In Sim City 2000 traffic was represented by little blue squares on roads. The heavier the traffic, the denser the blue squares. In Sim City 3000 you can see real cars, which is nice, especially as there are different types (garbage trucks, civilian cars, farming vehicles etc.). However, they just appear on the road and disappear a few minutes later. So, following natural progression, SC4000 should have proper cars that actually start and finish somewhere. Cars shouldn't just appear on roads, you should be able to see them drive out of a garage or building; or come over roads connected to neighbouring cities. They should keep going until they get to where they want to go. Obviously this'll require a more complex transport model, but this alone would make the behaviour of cities far more realistic.

Let's take the Gigamall, which is a large shopping centre provided by one of the business deals in in SC3000. Does this affect traffic on the surrounding roads at all? No! Surely a shopping centre that size would have some affect?! Similarly, the stadium. If you've got tens of thousands of people travelling to one place every now and then, this is surely going to affect traffic!

Whatever happens, please can we stop having people driving down roads that are dead ends and then just turning back?

Airports

The appearance of aeroplanes in Sim City has always been a little bit of a problem, as in most people's idea of the future aeroplanes will be quite different (despite the fact that the fastest passenger plane we've got now - Concorde, has been around since the 60s). Whether that'll come true or not, it's would be reasonable to assume that we won't still have Jumbo Jets flying around in about 500 years time, so the appearance of aeroplanes should change as time progresses.

The size of airports should also make quite a big difference to their appearance. Small airports in a small city shouldn't have the same huge runways and hangars that the large airports do, they should have 1 or maybe 2 runways, a small control tower, and a couple of smallish hangars and other buildings. The planes taking off and landing should be mostly light aircraft, not big 747s. Then as your city grows, so should the airport (providing you expand it of course). 1-2 runways should turn into many more than that, and they should also become much longer (larger planes need longer runways). The control tower should be much bigger, and the other buildings should get larger and larger, so that you end up with a large internation airport with lots of terminals.

Another thing - having runways running right alongside the airport buildings isn't really a good idea ;-). Most of the land occupied by airports is taken up by runways and tarmac/fields. Sim City should be no different, unless the Sim architects have a death wish. If you've got a large international airport, it should also be one of the busiest places in your city traffic wise.

Buses

Bus depots, introduced in SC2000, were simply buildings that you stuck near junctions to reduce traffic. The bus stops in SC3000 are the same, except they are 1x1 instead of 2x2, and they don't seem to make as much difference. I also think their size is wrong. I don't know many bus stops that are the width of the road that they are beside.

What would be far better would be if you could build bus depots, and then the game would automatically place bus stops in nearby areas of heavy traffic. There would have to be a limit of course, say 12. These bus stops would be put on the same square as existing roads, making things a little more realistic. If you want to make it even more realistic, buses could pull over and people get on and off them, for extra realism they could occassionally come along in twos or threes...

You should also be able to add bus lanes to minor and major roads (see below).

Connections

Connections to your neighbours are something all cities ask for after a while, but they don't seem to have any affect on your city. If you build a highway connection to a neighbour, it'd be good if you could see cars come from neighbouring cities and drive to a nearby shopping centre, or theme park.

Cycles

There should be ordinances which you can use to encourage Sims to use bikes instead of cars. You should also be able to place cycle lanes on roads and build cycle paths through certain areas.

Highways

Highways were first introduced in SC2000, but really didn't change much between 2000 and 3000. Highways in SC3000 seem to be very suspect indeed, people just don't seem to use them!

I think the appearance of highways should change. For example, it's only worth having a raised highway if you have smaller roads that need to go underneath. In both SC2000 and 3000, if you build a highway from the edge of your city to one of your neighbours, it'll be raised even if it's in the middle of nowhere! Also, there should be a change in the way highways end. I don't know how highways work in the US, but certainly here in the UK they don't just stop, leaving cars to just drive off the edge (or in SC3000 - turn round and go in the other direction).

Several people have suggested the inclusion of a toll ordinance to force users of your highways to pay a small fare to use the road. This would probably reduce traffic (on the highways at least), and provide you with some income at the same time.

Monorail

A common request this one, why not introduce a monorail system after about 2030? A monorail would be just the same as a railway, except it'd be above ground, it'd look cool and wouldn't pollute. It would be fast and efficient, so it would reduce traffic more than subway and rail does.

Rail

As with the Bus services, I think the biggest problem with the rail buildings is the size of the train stations. Not all stations are the same size, in fact they vary a great deal. You have some stations in rural areas that are very small, and only have 1 platform, and you have huge stations in cities that have absolutely loads of platforms, loads of train lines leading in and out of them, and sidings for trains not in use. I'm not suggesting that you should be able to zone stations, but if you build two next to each other they should merge to create a larger one. That way as your city develops and you get more and more trains and lines, you can expand your stations as necessary. If you don't expand them, you get complaints from Sims and your transport advisor of huge train delays and the occassional crash. Stations should also appear to be overcrowded.

Finally, there's not much point having only one platform on one side of the track, as then only people travelling in one direction can get off trains!

You should also be able to build Elevated trains (or "El" trains, like in Chicago and the DLR in London). These would be good for the people who build their rail system as an afterthought, after their city's pretty build up.

Roads

I think the best way to do the road system would be to have 3 differnt types of roads: minor road, major road, and highway. In a small city all you have are minor roads, but as the city grows you can upgrade busy minor roads to major roads (which would be wider and have 4 lanes instead of 2), you can then upgrade major roads to highways if the traffic gets heavy etc. There should also be another type of road which the Sims build themselves to connect buildings in zoned areas to the roads around them. At the moment, if you build a residential area 6x6 tiles, with a road all the way round, how exactly do the sims who live in the middle get to their houses?

I'd also like it if we could have a little more control over the flow of traffic. For example, you should be able to make roads into one-way streets, which would be useful if you've got a busy town centre. Maybe you could also set priorities at junctions, or place roundabouts or crossroads.

Road works

And why not? All cities have them! Just occassionally, your road workers could close off a section of road while they make repairs to it. This'll cause chaos unless your sims have alternate routes to use, or you have a good train/subway system, so you'll have to make your transport system good. If you don't give your transportation department any money, no roadworks take place and roads gradually get bumpier and bumpier until they fall to pieces. This could be particularly spectacular with bridges ;-).

Other transportation ideas

Below are a few other ideas. If you like the sound of them, email me and tell me how you think they should work!

• Trams
• Canals
• Ferries - if you've got a river in your city, why not?
• Tunnels under rivers and underground
• Taxis

Contributors: st_nick1219@yahoo.com, Derek Toro, John Hsu, "Ian", Adam Neary, Neal Sivley, Terry Miller, Joachim Noreiko, Eleanor Fountain.