The SPUI looks like a giant spider from the air. I went through a diverging diamond a while back in a section of Atlanta that’s always very busy and was amazed how much quicker it got us on the interstate than the same intersection from the early 2000s. Great tutorial. I found your channel because City Planner Plays named something in one of his tutorials I’m watching.
Great tutorial, thanks! BTW - one of the complaints regarding both DD and SPUI is they are hell on pedestrians. I believe that is one of the reasons that here in Ontario, Canada we use a lot of Parclos and split access. (North exit is separated by kilometer from South exit.)
Yeah. You need to cross four traffic lights on foot at a SPUI, or two if right turning cars get a slip lane without a stop light, which is even more unpleasant for pedestrians. The "urban" part of the SPUI really only describes the relatively small formfactor, it doesn't create a better urban environment than a standard diamond or any other highway interchanges. The best option both IRL and in game would be to provide pedestrians and cyclists alternative routes to cross the highway, ideally ones that are faster and not a detour.
That’s the advantage of an inverse SPUI. An inverse SPUI has the on and off ramps connecting on the inside of the highway so it only has ramps on the bridge and the intersection itself is no larger than a 4 lane road. However, they aren’t common IRL due to the danger of traffic backing up into the fast lanes of the expressway if something goes wrong at the light.
I normally switch to a Dumbbell interchange, or a Pinched Roundabout interchange instead of going for a DD or a SPUI, they also use the same bridge from a Diamond interchange, and don't increase the space used up that much either side of the highway.
One thing about through traffic on the diamond. It’s not just for mistakes, those corners are where the gas stations are. I’d typically put commercial on those corners - traffic be damned. Lol
TMPE allows the first solution to be possible, with two simple steps: 1) Allow queueing for the both highways and both exits from the middle bit. 2) Leave right lines to be turn only, so the traffic would use only one to go thru, and split in two in the middle also. I've got similar setups all over my city (the light-less metropolis format), and there's no significant backings occuring (mind you, i'm playing with despawn *disabled,* so every car has to wait till the ends of the world)
another variant of a service interchange is something that texas does. have 2 frontage roads on each side, with exit ramps just before a overpass, with a traffic light on each end.
That straight-thru option on the diamond interchange will be fantastic in cities skylines two in the event that those shoddy rural highway road conditions cause a traffic accident under the overpass.
Dude, my favorite intersection is the SPPC that you made 1 and 2 years ago in two videos. Literally, when I saw it, it became one of my most used by far. Not only because it manages traffic excellent, but also because it’s gorgeous itself. Your intersection videos are awesome! Well, in general, your videos are awesome!
I've came up with a design capable of supporting low to mild moderate traffic in a very compact footprint: a separated and elevated lane to pass through a turning junction. The go-through choice was made in observation to where the traffic turns the most. It's also made on your "de-escaled" roads from some videos ago. I'm having a lot of fun with this map!
Over here (Belgium), the traffic planning usually tries to prevent people from using the slip lanes to get back onto the highway - not only by only allowing left and right turns, but often by creating physical barriers to prevent them from simply passing through straight. This is because otherwise there will always be some smartasses who try to bypass a part of the highway when there is a traffic jam, and thus by weaving back in further ahead, making the jam even worse than it was already.
Your interchange tutorials are amazing. I used your small SPUI to help fix through traffic in my city. It took me over an hour to get it setup (even after practicing once). But, it works amazingly well.
4:29 I dont get get. There is a problem that the cars just use one lane because its the shortest way. Could be solved if there is a way to exit the highway to the left too. So some go left some right... all lanes will be used. Why not make a U turn on the highway (not realistic) 100 m above the entrance north. And not allow going to the left comming from south via the first exit. There is a name for that kind of junction. So lane math comes right in also. No problems then... right?
I come for the interesting content, but also your presentation style lowers my blood pressure about 10 points. Sometimes I'm _really_ trying to pay attention, and I just drift off to sleep.
If you do another 5b1c, I think you should just manage interchanges and transit flow for the whole city, rather than doing a local neighborhood and town center somewhere.
I usually start with a diamond and then replace on of the ramps with a loop if there’s a disproportionate amount of left-turning traffic from that side. The loop makes it right-turning. It can progressively build towards a complete parclo as needed. Diamond with one loop is the dominant interchange where I live and it’s quite easy to see why.
The beginning roads reminded me of driving in north Mississippi. First time ever experienced those kind of interchanges and it scared the crap out of me.
super helpful, i get a lot more abt roads and intersections now! my town actually had a busy intersection and they upgraded it to a crossway, i'm sure it was necessary and the planning ppl discussed it heavily but every driver hates driving on it 😅
When I started using the SPUI (from one of your guides), it was a massive improvement over the messes I was using before. The reason I don't use them as often now is because I saw your Single-Point Parclo guide, and I fell in love. They work well, and look amazing.
i appreciate diverging diamonds and whatnot are great if the infrastructure is already there, but my brain was screaming ‘grade separated roundabout’ for about 23 minutes, great video
21:00 theres one in indianapolis in the south east side, the interstate and cross road both have huge amounts of traffic but this junction always moves. The fact that you dont have to fight through 2 traffic lights that are almost never synced up is the biggest time saving traffic moving factor.
Somebody actually said SPUIs are better than Diverging Diamonds! I've been obsessing over SPUIs for about a year now, and only ever hear anybody talk about the benefits of DDs as though they have no drawbacks. I'm like, "No, dude, DDs are great for getting cars on the highway, but they're terrible for through traffic, whereas SPUIs do everything equally well."
They both are great, the SPUI works better with lots of straight traffic, crossing the highway, the DDI works best when lots of traffic want to enter the highway and less goes straight over it.
The best way I've found to avoid through-traffic in the service interchange intersections is to make sure the speed limit is properly set on the off-ramp/on-ramp. Ie. it should never be that the through-traffic should have a higher speed limit than the highway. The cims will chose the one with best speed. So if you have an highway off/on-ramp 100km/h and a rural two-way two-lane highway underneath at what is it, 60km/h or 80, the cars will prefer the off/on-ramp. With that there shouldn't need to be a need to force lane choices in the intersections, other than adding the asymmetric turn lanes, which often helps.
Mostly. I have observed in my games, and I have seen examples on Biffa's (rarer), where the AI will select the ostensibly slower route (having put lots of time in to ensure lane restrictions are not preventing desired flow.).
I just want to point out that all three lanes being available to left-turning traffic is usually illegal in the US. It only works here because the opposite on-ramp is one-way and cannot conflict with anyone turning left into a far-right lane. In the US, if there is only one left turn lane, you MUST turn into the far left lane. Anything else is considered changing lanes in an intersection or an improper turn. You can be pulled over for it but few people are.
I wonder, how much more expensive would an interchange be with three levels of elevations? You can then split off the through traffic, let it go underneath the highway, while the left turns use the single point overpass above it. Another thing I'm wondering is, how would two single direction arteries, each with their own interchange, compare? The individual interchanges will be simpler, but you'll need two interchanges. Will this need more are less total space? Will you be able to use the area between the two arteries efficiently? You could have a district in between the two arteries on either side, like specialized industries.
One trick I've found works really well in the game: make a corridor using half-diamonds instead of full diamonds. Even in vanilla a half-diamond works great since it's just a 2-phase light and the other node is free-flowing. That way, even without special setup, you just have one 2-phase light and one free-flowing node, both of which work quite well. Then put bridges between the diamonds so the cross-road traffic is separate from the service interchanges.
I have to make a left turn through an intersection like this every morning on my way to work only a mile away from my house....its rough to say the least
For traffic lights in Singapore, they set it to 1 direction going straight & turning across both sets of lights so the bridge section always have some sort of movement to prevent backlogs.
What I've always dreamed of is a continuous flow diamond, so left turning traffic can go at the same time. Kinda the same concept as the DDI, but through traffic can also be prioritized if necessary
I felt like trying to draw out how this could be achieved, and a sort of SPUI/cloverleaf hybrid *may* work but it certainly has many disadvantages, and I'm not even sure if I can get one built in the game.
The road at the start is exactly the intersection just down the street from where I work. It’s one of the few areas in the county where the freeway isn’t free flowing.
I’m a big fan of SPUIs too! (and my fav system interchange is double trumpet 2 level interchange so don’t spoil city views). I think you might’ve missed that SPUIs can help in creating U-turns for the highway so making exits from only one highway side are possible. Here are the few (though unconcise) things I’ll note about the SPUI (2 min read) 1) cars turning from/to the highway via junction (left turns, in your case) might misjudge and enter the clogged junction when the entrance/arterial backlogs, rendering the entire junction useless. (it’s hell when there’s a 20sec timed traffic light (TTL) after that… In cities skylines enabling ‘enter blocked junctions’ makes it PAIN, blocking the whole junction. An IRL example: in Singapore, Paya Lebar Road exit off PIE. At the junction with Eunos Avenue 5, or Geylang East Central, it disallows right turns from the other side just to accommodate this. 2) Oncoming Collision. Like you said It’ll take some tinkering with node controller to prevent oncoming cars from colliding, and yes… IRL (sg example again) I’ve had near misses at the Cavenagh Road X Bukit Timah Road junction, where humans REFUSE to follow lane markings 3) Lane saturation into the highway (busy junctions only). This will be bad if your highway system uses weaving excessively. Using lane mathematics and letting cars accelerate before entering the highway may help, but in C:S I lost my battle against too many highway lanes because no one could enter/leave the saturated lane highway lane caused by the TTL, so I had to upgrade it to a 5-lane 😰 4) Pedestrians. As in the video, they can’t cross the arterial, though overhead bridges help, MY LEG PAIN. That being said, ped crossings off the slip lane are usually offsetted a little before the lane intersects with and joins the arterial, so cars only have to wait for one thing at a time, instead of the stars to align. Thanks for reading!
The green man is constantly on for traffic exiting the motorway, thus crossing in front of vehicles with their own green light, because you never assigned it a break from right turning traffic.
Cities Skylines is not perfect but it is possibly the greatest civil engineering teaching game ever. It makes you understand why traffic problems occur and makes you experiment and think outside the box to fix those problems while growing the city at the same time.
i like my bigger DDI in cs.. because you tend to have to design intersections bigger in the game (atleast till the new intersections mods came out) and the intersections are just straight throughs.. you can eliminate the only interchange with a short bridge/tunnel. pretty unrealistic but really helps traffic flow XD
when i first started playing, i would just try to replicate designs i have seen while driving around, and they seem to work pretty well in game. this is next level tho
Diamond interchanges (or roundabouts) has always been my go to for lower density areas. Mainly because of their compactness and that traffic hasn't needed anything more complex
Great vid. though the interchange at the end looks very dangerous until you started to put lights on it etc. However no mention of roundabouts, here in the UK we seem to have a lot of them above the motoway (freeway).
0:21 That truck is going through the crossing truck! Sure, it's game logic, but even for small rural interchanges it feels like this should really have more protection.
It's nice to see a functional single point interchange. I know of one in the SF Bay area that would be functional if it weren't for the intersections on either side of it not even a full city block away. Look up the I-680 and Monument Blvd interchange in Concord/Pleasant Hill, CA. It's a mess.
thinkj a better result would be the traffic from main highway be brought up and exited in the middle vs outward. then seperate the smaller road traffic with distance similar to the main highwy. Then it would be a traffic circle some what for traffic existing/entering from smaller road and no stop lights needed. Constant flow in both directions
15:00 A diverging diamond stack interchange has no lights and flows freely for crossing traffic, though it requires cloverleaf style weaving and takes up a lot of space for realistic ramps.
@@YUMBL Oh yeah! I looked that up and saw how it can be built to avoid the weaving problem. Thanks! They look very expensive for real life application. lol
@@YUMBL I mean not exactly just a roundabout but like a flyover roundabout would do just fine I think. Yes it’s not the best but it’s the easiest and gets the job done imo
At the regular diamond and diverging diamond it would be better to change the combined straight/right lane on the local road to a dedicated right lane. 13:59 shows a lot of traffic on the right lanes
In the System interchanges video, can you do the Bel Geddes interchange? It's also known as the full diamond interchange. It's not a service interchange, you'll probably have to do some research on it to work out exactly what it is, as it can be a bit hard to find as not many people know the name.
The lights current functions are TURN specific. Not LANE specific. And as there is no turn that the game acknowledges all the arrows remain straight. Go look if you need :)
@@YUMBL you can make them lane specific if you click "change mode" while setting up each turn. I do it all the time in my cities. Even if they don't show that they turn left, you can use the lane manager to make it a left turn lane. The effect is the same regardless
Great video. I would really like to see suggestions for an intersection between two high traffic density 6 lane roads. I try and space communities out, but my arterials get clogged into submission around 25-30,000 pop when I can't buy more land and need to increase size in other ways.
In Europe the diamond interchange is more common in the option with 2 roundabout's for example i thing that in my country i newer saw the diverging diamond or a single point.
Hey Yumbl, Great video. Regarding SPUI: I know you once did an episode with a single node SPUI as opposed to this 3 Node SPUI. Will you revisit that now that there is a free flowing right turn junction option?
Diamond -> SPUI would probably require a new bridge (by real world logic). A diamond interchange bridge is too long and skinny to accommodate the SPUI's kind of left turn.
Can you do a video on partial cloverleaf variants? I often use one or two looping roads to eliminate left turns in my cities, and in real life I see them all the time especially on lower capacity exits.
Hi Yumble, Love the videos. What mod is it that elevates the terrain to your bridge segments automatically? Was that a function of network multitool that I have been missing?
What are those environment ground textures and road textures? I want to have exactly the look you have. Looks clean and crisp/realistic. Checked your collection but can’t figure out which one it is. Can you point me to the right collection or specific mod please?
6:00 the possibility of that connection (even if it's not officially allowed) is why in NL they prefer half-cloverleafs if possible. If the freeway is backed up, people may decide to intentionally use the exit and go straight back onto the highway to avoid part of the jam.
you mentioned the through traffic in cities skylines being terrible. in that case its the faster route ( in theory) fix it by making the max speed a bit lower then they wont take it and you can keep the option open
@@YUMBL i understand theoreticly if the roads are winding and you have an offramp in a large bend the offramp can be seen as the shorter route and even though this isnt the "wrong" turn cars can still take the offramp en masse because its shorter at the time the route is calculated
What would you say would be the optimal spacing for the SPUI? I have a few set up in one of my cities, but traffic always seems to want to ignore the timed traffic lights I set up.
The sluggishness in the SPUI (and even the diamonds) is due to nodes being too close together. Remove the in-between nodes on the bridges and merge ramps. Ideally you don't want nodes within 6 units of each other or else traffic will hesitate until the next node is clear. Spread the nodes out and traffic will flow much better. Using Traffic Manager to force traffic will also cause sluggishness. You're better off using the lane arrows to direct traffic rather than dragging the colored lines. When you pack that many forced lane lines it bogs things down. Also... if you want realism you're still getting highway lane math wrong. Add a deceleration lane before subtracting your exit lane. If you start with 3 you should have 3 going through the underpass. ;-)
not everywhere does the last part, as such you'll be going along, minding your business, then bam your far right lane is now an exit only lane. its getting less common, for sure, but there is still interchanges that do this.
Its still a two lane in each direction highway Dean, so its fine. The sluggishness is not due to nodes being close together. Its due to the size of the nodes, and not having “enter blocked junction” enabled in traffic manager. Which i fixed and explained at the end.
@@YUMBL "The sluggishness is not due to nodes being close together. Its due to the size of the nodes, and not having “enter blocked junction” enabled in traffic manager" Even with turning enter-blocked-junction enabled I still notice a hesitation when nodes are too close together. Been doing a ton of experimenting. Anytime there is an in-between node when using Traffic manager to force traffic to stay in it's own lane it's much better to just remove the node(s). I see a noticeable difference when doing this on SPUI style interchanges. Can also mitigate using enter-block-junction to keep traffic from clogging up an intersection during a high flow times.
@@nightshadelenar As someone who spends about 30,000 miles a year on the US highway system, I can say you're right... however it's highly annoying when it does happen. They recently redid a stretch of highway near me and flubbed up the lane math and it causes all kinds of backups and accidents because it's forcing unnecessary lane switching with trucks and of course people not realizing their lane is ending until it's too late. Carinal Rule of Highway Lane Math: never ever molest your primary through traffic lane. Add exit lanes to the right and passing lanes to the left, but never ever force a through lane into an exit. Or worse yet, add a temporary slow-traffic/truck-climbing lane to the right. That's another pet peeve - but not something that happens in CS. LoL
Hey YUMBL! Awesome video! I was wondering if you could make a video on handling industrial traffic or traffic that comes from the cargo stations! Thank you!
I don't think i have the traffic flow function in my CS. I can control whether stop lights or signs but that's all I see. Is this dlc or a mod? If so can I have the name?
Hey! I really like your tutorials! They help a lot, but i have one question. Which Mods/DLC‘s do you use? Because just with Traffic Manager I can’t do all of these… Thanks forward! 🙏🏻
It's very nice, but I'll stick with dumbbell 'interchanges', a whole lot easier to build, no lights needed (can be added), but I know American's seem to have real problems with roundabouts, just look at the Milwaukee roundabout, lol.
The SPUI looks like a giant spider from the air. I went through a diverging diamond a while back in a section of Atlanta that’s always very busy and was amazed how much quicker it got us on the interstate than the same intersection from the early 2000s.
Great tutorial. I found your channel because City Planner Plays named something in one of his tutorials I’m watching.
Great tutorial, thanks! BTW - one of the complaints regarding both DD and SPUI is they are hell on pedestrians. I believe that is one of the reasons that here in Ontario, Canada we use a lot of Parclos and split access. (North exit is separated by kilometer from South exit.)
Another thing is toll booth. If your country's highway have toll booth on every entrance, you pretty much cannot have any kind of diamond interchange.
The biggest problem with a SPUI in real life and somewhat in the game is that it is a pedestrian and bicycle user death trap.
Problem? Solution :D !
Yes, simmiliar but smaller SPUI is in one small city near city where i live and it takes about 5 minutes to go through whole SPUI.
Pedestrian tunnel!
Yeah. You need to cross four traffic lights on foot at a SPUI, or two if right turning cars get a slip lane without a stop light, which is even more unpleasant for pedestrians. The "urban" part of the SPUI really only describes the relatively small formfactor, it doesn't create a better urban environment than a standard diamond or any other highway interchanges.
The best option both IRL and in game would be to provide pedestrians and cyclists alternative routes to cross the highway, ideally ones that are faster and not a detour.
That’s the advantage of an inverse SPUI. An inverse SPUI has the on and off ramps connecting on the inside of the highway so it only has ramps on the bridge and the intersection itself is no larger than a 4 lane road. However, they aren’t common IRL due to the danger of traffic backing up into the fast lanes of the expressway if something goes wrong at the light.
These tutorials are so incredibly helpful! I also very much appreciate the chapters!
Always! Thanks Joy :)
1:16 the yellow tractor trailer coming from the right said “excuse me”
I normally switch to a Dumbbell interchange, or a Pinched Roundabout interchange instead of going for a DD or a SPUI, they also use the same bridge from a Diamond interchange, and don't increase the space used up that much either side of the highway.
One thing about through traffic on the diamond. It’s not just for mistakes, those corners are where the gas stations are. I’d typically put commercial on those corners - traffic be damned. Lol
"It's dangerous, but it's working." Yeah, that sounds like the way we do things.
30 seconds in and that Car ran straight into a truck, kept me watching though lmao Great tutorial, and subbed!
Your videos about intersections are still some of the very best on RUclips. Keep up the good work.
TMPE allows the first solution to be possible, with two simple steps:
1) Allow queueing for the both highways and both exits from the middle bit.
2) Leave right lines to be turn only, so the traffic would use only one to go thru, and split in two in the middle also.
I've got similar setups all over my city (the light-less metropolis format), and there's no significant backings occuring (mind you, i'm playing with despawn *disabled,* so every car has to wait till the ends of the world)
another variant of a service interchange is something that texas does.
have 2 frontage roads on each side, with exit ramps just before a overpass, with a traffic light on each end.
That straight-thru option on the diamond interchange will be fantastic in cities skylines two in the event that those shoddy rural highway road conditions cause a traffic accident under the overpass.
Dude, my favorite intersection is the SPPC that you made 1 and 2 years ago in two videos. Literally, when I saw it, it became one of my most used by far. Not only because it manages traffic excellent, but also because it’s gorgeous itself. Your intersection videos are awesome! Well, in general, your videos are awesome!
I've came up with a design capable of supporting low to mild moderate traffic in a very compact footprint: a separated and elevated lane to pass through a turning junction. The go-through choice was made in observation to where the traffic turns the most.
It's also made on your "de-escaled" roads from some videos ago. I'm having a lot of fun with this map!
Straight-through also allows over-sized cargo! Not that it exist in-game
Also for road closures. If there was an accident in between the exit and entrance ramps, that would be a great way to divert traffic.
Over here (Belgium), the traffic planning usually tries to prevent people from using the slip lanes to get back onto the highway - not only by only allowing left and right turns, but often by creating physical barriers to prevent them from simply passing through straight. This is because otherwise there will always be some smartasses who try to bypass a part of the highway when there is a traffic jam, and thus by weaving back in further ahead, making the jam even worse than it was already.
I do like the idea of stopping them.
Your interchange tutorials are amazing. I used your small SPUI to help fix through traffic in my city. It took me over an hour to get it setup (even after practicing once). But, it works amazingly well.
I prefer the sppc, literally now is my favourite intersection. Maybe it’s a little big but it is gorgeous. Have a look at it!
4:29 I dont get get. There is a problem that the cars just use one lane because its the shortest way. Could be solved if there is a way to exit the highway to the left too. So some go left some right... all lanes will be used. Why not make a U turn on the highway (not realistic) 100 m above the entrance north. And not allow going to the left comming from south via the first exit. There is a name for that kind of junction. So lane math comes right in also. No problems then... right?
I come for the interesting content, but also your presentation style lowers my blood pressure about 10 points. Sometimes I'm _really_ trying to pay attention, and I just drift off to sleep.
Awesome! This is a real diamond of a video with a good, single point, and a pleasant diversion to watch!
Great analogy!👍
If you do another 5b1c, I think you should just manage interchanges and transit flow for the whole city, rather than doing a local neighborhood and town center somewhere.
I usually start with a diamond and then replace on of the ramps with a loop if there’s a disproportionate amount of left-turning traffic from that side. The loop makes it right-turning. It can progressively build towards a complete parclo as needed.
Diamond with one loop is the dominant interchange where I live and it’s quite easy to see why.
Loops are their own video ;)
The beginning roads reminded me of driving in north Mississippi. First time ever experienced those kind of interchanges and it scared the crap out of me.
super helpful, i get a lot more abt roads and intersections now! my town actually had a busy intersection and they upgraded it to a crossway, i'm sure it was necessary and the planning ppl discussed it heavily but every driver hates driving on it 😅
This reminds me so much of Gainesville and Haymarket in VA. Spui for Gainesville, diverging Diamond for haymarket.
When I started using the SPUI (from one of your guides), it was a massive improvement over the messes I was using before. The reason I don't use them as often now is because I saw your Single-Point Parclo guide, and I fell in love. They work well, and look amazing.
i appreciate diverging diamonds and whatnot are great if the infrastructure is already there, but my brain was screaming ‘grade separated roundabout’ for about 23 minutes, great video
Bypass roundabout can be a great low-med volume solution.
21:00 theres one in indianapolis in the south east side, the interstate and cross road both have huge amounts of traffic but this junction always moves. The fact that you dont have to fight through 2 traffic lights that are almost never synced up is the biggest time saving traffic moving factor.
I have a lot of traffic jam around my highways and this is incredibily useful. Thank you
Somebody actually said SPUIs are better than Diverging Diamonds! I've been obsessing over SPUIs for about a year now, and only ever hear anybody talk about the benefits of DDs as though they have no drawbacks. I'm like, "No, dude, DDs are great for getting cars on the highway, but they're terrible for through traffic, whereas SPUIs do everything equally well."
They both are great, the SPUI works better with lots of straight traffic, crossing the highway, the DDI works best when lots of traffic want to enter the highway and less goes straight over it.
The best way I've found to avoid through-traffic in the service interchange intersections is to make sure the speed limit is properly set on the off-ramp/on-ramp. Ie. it should never be that the through-traffic should have a higher speed limit than the highway. The cims will chose the one with best speed. So if you have an highway off/on-ramp 100km/h and a rural two-way two-lane highway underneath at what is it, 60km/h or 80, the cars will prefer the off/on-ramp. With that there shouldn't need to be a need to force lane choices in the intersections, other than adding the asymmetric turn lanes, which often helps.
Mostly. I have observed in my games, and I have seen examples on Biffa's (rarer), where the AI will select the ostensibly slower route (having put lots of time in to ensure lane restrictions are not preventing desired flow.).
5:55 Also if you don’t fit under the underpass this allows you to go through
No, every street legal vehicle should he able to fit under an interstate overpass.
I just want to point out that all three lanes being available to left-turning traffic is usually illegal in the US. It only works here because the opposite on-ramp is one-way and cannot conflict with anyone turning left into a far-right lane. In the US, if there is only one left turn lane, you MUST turn into the far left lane. Anything else is considered changing lanes in an intersection or an improper turn. You can be pulled over for it but few people are.
I wonder, how much more expensive would an interchange be with three levels of elevations? You can then split off the through traffic, let it go underneath the highway, while the left turns use the single point overpass above it.
Another thing I'm wondering is, how would two single direction arteries, each with their own interchange, compare? The individual interchanges will be simpler, but you'll need two interchanges. Will this need more are less total space? Will you be able to use the area between the two arteries efficiently? You could have a district in between the two arteries on either side, like specialized industries.
One trick I've found works really well in the game: make a corridor using half-diamonds instead of full diamonds. Even in vanilla a half-diamond works great since it's just a 2-phase light and the other node is free-flowing. That way, even without special setup, you just have one 2-phase light and one free-flowing node, both of which work quite well. Then put bridges between the diamonds so the cross-road traffic is separate from the service interchanges.
I have to make a left turn through an intersection like this every morning on my way to work only a mile away from my house....its rough to say the least
The quality of the video... God I thought I was on a TED talk about interchanges 100/10
Whoa, thank you :)
I love how the truck just ran into that car and went right through it. LOL!
YUMBL aka "Mr. Interchange Obsession" ;-) I love the level of detail and effort you put in all your designs and videos! Thank you!
Changing traffic light times, and allowing the exit ramps from the south allowing both lanes to turn left would help, as it seems popular.
For traffic lights in Singapore, they set it to 1 direction going straight & turning across both sets of lights so the bridge section always have some sort of movement to prevent backlogs.
What I've always dreamed of is a continuous flow diamond, so left turning traffic can go at the same time. Kinda the same concept as the DDI, but through traffic can also be prioritized if necessary
I felt like trying to draw out how this could be achieved, and a sort of SPUI/cloverleaf hybrid *may* work but it certainly has many disadvantages, and I'm not even sure if I can get one built in the game.
I gotchu ruclips.net/video/VyE3w07i2DY/видео.html
The road at the start is exactly the intersection just down the street from where I work. It’s one of the few areas in the county where the freeway isn’t free flowing.
I’m a big fan of SPUIs too! (and my fav system interchange is double trumpet 2 level interchange so don’t spoil city views).
I think you might’ve missed that SPUIs can help in creating U-turns for the highway so making exits from only one highway side are possible.
Here are the few (though unconcise) things I’ll note about the SPUI (2 min read)
1) cars turning from/to the highway via junction (left turns, in your case) might misjudge and enter the clogged junction when the entrance/arterial backlogs, rendering the entire junction useless. (it’s hell when there’s a 20sec timed traffic light (TTL) after that… In cities skylines enabling ‘enter blocked junctions’ makes it PAIN, blocking the whole junction. An IRL example: in Singapore, Paya Lebar Road exit off PIE. At the junction with Eunos Avenue 5, or Geylang East Central, it disallows right turns from the other side just to accommodate this.
2) Oncoming Collision. Like you said It’ll take some tinkering with node controller to prevent oncoming cars from colliding, and yes… IRL (sg example again) I’ve had near misses at the Cavenagh Road X Bukit Timah Road junction, where humans REFUSE to follow lane markings
3) Lane saturation into the highway (busy junctions only). This will be bad if your highway system uses weaving excessively. Using lane mathematics and letting cars accelerate before entering the highway may help, but in C:S I lost my battle against too many highway lanes because no one could enter/leave the saturated lane highway lane caused by the TTL, so I had to upgrade it to a 5-lane 😰
4) Pedestrians. As in the video, they can’t cross the arterial, though overhead bridges help, MY LEG PAIN. That being said, ped crossings off the slip lane are usually offsetted a little before the lane intersects with and joins the arterial, so cars only have to wait for one thing at a time, instead of the stars to align.
Thanks for reading!
The green man is constantly on for traffic exiting the motorway, thus crossing in front of vehicles with their own green light, because you never assigned it a break from right turning traffic.
Best channel for interchange tutorials in my opinion! Been watching you for a while.
Cities Skylines is not perfect but it is possibly the greatest civil engineering teaching game ever.
It makes you understand why traffic problems occur and makes you experiment and think outside the box to fix those problems while growing the city at the same time.
i like my bigger DDI in cs.. because you tend to have to design intersections bigger in the game (atleast till the new intersections mods came out) and the intersections are just straight throughs.. you can eliminate the only interchange with a short bridge/tunnel. pretty unrealistic but really helps traffic flow XD
when i first started playing, i would just try to replicate designs i have seen while driving around, and they seem to work pretty well in game. this is next level tho
Diamond interchanges (or roundabouts) has always been my go to for lower density areas. Mainly because of their compactness and that traffic hasn't needed anything more complex
roundabouts *on* the highway or roundabouts replacing the intersections on small diamond interchanges?
Great vid. though the interchange at the end looks very dangerous until you started to put lights on it etc. However no mention of roundabouts, here in the UK we seem to have a lot of them above the motoway (freeway).
0:21 That truck is going through the crossing truck! Sure, it's game logic, but even for small rural interchanges it feels like this should really have more protection.
4:31
♫ Déjà vu ♫
♫ I've just been in this place before ♫
♫ Higher on the street ♫
♫ And I know it's my time to go ♫
It's nice to see a functional single point interchange. I know of one in the SF Bay area that would be functional if it weren't for the intersections on either side of it not even a full city block away. Look up the I-680 and Monument Blvd interchange in Concord/Pleasant Hill, CA. It's a mess.
Gotta love the semi getting blasted 20 seconds into your video about better intersections
I didn’t see anyone get hit. In fact, I’ve never seen anyone get hit in Cities Skylines…
Can you do a lightless service interchange for constant flow?
Yes, with roundabouts. Though those are not conflict free. Any true conflict free interchange would be a system interchange.
thinkj a better result would be the traffic from main highway be brought up and exited in the middle vs outward. then seperate the smaller road traffic with distance similar to the main highwy. Then it would be a traffic circle some what for traffic existing/entering from smaller road and no stop lights needed. Constant flow in both directions
"Small junctions that work" Meanwhile, a box truck going down the highway took out that 18-wheeler crossing over lol.
I'm surprised by the lack of representation of trumpet style interchanges where exiting (or entering) traffic has to make a 180 to T intersection
The through trafic on offramp intersections is a big problem when there is a traffic jam on the highway.
15:00 A diverging diamond stack interchange has no lights and flows freely for crossing traffic, though it requires cloverleaf style weaving and takes up a lot of space for realistic ramps.
I believe you’re describing a “DCMI”. None exist in real life currently.
@@YUMBL Oh yeah! I looked that up and saw how it can be built to avoid the weaving problem. Thanks! They look very expensive for real life application. lol
without mods, the best I've found is, enter on one side of the road, and exit on the other... lots of little bridges to enter the highway.
but...why not a roundabout? So much easier :)
Americans will invent the most convoluted interchanges just to not have a roundabout.
Roundabout absolutely will not work here: ruclips.net/video/yK4T09tyaAw/видео.html
@@YUMBL I mean not exactly just a roundabout but like a flyover roundabout would do just fine I think. Yes it’s not the best but it’s the easiest and gets the job done imo
At the regular diamond and diverging diamond it would be better to change the combined straight/right lane on the local road to a dedicated right lane. 13:59 shows a lot of traffic on the right lanes
You absolutely can :)
In the System interchanges video, can you do the Bel Geddes interchange? It's also known as the full diamond interchange. It's not a service interchange, you'll probably have to do some research on it to work out exactly what it is, as it can be a bit hard to find as not many people know the name.
19:03 If you click change mode when setting up your timed lights, you can get lane-specific lights. Handy for left turn arrows
There is no left turn recognized by the game in this situation. Thats what I explained in the moment.
@YUMBL yes, but you can replicate the effect by only having the left lanes turn in their own step
The lights current functions are TURN specific. Not LANE specific. And as there is no turn that the game acknowledges all the arrows remain straight. Go look if you need :)
@@YUMBL you can make them lane specific if you click "change mode" while setting up each turn. I do it all the time in my cities. Even if they don't show that they turn left, you can use the lane manager to make it a left turn lane. The effect is the same regardless
ruclips.net/user/shortsyfoMGg3_MbU?feature=share
Great video. I would really like to see suggestions for an intersection between two high traffic density 6 lane roads. I try and space communities out, but my arterials get clogged into submission around 25-30,000 pop when I can't buy more land and need to increase size in other ways.
A quadrant interchange may be the answer. ruclips.net/video/sV1k4QoFowQ/видео.html
@@YUMBL Wonderful recommendation! That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
Right at the start of the video (0:20) the AI traffic just barrels through a semi truck trailer like it's invisible.
have you ever tried a ramp meter? if there is a merge from 2 lane to 1 lane a ramp meter is sometimes used if the highway is frequently congested.
Not familiar with the term, but is that basically traffic lights that quickly switch between the two lanes, one car at a time?
@@simongeard4824 well yeah, if the highway is congested
In Europe the diamond interchange is more common in the option with 2 roundabout's for example i thing that in my country i newer saw the diverging diamond or a single point.
That's either a dumbbell or a dogbone interchange
@@ajmeipalu1051 really i don't care how it's called :p
Hey Yumbl, Great video. Regarding SPUI: I know you once did an episode with a single node SPUI as opposed to this 3 Node SPUI. Will you revisit that now that there is a free flowing right turn junction option?
Oh, i havent seen that option yet
This isn't a tutorial
This is pure entertainment 😂
The new "how it's made"
thankyou for the tutorials, it helps me to get a better understanding on how to fix traffics! btw can I know what mods are you using for this??
Thanks! My mod collection is linked in the description
I like to combine single point and diverging diamond. Has the footprint of the single point and efficiency of diverging diamond.
That’s a very good idea!
May i ask which visual mods you are using?
Diamond -> SPUI would probably require a new bridge (by real world logic). A diamond interchange bridge is too long and skinny to accommodate the SPUI's kind of left turn.
The local road turns get widened, yes
Can you do a video on partial cloverleaf variants? I often use one or two looping roads to eliminate left turns in my cities, and in real life I see them all the time especially on lower capacity exits.
I’ve made many videos about the parclo :) ruclips.net/video/czfrH-HRiXg/видео.html
*just one more lane, bro*
that "rural" road jumped from two lanes to six real quick
Proportionate to the traffic, yes. Also, it was initially a four lane road.
i do think you missed a step from the at grade crossing to the diamond interchange and that would be the Michigan left junction
Thats just its own video: ruclips.net/video/OoFnIVCfHz0/видео.html
How did you get the roads, at the node points, to appear nicely and not overlapping or missing parts of the road?
The cloverleaf works well too
Hi Yumble, Love the videos. What mod is it that elevates the terrain to your bridge segments automatically? Was that a function of network multitool that I have been missing?
Thanks! Its network anarchy that manipulates weather a road is elevated, grounded, or tunnel.
Yumbl: (shows first intersection)
Me: hey, that looks familiar! 😂
In Europe we simply build a little roundabout on side that solves most of the problems.
ruclips.net/video/3dDHJZ1AWVY/видео.html indeed!
Incredibly helpfull thx :)
What are those environment ground textures and road textures? I want to have exactly the look you have. Looks clean and crisp/realistic.
Checked your collection but can’t figure out which one it is. Can you point me to the right collection or specific mod please?
I think my map theme is “Seychelles”. ruclips.net/video/U7_GNf-asYc/видео.html
I've never seen that first example with turns on the highway road
6:00 the possibility of that connection (even if it's not officially allowed) is why in NL they prefer half-cloverleafs if possible. If the freeway is backed up, people may decide to intentionally use the exit and go straight back onto the highway to avoid part of the jam.
That concept is upsetting. Some people have no consideration for others.
you mentioned the through traffic in cities skylines being terrible. in that case its the faster route ( in theory) fix it by making the max speed a bit lower then they wont take it and you can keep the option open
Yes, but since no one makes a wrong turn in CS it’s unnecessary. I just wanted to acknowledge the real life benefits.
@@YUMBL i understand theoreticly if the roads are winding and you have an offramp in a large bend the offramp can be seen as the shorter route and even though this isnt the "wrong" turn cars can still take the offramp en masse because its shorter at the time the route is calculated
What would you say would be the optimal spacing for the SPUI? I have a few set up in one of my cities, but traffic always seems to want to ignore the timed traffic lights I set up.
Your nodes are just too close together. I’m not sure of the exact amount. They have to be spaced out enough to work well.
The sluggishness in the SPUI (and even the diamonds) is due to nodes being too close together. Remove the in-between nodes on the bridges and merge ramps. Ideally you don't want nodes within 6 units of each other or else traffic will hesitate until the next node is clear. Spread the nodes out and traffic will flow much better. Using Traffic Manager to force traffic will also cause sluggishness. You're better off using the lane arrows to direct traffic rather than dragging the colored lines. When you pack that many forced lane lines it bogs things down. Also... if you want realism you're still getting highway lane math wrong. Add a deceleration lane before subtracting your exit lane. If you start with 3 you should have 3 going through the underpass. ;-)
not everywhere does the last part, as such you'll be going along, minding your business, then bam your far right lane is now an exit only lane. its getting less common, for sure, but there is still interchanges that do this.
Its still a two lane in each direction highway Dean, so its fine. The sluggishness is not due to nodes being close together. Its due to the size of the nodes, and not having “enter blocked junction” enabled in traffic manager. Which i fixed and explained at the end.
@@YUMBL "The sluggishness is not due to nodes being close together. Its due to the size of the nodes, and not having “enter blocked junction” enabled in traffic manager" Even with turning enter-blocked-junction enabled I still notice a hesitation when nodes are too close together. Been doing a ton of experimenting. Anytime there is an in-between node when using Traffic manager to force traffic to stay in it's own lane it's much better to just remove the node(s). I see a noticeable difference when doing this on SPUI style interchanges. Can also mitigate using enter-block-junction to keep traffic from clogging up an intersection during a high flow times.
@@nightshadelenar As someone who spends about 30,000 miles a year on the US highway system, I can say you're right... however it's highly annoying when it does happen. They recently redid a stretch of highway near me and flubbed up the lane math and it causes all kinds of backups and accidents because it's forcing unnecessary lane switching with trucks and of course people not realizing their lane is ending until it's too late. Carinal Rule of Highway Lane Math: never ever molest your primary through traffic lane. Add exit lanes to the right and passing lanes to the left, but never ever force a through lane into an exit. Or worse yet, add a temporary slow-traffic/truck-climbing lane to the right. That's another pet peeve - but not something that happens in CS. LoL
Hey YUMBL! Awesome video! I was wondering if you could make a video on handling industrial traffic or traffic that comes from the cargo stations! Thank you!
Did you manufacture the diverging diamond intersections? And if so, any way to share those or show how you made them.
Here you go! ruclips.net/video/ulinfqLaVOE/видео.html ruclips.net/video/BFuvKtYZ2YM/видео.html
It’s two videos :)
@@YUMBL well I guess now I have to subscribe don't I??
At your discretion! :)
I don't think i have the traffic flow function in my CS. I can control whether stop lights or signs but that's all I see. Is this dlc or a mod? If so can I have the name?
Wait, the lights you added at the end seemed to make it worse. Is it just more realistic this way?
Yes.
Hey! I really like your tutorials! They help a lot, but i have one question. Which Mods/DLC‘s do you use? Because just with Traffic Manager I can’t do all of these… Thanks forward! 🙏🏻
Thanks! My collection of mods on steam is linked in the description :)
@@YUMBL thank you very much!
It's very nice, but I'll stick with dumbbell 'interchanges', a whole lot easier to build, no lights needed (can be added), but I know American's seem to have real problems with roundabouts, just look at the Milwaukee roundabout, lol.
The moment you add roundabouts capacity is reduced severely ruclips.net/video/3dDHJZ1AWVY/видео.html
Make small on and off ramps makes it easier
How about dumbbell interchanges we see a lot of the in the uk
Already covered in another video