Show us your...Intersections

[ophiuchus14]

Looking forward to it   

Anyway here's my designs for a roundabout interchange - one Maxis highway and the other RHW.

[j-dub]

See attached images. The reason why the textures are jagged at the bottom picture is because the SC4 world is not meant to be seen full 3-D rotation, and that close. (car is not my modding)

[Korot]

How did you do that? It looks awfully similar.

Regards,
Korot

[j-dub]

Similar, but I made some slight altering. The bottom picture is a pre-render from my memory, but when I went back to see the intersection in real life, I modified where the walk signals were hung. I wanted to get the signal positioning more accurate. However, shortly after making this intersection in game, it just so happens that these traffic lights were replaced in reality, they managed to save the poles, but the lights are like the first picture, except with black backs.

To customize your own avenue intersection real quick, take the SC4 dinosaur for a ride, then spin his tale around an avenue intersection, he then will remove all the existing avenue traffic lights, so you can replace them with your own models.

[pagenotfound]

muahahahahha

[j-dub]

Uh, yeah, I'll say, that looks confusing. An evil setup, just like Disney worlds massively complicated highway system.

[cwhtly]

Here's a simple diamond between a RHW-4 and an avenue.  this is somewhat representative of most of the avenue intersections I pass over on my regular route to work each day. 



I haven't yet figured out how to best model the u-turn underpasses, and any feedback RE any aspect is greatly appreciated. 

Here's a google earth example of the type of intersection I'm trying to replicate



Cheers!

[emgmod]

Frontage roads? Great idea!

[Ryan B.]

I had some frontage road ideas . . . . I'll have to check my files and see if I still have them. 

[Floydian]

Ah frontage roads. The scar of bad freeway design - building them over an existing right of way and using frontage roads as a means of providing access to adjacent properties that the highway cut off, instead of building the highway along a new right of way that doesn't interrupt properties. They're nice and all... until the highway needs to be expanded.

And so I present the superior alternative to frontage roads, a collector-express system, complete with parclo A4.

[DJSun1981]

"real" planned intersections:

[canyonjumper]

What kind of designs are those? You will never see that kind of complexity in BC. Those look like they would confuse the average motorist, expecially the second-to-last one. What do you mean by "real" planned?

               -Jordan

[zakuten]

@cwhtly-- I know they're not considered stylish, but for a full frontage-road system, mightn't it be best to use Maxis highways with their parallel ramps to road, so as to not break the usability with those small sections of RHW2 becoming RHW-4...

[BigSlark]

Ah frontage roads. The scar of bad freeway design - building them over an existing right of way and using frontage roads as a means of providing access to adjacent properties that the highway cut off, instead of building the highway along a new right of way that doesn't interrupt properties. They're nice and all... until the highway needs to be expanded.

Actually, Texas (and some other states that have copied their design) built frontage roads to spur commercial development and have become such a popular institution in Texas that they can't fathom building an urban or suburban freeway without them.

Jackson, Mississippi did just that in the early 1950's (pre-Interstate highways) and the resulting commercial corridor has been the shopping heart of the city since the 1960's.

Peace,
Kevin

[Floydian]

It was done here in Ontario on our first freeway, The Queen Elizabeth Way. It was built over the concession road around 1935. Ontario didn't have a law that allowed the government to restrict a property owner from constructing a driveway to a road until 1939. Since then, they built frontage roads to make the QEW a true freeway, and ribbon development/suburban spawl has consumed the entirety of the first 80 km (50mi) of the highway. The frontage roads have made it essentially impossible to widen the congested highways.

[cwhtly]

@cwhtly-- I know they're not considered stylish, but for a full frontage-road system, mightn't it be best to use Maxis highways with their parallel ramps to road, so as to not break the usability with those small sections of RHW2 becoming RHW-4...

I agree: there are easier ways to merge reality into the SC4 models, but at this point I'm just experimenting with what's possible with the RHW. 

Thanks for all the comments everyone has posted thus far!


-cwhtly

[Haljackey]

That's really well done!  I like the nicely curved loop ramps!  That's not yet possible with the 1 lane MIS.

As far as frontage roads are concerned, they work well in some environments, but for the most part, I don't like them. 
-I have actually argued in a paper that high use of frontage roads encourages sprawl.  Just compare the densities of cities like Huston with cities around the world with similar populations.

[cwhtly]

Actually, Texas (and some other states that have copied their design) built frontage roads to spur commercial development and have become such a popular institution in Texas that they can't fathom building an urban or suburban freeway without them.

Jackson, Mississippi did just that in the early 1950's (pre-Interstate highways) and the resulting commercial corridor has been the shopping heart of the city since the 1960's.

Peace,
Kevin

Is that why it's done that way in the southern area? 

Regardless, this design philosopy is definitely the norm here in Texas, right or wrong.  and definitely anywhere you see one of these intersections there are large commercial lots present.


Here's an example of where frontage roads are incorporated even though there is no transportational need to, other than as a philosophy of traffic flow.  I'm definitely not eluding that any method is better than the other, just that this is the way it's done "down here."

Thanks to dragonshardz, here's a properly referenced link


While driving through the mainlanes of this, it's difficult to notice the complexity of the interchange.  But once you see it from an arial view, you have to question the madness behind the method.  Sure, one could argue planning for the future (this interchange will likely be congested within 10 years), but aren't there better ways to plan for the future?

Re: Floydian's well done interchange:

That's really well done!  I like the nicely curved loop ramps!  That's not yet possible with the 1 lane MIS.

As far as frontage roads are concerned, they work well in some environments, but for the most part, I don't like them. 
-I have actually argued in a paper that high use of frontage roads encourages sprawl.  Just compare the densities of cities like Huston with cities around the world with similar populations.

I agree - nice interchange!  Wish we had more like these in my area.

Re Frontage roads:

About half of the frontage roads I encounter in real life seem to offer a bit of relief to the traffic congestion: most of the merge traffic on major freeways is constrained to the frontage roads.  In the other half I've experienced, some drivers use the superfluous and otherwise mostly unused frontage roads as a way to bypass some rush-hour traffic and gain a few minutes of travel time over the other drivers, adding to congestion where the frontage roads merge again with the primary traffic.

RE Houston: I also agree that the use of frontage roads encourages sprawl, but I don't think they're necessarily the cause of it, but a result of it - at least in the case of Houston.  Since there is so much unpopulated land available surrounding the Houston area, many people would rather buy land further out than spend many more times as much for property closer to the city center.  If you could buy a house 10 miles further out for less than a third of the cost of a property closer in, would you?  Especially if proper transportation were available that would make it economical for you to do so?  In my opinion, It would be better to provide reasonable mass-transit to the more remote communities, but so far that's not an option 'round here. 


Regards,

-Cwhtly


cwhtly: Please avoid double posting when possible, and instead use the edit button to add to your earlier post if no one has replied yet. It helps keep the page orderly and prevents artificial post count inflation. -threestooges

[dragonshardz]

Best code to use:

Code Select Expand

[url=http://img15.imageshack.us/i/northhouston45interchan.jpg][img height=600 width=800]http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3904/northhouston45interchan.jpg[/img][/url]

Cheers,
~~dragonshardz~~

[soulchaser]

Something I'm playin around with, recently. Just a simple interchange in a unusual context (I think). What do you think?