial and industrial areas.
Also, when doing a grade separation between road and rail, the road is almost always the steeper slope. This is for a couple reasons. 1. Trains cant deal with the slopes that road traffic can deal with. 2. In most parts of the world, trains greatly predated cars.
Can you make a video on traffic management, intersections, etc. when most roads are all 1-way instead of 2-way roads? How to decide which way each road will be, if theres any maths or principles behind it, where to make loops etc.
I think road hierarchy is the answer there too. Thats what its for. One way roads should he fairly balanced. Ensuring a balance between one direction and another.
@@YUMBL For what it's worth, we are removing one-way roads in Dallas, TX today that were converted from two-way roads in the early 1990s. In one area, these local streets were already built so wide that they yielded a pair of three-lane one-way roads, that subsequently behaved as something between collectors and arterials, with somewhere between a half mile to full mile between signals. Of course, that led to speeding and a loss of the very access that the roads were designed to provide. Interestingly, the one-way roads also created human conflict, pitting neighborhoods against each other...one neighborhood's local access being another neighborhood's hyperspace route towards downtown. All of that immediately resolved when they were converted back to two-way streets. Interestingly, now we have almost the opposite situation happening on a collector in my neighborhood...which owing to ad hoc zoning changes, got developed up with 5-ish story apartment complexes. Because there isn't a nearby arterial that directly accesses an interstate highway, this collector already served as an improvised arterial. Then, residents nearby decided to petition for a "road diet," and that road was narrowed with added parallel spaces. Now, it backs up to the extent that it drove traffic onto even smaller local roads. I guess the lesson there is "careful what you wish for," hahaha. Many tons of concrete and asphalt later, that road is almost gridlocked, and like water, the traffic is going to find its way.
The parallel road is much better (and more precise) to make a temp road at 90 from your model road a set distance long, then do the same further down the road the same length. The two end points of those perpendicular roads are parallel to the original road. Connect them, then build your road from there.
Thanks for sharing your thought process. I may try laying out all the streets first rather than keep adding on and adding on, then I get a mess of streets. 😲
Very cool planning. I usually do the planing after building, and them I realize the mistake and bulldoze everything lol. What mod are you using to construct??
This channel is soooo underrated!! You need and deserve more subscribers!! I absolutely love and appreciate your content! :) It has helped me so so much with this game! :D
Hey Yumbl, really interesting way of doing it. I can imagine the fun of visualizing what kind of buildings, and when you look at it in first person it looks so real! But I notice, unless I missing something, once you were done with the smallest roads there will be empty grass a lot, in the center of the blocks. I like what another commenter said, you can restrict traffic to just delivery, but outside of that, what was the plan? I would end of getting anxious and filling it in with small roads.
I have used this approach and had great results, a plan aids control and results for me and maybe for others as well. Great work and thanks for your thoughts and inspiration. Let the fun increase. :)
I feel like you could easily trim down the collector and arterial roads in here with proper public transports coverage and bicycle lanes all around. The cims can bike quite far.
I like to make ring roads with the arterials, make a collector connected to 1 or 2 spots inside the arterial ring, and all locals to the collectors, and connect every house block with walking roads to the arterial, that has the shopping on the artirial road ring, forcing the whole neighberhood to walk or bike, becouse driving is a longer trip in all cases
When planning the road layout for a new area, what are the approximate "minimum distances" you try to keep between intersections (arterial to arterial, arterial to collector, collector to local, local to local)? For example "if possible, no less than 20 units between an arterial intersection and the first collector"? I noticed I tend to build too compact instead of stretching things out a little more. Also, these videos are just the right thing to watch on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, thanks!
Thank you! I dont recommend any minimum distances. Playing by feel and experimenting to see what works is important. All that really matters is that cars have enough segments to change lanes if necessary.
I have personally found that 24 to 26 units leaves enough space to add to the city. I have issues myself. I like symmetry too much, so I like to make things on even numbers and factors of ten are usually what i end up using. then when I decide to expand it becomes an issue because the game is mostly in factors of 6 or 12...
was listening while i was working & laughed when i heard "drafting program called paint." also, what a genius idea! as i am a CL noob, i'll be giving that a try. .
I'd be curious if lights would work with the at-grade train crossings that are close together in the upper right. Someone pointed out to me the other day that stop and go lights work with trains too, which is something I never knew. Although thinking about it as I type, it might not be great solution. If the approaching train could trigger lights at both grade crossings, that would be nicer. Anyway, this is a fantastic overview. As it so happens I'm starting a map too, my first pre-planned one, so this tutorial is just what I needed.
In Brooklyn near Kensington there's an arterial that contains an intersection before the arterial merges into local traffic via collector-distributor roads. What are thoughts on this like? Is it beneficial? I'm talking about where I-278 branches off towards 27. 27 then flows directly into non-access restricted traffic.
I think I am always looking at my map too closely and fail to design for the big picture. I should plan my roads like this. I have one gripe with your design though. A lot of the intersections have really painful acute angles that I can't imagine using in real life. When I encounter these intersections in real life, I often try to route around them, as making the turn is impossible if there's any traffic. That doesn't affect sims, of course, and local roads can more realistically get away with it due to their lower volume. I think it can lead to a really interesting road layout if you follow up the initial plan with corrections to individual intersections to eliminate acute angles. Sometimes it may require shifting your intersection to the side, forcing curves into approaching roads, or creating complex intersections like your five-way triangle-a-bout in the south of the map. Those case-by-case decisions can add a lot of character to your map.
Many of those intersection angles will be eased with node controller, and signal controlled. I’ve found that the real world is full of non 90 degree connections and messiness, so I dont want to be so rigid in my builds anymore.
Personally, I find trying to build a city out of nothing then attempting to adapt as it grows larger is more fun and somewhat realistic. Not all cities were planned out from the start and it shows depending on where you live.
Do you level the ground before building all of the roads or was it like that? If you leveled it, could you do a tutorial on how? I always end up ruining the river
I guess if you were playing standard "vanilla" (with mods/assets), you could layout most of your roads using Planning Roads. These don't cost you anything and you can't zone on them, but you could layout the basic infrastructure. Then start your city, upgrading the planning roads to regular roads as-needed. Otherwise, you'd have to play with unlimited money to start out with what you did in the video. Or am I missing something? One of the great things about Cities is that you can play it any way you want. You can play "true" vanilla with no mods and assets (from the workshop, using --noWorkshop) or you can play with just a small number of specific mods (like TM:PE, MoveIt, Network MultiTool and maybe Precision Engineering (one of the first I subscribe to)). Or you can go all out and play with unlimited money, unlock all and concentrate on building the city without a care in the world when it comes to money and milestones. Or any combination there-in. That is one of the many things I love about this game.
hey yumbl, what are your personal thoughts about having passenger train stations on arterial roads? I personally don't think it's quite a good idea, though. Usually I would place them on either local or collector. Nice video as always, by the way.
nice one again straight or bendy layout may largely depend on terrain. Since you didn't even show contour lines, I guess it's all flat - then then straight grid can make max use of land for minimum budget Thanks for showing MS paint; I did this with a print from CSL map view and pen... When will you post a tutorial for the sophisticated CAD software?🤭
Craziest thing for me about learning road hierarchy in Cities Skylines is that... in Australia, 3+3 lane roads are so rare to see in the city, the third lane is almost always a parking lane and sometimes used for turning, other than that you only really see them on the main highways that goes around Australia which is the same for 4+4 lane roads, 2+2 lane roads are used everywhere even in the heart of our cities, and so when I design a city and I take on what I know about driving on Australian roads, nearly everything is a 2 lane road besides the main highway haha.
@@YUMBL I certainly understand that now that I've watched again, 2+2 lane roads can most certainly be used everywhere as long as the connections are done properly, I was stuck on the idea of the higher in the hierarchy a road sits the more lanes it should have.
Love the video. Maybe In The future you could do a tutorial on the complex drafting program. I kinda followed, but it definitely seems like it might be out of my league :) All jokes aside this was awesome to see play out
I am trying to replicate this one for TESTING purpose. I think in the game, the LITTLE TRIANGLE with arterial roads in the bottom might make the area nightmare for drivers. Why ? In my opinion, it link two bridges traffics into one. Exiting traffic will be great cause two options to get out of the place, but the inbound could be bottleneck. Did you implement it in the game? How traffic flows? Using some of your lovely interchange might change the eventual traffic issue there, or roundabouts? Overall you're THE BEST and Thanks for sharing.
I've recently started getting back into this game and this time around trying to find out how to plan and play well. I've noticed many RUclipsrs like yourself using various road packs, I have struggled to find them however, I'm hoping someone could help point me in the right direction?
hi ymbl - (noob and new player here) i've been looking for these road packs you're using but i don't see them in the workshop. its driving me crazy. i've been in and out of your road collections :( btw im learning alot on highway makings because of you taking time to teach
I’ve been struggling with road capacity vs road hierarchy. I can make cities designed with road hierarchy, but I’m struggling to gauge how much residential, commercial, or industrial should be serviced by a collector. I fear that my collectors are really functioning as arterials, some local roads are trying to work as collectors, and my arterials are effectively highways. How do you determine how to get the right numbers in? Like do you say x number of local roads should be serviced by a collector, or an area about x size in diameter? I think I remember someone saying they did it based off of road width, like a larger class road should be connected every 10x road width, but I can’t remember the specifics.
I dont think there are specific rules, and i think you have the right idea. If you find that a road needs to be upgraded for more capacity, or downgraded due to lack of demand then do it!
I would love to see this thought process followed up by a video starting with this layout on zoning hierarchy. I just think that your approach is so deliciously logical and methodical. Love the content.
Also how would you approach this thought process but in a playthrough without infinite money? Paint out the layout you want and just stick to it as you build up I suppose.
Thanks a lot! A follow up video is certainly in order. I’m not interested in playing with money turned on. To me its like using photo shop with some tools unavailable. I’ll never make what I want if I’m forced to build within my means. The way the game makes us start a city is unrealistic anyways, so I’m ok without limitations :)
IIRC the "Planning Roads" (correct name?) mod negates the need for Paint for non-Vanilla players. Added feature is the planned roadways don't cost anything until you "open" to traffic. Nice way to plan your layout, reserve the space and then develop incrementally.
Yes, but ive found creating layouts in another medium to he helpful, rather than worrying about networks, angles, and nodes. A pen and paper would be valid as well.
Hey! It's a very good video, I really enjoyed watching it, but is it correct to connect local roads to arterial roads? I started to plan my cities a couple of months ago, it isn't too much, but in all guides I read they said that local roads can only be connected to collector roads, and arterial roads only to collector roads too, it means that local roads can't intersect with arterial roads. I think it has sence, otherwise there are no difference between arterial and collector roads. I want to hear your opinion
what street collection(s) are you using? Nice vid. I will try planning like you did, my road hierarchy is usually good(to a point), it just never seems 'natural'
13:00 Cities: Skylines definitely has "subpixel" alignments. You can build in perfect 90 degree angles and find that it becomes something like 89.1 degrees when meeting back up after a distance. Pretty much the only way around it is to constantly introduce a common reference, like a vanilla roundabout which always aligns to cardinal directions in 45 degree increments when right-clicking. Even then you'll have just-off segments that are re-aligned. 15:05 Might be pointless given what was being done at the end of the video, but Replace Our Networks can retrofit the entire road system in a few seconds.
Hi i have a problem, i build around 50k city and my highways are not moving, got 30% flow, nice grid, 8 lane highway beltloop around, with no direct acces to city, (you have to loop left or right in order to choose a entry to a city) and another belt loop inside the city which is above the ground.. Its really neat, but Cars are only using one entry.. they completly ignore the second entry which is faster and shorter.. i even tried to add signs, max highway speed, and adjust lanes, but its still a mess.. Can someone look at it, and tell me whats wrong? Im cornered
Hi. I could ask for some help when building roads so that trees and other terrain objects stay there and don't disappear. I can't figure out what is wrong. Thank you for your reply.
I love how using the complex drafting tool looks so easy with you! A true natural talent!!
It almost felt like I grew up using it from a young age. Often painstakingly.
It's a shame my PC isn't buff enough to handle a software like that
Just started studying geography, and although QGIS and ArcGIS are powerful, wonderful programs, I will always use the ADS/CDT City Planner showcased in this video for Cities Skylines planning. Remarkably resource-efficient, too, you can plan whole city blocks with minimal RAM and GPU power. It's an astounding piece of software that can't be beat, it's weird that we haven't touched upon it in my studies yet.
I use it occasionally but tis a very complex program.
@@alessiobenvenuto5159city skylines can run on some pretty low end PCs if you're ok with cranking the settings down quite a bit.
I literally did this after watching your first vid about road hierarchy. And it really improves not just the traffic but the overall function of my city. :()
Glad to hear it! :)
"I'm very new to this advanced drafting software, but I'm hoping we can all learn how to use it."
God, I hope it's MS Paint.
"And here we are inside of the drafting program! It is called Paint!"
Overwhelming, I know. 🤣
@@YUMBL In all seriousness: It's a program that every Windows user has, which covers *most* of the players that'd be playing. Mac and Linux have similar ones that are easy to get a hold of. It really goes a long way to making this kinda thing accessible to everyone.
MS Paint has felt like a meme for as long as i can remember, but combined with a screenshot its incredibly useful. And yes, most of us have access to an equivalent. :)
clipped it. 😄 ruclips.net/user/clipUgkx7v9X-_3fE6C_zD7xF_MDT1LrbIXAttje
I have learned a TON watching you, Biffa, and City Planner Plays. My cities are getting so much better. Thanks for all these great videos!
You’re very welcome! :)
Same for me. This game is a amazing and I learned a ton from watching this tutorials
@OVERCHARGEDEGG is a great channel too!
i cant fucking play this game cuz of watching this vids lol
Road hierarchy has been something I've always struggled with maintaining, much easier to plop down a bunch of 4-6 lane roads LOL
Thanks for breaking this down, it genuinely helps a lot!
You’re very welcome :)
as long as money is not an issue, it's not that bad to overuse big roads. In CS the main use of a road hierarchy is to influence car pathing, I feel.
I’m not into wasting space, so breaking down to smaller roads is great. Also, I think road hierarchy is best thought of as managing connections logically. To avoid bottlenecks.
@@busTedOaS Yeah, the problem with bigger roads is that the speed limit on those roads is all the same. By using road hierarchy, you set it up so that cars will take the route that takes them the least time (i.e. using roads where they can travel faster, as long as it's not too far off the direction they want to go). You generally don't want a lot of traffic trying to go through places that have "driveways", meaning houses, businesses, etc, since new cars entering the road directly blocks traffic.
25:40 "The median is now functional" - enforcing the median with either Ctrl-S lane connectors or with lane arrows (as you did here) works well with adding a parallel bridge or tunnel. The result is basically a non-highway version of a parclo (AB2 configuration) or folded diamond.
Yes! Perpendicular though
my last project is a "one-way ONLY city". So I build only 1-way roads throughout the city...
and to no surprise, the mass transit (subway etc) and walking/bikes are the most used way of transportation because some distances became too far due to the one-way only roads. Which is, ideal in my opinion.
You should apply as city planner for Ghent, Belgium
Paint truly is the most sophisticated drafting tool ever designed, absolutely remarkable.
and free as well. :lol
I honestly can't get enough road hierarchy and layout videos.
Same. I love doing layouts. Its actually what I love most in Cities aside from interchanges.
Same! I literally just pop into CS for a couple hours, mess with road hierarchy, then go do something else. It's so zen
I often listen along while I work rather than watch, but got me to switch tabs to see what 'drafting tool' you were going to use!
i like this video, but planning a city from scratch is les fun than trying to ad hock the entire thing as it grows.
i would like to see you take the role of a city planner in an existing city with culturally important buildings and stuff, that you should try to preserve att all costs.
the challenge is to make a working road network hierarchy in a city with a different type of layout.
Interesting. I disagree, but I understand your point. I see the game as a program like photoshop. The milestones just stop me from building what I want. Instead of money and unlocks my limitations are plausibility of appearance and the traffic/transit system.
After watching this video, I am starting a new city mixing both concepts. I still like to play with milestones limitations, but I will develop a previously designed layout. I always spend a good time analysing the map anyway, so having an established plan sounds good.
Again, you've taken something that is simplistic in concept yet difficult in reality (at least for a newbie), shown how to apply some forethought and logic while utilizing some nifty mods and come out with a workable, eye-pleasing design. NICE!!
Thanks for the video! going over network multi-tool again, is a great way for me to remember how. Pre-painting in MS Paint was a genius move, I am not that creative, so...plop the roads
I enjoyed the video. I am Korean, and you are the first foreign RUclipsr I subscribed to. What you explained was easier to understand and I was able to learn a lot more than a Korean RUclipsr did. Thank you
I really appreciate it :)
I’m not sure if you’re getting the recognition you deserve for that build up and punchline in your intro. There’s something about the way you said “paint” that got a good belly laugh from me. Well done, sir. 👏🏼
This is it. This is the principal Cities Skylines video that everyone should see.
Thank you very much :)
@@YUMBL You should do a part two where you take this exact product and go into more depth into certain other things, where you make the city come to life. Turn it into a mini-series.
It's fine if you cover things you've already covered in previous videos, because you might explain it better if you do it again, and people will still enjoy it :)
Great idea :)
@@YUMBL I would like to see it
I'm on my 3rd attempt city and at 45k population with 91% traffic..... this is about where things start going nuts for me but I'm constantly learning from videos like this, thank you :)
Me watching my city somehow still barely function at 24% at 100k pop
man you are not only genius you like genius beats too, always a superb-sounding music on the intro and background, props!!!!
Thank you very much! :)
Thank you for the beautiful work and keep it up….it really helps me build better cities!!!
Thank you :)
My 2 major concerns with this layout (not counting the triangle, I can see turning that into a "single" intersection):
a) why is your arterial not continuing along the river and turning into a collector instead? (bottom left) Why collector rather than local (to make use of the river land value)?
b) isn't your arterial/collector network packed a bit tight with full intersections? Have you tested this area with high density residential/commercial, or is it meant to stay low density?
The plan is low density closer to the highway and higher density near the river. Not all of the smallest roads are in yet, but its a good start :)
@@YUMBL wouldn't you want collectors near the river then, to provide opportunity for local roads along the river, rather than the partial arterial you've got?
I guess you’ll have to see ;)
I was about to ask the same question; the way I understand it. the lower you go in the hierarchy the more intersections you can have without disrupting the flow of the larger roads. But you have arterials full of intersections, actually I don't see any difference between arterial, collectors and local, just the number of lanes. I thought I had the concept right, but maybe I'm wrong. Confusing!
I am amazed that no one uses planning roads. They cost nothing and are great for initial planning. I also use them to mark out areas like resources to make laying out the road network easier.
Alleys + Spawn points can be another level of fun to detailing Road Hierarchy
Once again a video that engages thinking while being entertaining at once. Very enjoyable!
I would add safety islands with a yield or stop sign to help traffic flow on the intersections that ended up having a sharp right turn angle.
Thank you! Yes, there will he yields where there aren’t traffic lights.
Now that I've had a while to think about it, I'd be very interested to hear how you use this process when planning where to put residential, commercial and industrial areas.
Stay tuned :)
This video makes it so clear how to use what road,. and useing mods didn't subtract from the overall explanation. Excellent content!
Much appreciated :)
Also, when doing a grade separation between road and rail, the road is almost always the steeper slope. This is for a couple reasons. 1. Trains cant deal with the slopes that road traffic can deal with. 2. In most parts of the world, trains greatly predated cars.
Can you make a video on traffic management, intersections, etc. when most roads are all 1-way instead of 2-way roads? How to decide which way each road will be, if theres any maths or principles behind it, where to make loops etc.
I think road hierarchy is the answer there too. Thats what its for. One way roads should he fairly balanced. Ensuring a balance between one direction and another.
@@YUMBL For what it's worth, we are removing one-way roads in Dallas, TX today that were converted from two-way roads in the early 1990s. In one area, these local streets were already built so wide that they yielded a pair of three-lane one-way roads, that subsequently behaved as something between collectors and arterials, with somewhere between a half mile to full mile between signals. Of course, that led to speeding and a loss of the very access that the roads were designed to provide. Interestingly, the one-way roads also created human conflict, pitting neighborhoods against each other...one neighborhood's local access being another neighborhood's hyperspace route towards downtown.
All of that immediately resolved when they were converted back to two-way streets.
Interestingly, now we have almost the opposite situation happening on a collector in my neighborhood...which owing to ad hoc zoning changes, got developed up with 5-ish story apartment complexes. Because there isn't a nearby arterial that directly accesses an interstate highway, this collector already served as an improvised arterial. Then, residents nearby decided to petition for a "road diet," and that road was narrowed with added parallel spaces.
Now, it backs up to the extent that it drove traffic onto even smaller local roads. I guess the lesson there is "careful what you wish for," hahaha. Many tons of concrete and asphalt later, that road is almost gridlocked, and like water, the traffic is going to find its way.
Lolol I was expecting to see some use of CAD software when you mention that "complex drafting software", got a good chuckle. Thanks for the video!
That advanced drafting software has got quite a steep learning curve. It's amazing how quickly you got hang of it
The parallel road is much better (and more precise) to make a temp road at 90 from your model road a set distance long, then do the same further down the road the same length. The two end points of those perpendicular roads are parallel to the original road. Connect them, then build your road from there.
The triangle road setup near the river has a good risk for traffic jams.
There is not enough buffer between the intersections.
Traffic lights would work great.
Another solid video! Love your content!
Thanks for sharing your thought process. I may try laying out all the streets first rather than keep adding on and adding on, then I get a mess of streets. 😲
I do this for arterial and collector too but not drawing local roads, for consideration about the 4-tile width of automatic buildings in game
Very cool planning. I usually do the planing after building, and them I realize the mistake and bulldoze everything lol.
What mod are you using to construct??
This channel is soooo underrated!! You need and deserve more subscribers!! I absolutely love and appreciate your content! :) It has helped me so so much with this game! :D
Much appreciated :)
Hey Yumbl, really interesting way of doing it. I can imagine the fun of visualizing what kind of buildings, and when you look at it in first person it looks so real!
But I notice, unless I missing something, once you were done with the smallest roads there will be empty grass a lot, in the center of the blocks. I like what another commenter said, you can restrict traffic to just delivery, but outside of that, what was the plan? I would end of getting anxious and filling it in with small roads.
I have used this approach and had great results, a plan aids control and results for me and maybe for others as well. Great work and thanks for your thoughts and inspiration. Let the fun increase. :)
Thanks a lot! :)
Where can I buy that drafting software! Looks so professional and intuitive! :P
So glad i learned that drafting software at a young age. Not sure Id be able to grasp it nowadays.
It’s quite complex
I feel like you could easily trim down the collector and arterial roads in here with proper public transports coverage and bicycle lanes all around.
The cims can bike quite far.
I like to make ring roads with the arterials, make a collector connected to 1 or 2 spots inside the arterial ring, and all locals to the collectors, and connect every house block with walking roads to the arterial, that has the shopping on the artirial road ring, forcing the whole neighberhood to walk or bike, becouse driving is a longer trip in all cases
That initial advanced drafting software usage was intense!
That drafting tool is so powerful memes are made with it
Absolutely love your editing style!
Thanks a lot :)
When planning the road layout for a new area, what are the approximate "minimum distances" you try to keep between intersections (arterial to arterial, arterial to collector, collector to local, local to local)? For example "if possible, no less than 20 units between an arterial intersection and the first collector"? I noticed I tend to build too compact instead of stretching things out a little more. Also, these videos are just the right thing to watch on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, thanks!
Thank you! I dont recommend any minimum distances. Playing by feel and experimenting to see what works is important. All that really matters is that cars have enough segments to change lanes if necessary.
I have personally found that 24 to 26 units leaves enough space to add to the city. I have issues myself. I like symmetry too much, so I like to make things on even numbers and factors of ten are usually what i end up using. then when I decide to expand it becomes an issue because the game is mostly in factors of 6 or 12...
was listening while i was working & laughed when i heard "drafting program called paint." also, what a genius idea! as i am a CL noob, i'll be giving that a try. .
I'd be curious if lights would work with the at-grade train crossings that are close together in the upper right. Someone pointed out to me the other day that stop and go lights work with trains too, which is something I never knew. Although thinking about it as I type, it might not be great solution. If the approaching train could trigger lights at both grade crossings, that would be nicer.
Anyway, this is a fantastic overview. As it so happens I'm starting a map too, my first pre-planned one, so this tutorial is just what I needed.
Yes, if you connect a train track to a road when the train comes through the gates go down and stop cars automatically. No need for a light.
I would love to watch you play this map!
Whassup Yong'Ball?
P. S. Awesome video man
In Brooklyn near Kensington there's an arterial that contains an intersection before the arterial merges into local traffic via collector-distributor roads. What are thoughts on this like? Is it beneficial?
I'm talking about where I-278 branches off towards 27. 27 then flows directly into non-access restricted traffic.
I think I am always looking at my map too closely and fail to design for the big picture. I should plan my roads like this.
I have one gripe with your design though. A lot of the intersections have really painful acute angles that I can't imagine using in real life. When I encounter these intersections in real life, I often try to route around them, as making the turn is impossible if there's any traffic. That doesn't affect sims, of course, and local roads can more realistically get away with it due to their lower volume.
I think it can lead to a really interesting road layout if you follow up the initial plan with corrections to individual intersections to eliminate acute angles. Sometimes it may require shifting your intersection to the side, forcing curves into approaching roads, or creating complex intersections like your five-way triangle-a-bout in the south of the map. Those case-by-case decisions can add a lot of character to your map.
Many of those intersection angles will be eased with node controller, and signal controlled. I’ve found that the real world is full of non 90 degree connections and messiness, so I dont want to be so rigid in my builds anymore.
Personally, I find trying to build a city out of nothing then attempting to adapt as it grows larger is more fun and somewhat realistic.
Not all cities were planned out from the start and it shows depending on where you live.
Ik it normie but wanted to say this for a long time
Yumbl is humble
It’s perfect :)
Are you use the Ultimate American roads pack? I got that pack but I only have the 4 Lane options no 6 or more lane roads. Where do I get those??
I am! Theyre in the steam workshop. Look at the creators workshop.
That drafting software is some heavy stuff. Looks super complicated.
The color picker is pretty heavy. Turns out there are literally dozens of colors
Do you level the ground before building all of the roads or was it like that? If you leveled it, could you do a tutorial on how? I always end up ruining the river
One of the terraforming tools lets you right click at the height you want. Then left click brushes the ground to that height.
I guess if you were playing standard "vanilla" (with mods/assets), you could layout most of your roads using Planning Roads. These don't cost you anything and you can't zone on them, but you could layout the basic infrastructure. Then start your city, upgrading the planning roads to regular roads as-needed. Otherwise, you'd have to play with unlimited money to start out with what you did in the video. Or am I missing something?
One of the great things about Cities is that you can play it any way you want. You can play "true" vanilla with no mods and assets (from the workshop, using --noWorkshop) or you can play with just a small number of specific mods (like TM:PE, MoveIt, Network MultiTool and maybe Precision Engineering (one of the first I subscribe to)). Or you can go all out and play with unlimited money, unlock all and concentrate on building the city without a care in the world when it comes to money and milestones. Or any combination there-in. That is one of the many things I love about this game.
Exactly! I’m mainly interested in painting a city, and ensuring traffic and transit functionality.
What do you mean by planning roads?
They’re in the steam workshop, free roads for planning a layout before unlocking the actual roads. In respect to leveling up
@@YUMBL so I can access them through subscribing?
Correct :)
What rood pack is this? Also how do you have everything unlocked at the start like this? Great videos!
Are there any follow ups of this, I'd like to see how this area turned out!
There is one video after.
What road packs are you using? Been pulling my hair out finding decent ones.
These are the “ultimate american roads”.
keep up the good work! thanks for sharing your knowledge
hey yumbl, what are your personal thoughts about having passenger train stations on arterial roads? I personally don't think it's quite a good idea, though. Usually I would place them on either local or collector. Nice video as always, by the way.
I like them on a medium road. Not directly off the highway, one road lower.
nice one again
straight or bendy layout may largely depend on terrain. Since you didn't even show contour lines, I guess it's all flat - then then straight grid can make max use of land for minimum budget
Thanks for showing MS paint; I did this with a print from CSL map view and pen...
When will you post a tutorial for the sophisticated CAD software?🤭
Thanks for watching :)
Craziest thing for me about learning road hierarchy in Cities Skylines is that... in Australia, 3+3 lane roads are so rare to see in the city, the third lane is almost always a parking lane and sometimes used for turning, other than that you only really see them on the main highways that goes around Australia which is the same for 4+4 lane roads, 2+2 lane roads are used everywhere even in the heart of our cities, and so when I design a city and I take on what I know about driving on Australian roads, nearly everything is a 2 lane road besides the main highway haha.
Road hierarchy has less to do with how many lanes a road has, and more to do with its context and connections.
@@YUMBL I certainly understand that now that I've watched again, 2+2 lane roads can most certainly be used everywhere as long as the connections are done properly, I was stuck on the idea of the higher in the hierarchy a road sits the more lanes it should have.
I wish I had made that specific idea more clear. Thank you for letting me clarify :)
Love the video. Maybe In The future you could do a tutorial on the complex drafting program. I kinda followed, but it definitely seems like it might be out of my league :) All jokes aside this was awesome to see play out
I’m playing the build! :)
Talent 👏, may i ask what’s version you use of city skylines
I’m on PC
@@YUMBL I’m also on pc , can u till me i loved this version
Me: damn that was a nice video, let’s watch the part two!
Video: PoSteD 2 HoUrS aGo
Stay tuned ;)
This vid is like watching Bob Ross 🤣.
Good job✌️
Thanks :)
I am trying to replicate this one for TESTING purpose. I think in the game, the LITTLE TRIANGLE with arterial roads in the bottom might make the area nightmare for drivers. Why ?
In my opinion, it link two bridges traffics into one. Exiting traffic will be great cause two options to get out of the place, but the inbound could be bottleneck.
Did you implement it in the game? How traffic flows? Using some of your lovely interchange might change the eventual traffic issue there, or roundabouts?
Overall you're THE BEST and Thanks for sharing.
The triangle will be operated by a traffic light junction.
Woah! So sophisticated!
I've recently started getting back into this game and this time around trying to find out how to plan and play well. I've noticed many RUclipsrs like yourself using various road packs, I have struggled to find them however, I'm hoping someone could help point me in the right direction?
Wow, such a good intro. And amazing video, Yumbl!
Thanks my dude :)
hi ymbl - (noob and new player here) i've been looking for these road packs you're using but i don't see them in the workshop. its driving me crazy. i've been in and out of your road collections :(
btw im learning alot on highway makings because of you taking time to teach
Thank you! If you google “ultimate american roads workshop” i bet they come right up.
Hi Yumbl! I was wondering about your road assets. What are they? Thanks.
I’m using the “ultimate American” pack
Is having a train station right on an arterial the right move? Shouldn't be off on a side street?
I think it will be fine.
hello! can i ask what roads you're using? they look like something i'd use in my cities
Its the “ultimate american” pack
I’ve been struggling with road capacity vs road hierarchy. I can make cities designed with road hierarchy, but I’m struggling to gauge how much residential, commercial, or industrial should be serviced by a collector. I fear that my collectors are really functioning as arterials, some local roads are trying to work as collectors, and my arterials are effectively highways. How do you determine how to get the right numbers in? Like do you say x number of local roads should be serviced by a collector, or an area about x size in diameter? I think I remember someone saying they did it based off of road width, like a larger class road should be connected every 10x road width, but I can’t remember the specifics.
I dont think there are specific rules, and i think you have the right idea. If you find that a road needs to be upgraded for more capacity, or downgraded due to lack of demand then do it!
Yumbl, u r the Master of Cities
I would love to see this thought process followed up by a video starting with this layout on zoning hierarchy. I just think that your approach is so deliciously logical and methodical. Love the content.
Also how would you approach this thought process but in a playthrough without infinite money? Paint out the layout you want and just stick to it as you build up I suppose.
Thanks a lot! A follow up video is certainly in order. I’m not interested in playing with money turned on. To me its like using photo shop with some tools unavailable. I’ll never make what I want if I’m forced to build within my means. The way the game makes us start a city is unrealistic anyways, so I’m ok without limitations :)
@@YUMBL honestly that makes me feel better.
IIRC the "Planning Roads" (correct name?) mod negates the need for Paint for non-Vanilla players. Added feature is the planned roadways don't cost anything until you "open" to traffic. Nice way to plan your layout, reserve the space and then develop incrementally.
Yes, but ive found creating layouts in another medium to he helpful, rather than worrying about networks, angles, and nodes. A pen and paper would be valid as well.
Great Video. What is the mod to have yellow lines in centre strips? Thanks.
I think I was using the “ultimate american roads” pack
Oh wow awesome the complex drafting program! I must try this myself.
that road construction program (paint?) looked super complex! :p
I did my undergrad in “brush tool”.
Hey! It's a very good video, I really enjoyed watching it, but is it correct to connect local roads to arterial roads? I started to plan my cities a couple of months ago, it isn't too much, but in all guides I read they said that local roads can only be connected to collector roads, and arterial roads only to collector roads too, it means that local roads can't intersect with arterial roads. I think it has sence, otherwise there are no difference between arterial and collector roads. I want to hear your opinion
The local road to arterial connections are all right turn only.
@@YUMBL Ah, ok, I get it, thanks
what street collection(s) are you using? Nice vid. I will try planning like you did, my road hierarchy is usually good(to a point), it just never seems 'natural'
Thanks! I’m using “ultimate american” roads
Awesome video. Helped me out a lot. Whats the road pack used in the video called?
What a drafting software, soooo pro
I've been using that state-of-the-art drafting program since 1997.
Don't fix what ain't broken.
13:00 Cities: Skylines definitely has "subpixel" alignments. You can build in perfect 90 degree angles and find that it becomes something like 89.1 degrees when meeting back up after a distance. Pretty much the only way around it is to constantly introduce a common reference, like a vanilla roundabout which always aligns to cardinal directions in 45 degree increments when right-clicking. Even then you'll have just-off segments that are re-aligned.
15:05 Might be pointless given what was being done at the end of the video, but Replace Our Networks can retrofit the entire road system in a few seconds.
Love RoN and BoB.
@@YUMBL BoB is GOAT
Yumbl is such a unique name. You must get a lot of people comment on it when you tell them you name. ;)
damn dude where'd u get such an advanced and yet simple software? :O
Where can I buy that advanced urban planning program?
Hi i have a problem, i build around 50k city and my highways are not moving, got 30% flow, nice grid, 8 lane highway beltloop around, with no direct acces to city, (you have to loop left or right in order to choose a entry to a city) and another belt loop inside the city which is above the ground.. Its really neat, but Cars are only using one entry.. they completly ignore the second entry which is faster and shorter.. i even tried to add signs, max highway speed, and adjust lanes, but its still a mess.. Can someone look at it, and tell me whats wrong? Im cornered
As transit operator, former bus driver now light rail, that grid set up is a nightmare lol. It's the turns at the intersections lol.😁😁😁😁
I’ll be using node controller at the angled intersections. Increase the turn radius. This was just laying it out
What are you opinion about Superblocks
Theyre a good idea. Virtually eliminates traffic in your local block. I like it :)
Flavor Town?
Please tell me that Guy Fieri is the mayor of this blessed place.
Hi. I could ask for some help when building roads so that trees and other terrain objects stay there and don't disappear. I can't figure out what is wrong. Thank you for your reply.
You need “prop anarchy” and possibly “fine road anarchy” too. Ensure prop anarchy is on, and collision is off in fine road anarchy.
"Uh yeah, we're gonna run a road through here so we're gonna need to move that whole bridge a little to the right." --- Totally real world solution. 😁
Which road-pack are you using? They look fantastic!
Ultimate American roads