Transport and parking

Trips connect the city: residents commute, shop, visit services and travel to school. The available destinations depend on the time and capacity of the routes between them. A job or school can be nearby on the map and still be difficult to reach.

Walking and driving

Walking uses the pedestrian network, including pavements and crossings. Junction waits contribute to walking time. Shops, schools and jobs close to homes are useful only when the street layout provides a walkable connection.

The maximum walking trip is about 32½ minutes, equivalent to 2.7 kilometres or 169 map cells without crossing delays.

The limit applies to the route people can actually walk, including junction waits. Detours and time spent waiting to cross reduce the distance they can cover within that budget; straight-line distance between buildings is not enough. See Junctions, traffic lights and roundabouts for crossing waits.

Residents choose between walking, driving, bus and metro according to journey time and available transport. Keeping a car requires enough income and nearby parking; residents without one rely on walking and transit.

Drivers also need somewhere to park at the destination. A long walk from a spare space and time spent searching make the car journey less attractive.

Parking

Buildings provide different amounts of on-site parking. Street with Parking and Boulevard variants add kerbside spaces; public parking lots and garages provide additional supply.

Use Parking and Car ownership layers together. Parking pressure near jobs can be a daytime problem, while a residential district may lack enough spaces for its households at night. Extra spaces near one end of a journey do not solve a shortage at the other.

Transit and short walking trips can reduce dependence on parking. Consider both before acquiring a large developed site for a car park.

Buses

Place Bus Stops beside roads and build a Bus Depot on the same network to supply the buses.

You do not draw bus routes. Service depends on demand, available buses and the distance from depots to stops. Distant stops leave less time for buses to carry passengers.

Place stops within walking reach of both homes and destinations. Check Bus service and Society → Transport for service, waiting times and ridership. If a stop is inactive, inspect whether it lacks a depot, road connectivity or staff.

Buses are affected by road congestion.

Metro

Metro needs tunnels, stations and a staffed Metro Depot with trains. It has its own network, independent of road congestion, but people still need to walk to and from stations.

1. Use Metro Tunnel to draw a line through the corridor you want to serve. Drag from an existing line's end to extend it; a separate stroke starts a new line.
2. Place stations where their underground platform rooms can meet the track. Use R to turn the station preview when necessary. A station comes in three sizes: a 1x1 entrance, a 2x2 station and a 3x3 interchange. A bigger station sits over a longer platform room with more stairs, passes more riders a day and needs more staff. Use a larger one where a station's boardings run past what it can pass.
3. Connect a line end into a Metro Depot. A running line cannot pass through a depot and continue out the other side.
4. Let the buildings finish and check staff, trains, station service and ridership.

Use Underground to inspect and edit track. Tunnels cannot cross at right angles; lines can share track in the same direction. Erasing the middle of a line splits it. The placement preview explains platform-room and track conflicts.

School transport

A School Bus Depot supplies a separate fleet for pupils. Ordinary bus depots do not supply those vehicles. School-bus drivers and operations are funded with education, so a cut there can reduce effective school access.

See City services for the difference between an available school place and a place a child can reach.

Congestion and capacity

The Road traffic layer shows where trips are pressing against capacity. Sustained congestion can reduce access to jobs, shops and services; it is more than a visual queue. Worn roads also lengthen journeys.

Look for a specific bottleneck: a single bridge, a disconnected street, an overloaded junction, poor parking or a missing walking connection. Then compare alternatives such as another crossing, a shorter local trip, buses or metro. Use Society → Transport to judge the result after the changes have had time to affect travel.

In Arcade, buses unlock at 50,000 residents and metro at 250,000. These population locks do not apply in Simulation.