Traffic

Traffic Condition Map

Traffic of your city increases as the population increases. Traffic congestion has a negative impact on your city's economy and general well being. It causes your Sims to skip work and your emergency fire, police and health vehicles to get stuck in traffic. Through smart planning of roads and zones and the use of mass transit you can minimize traffic congestion even with a highly populated city.

  • Players can view their traffic condition by opening the road construction tab. Green and yellow lines indicate light to moderate traffic. Orange and red lines show heavy to stand still traffic.

Ways to Improve Traffic

  • Upgrading roads. By upgrading your roads to higher density or changing streets for avenues. You can improve traffic, at least temporarily.
  • Mass Transit. Players build a network of buses and streetcars to remove the number of cars on the road and improve traffic.
    • Note that only low and medium wealth Sims will ride buses and streetcars.
  • Few intersections. Do not construct too many intersections at heavily congested areas such as the road entering your city from the regional highway. Red lights at intersections cause cars to pause and back up the traffic.
  • Use T intersections, a trick that is commonly used is to put a medium wealth road at the nearest avenue to cause a stop sign, lowering traffic greatly.