City and District Policies

Article verified: May2020 TM:PE 11.5.0

Looking for the TM:PE features? See: Policies Settings and/or Vehicle Restrictions.

Overview

The vanilla game and DLC policies can affect traffic in your city in many ways...

Vehicle Restrictions

These are separate to TM:PE's Vehicle Restrictions, and in effect act as an additional layer of restrictions.

• Bike ban on sidewalks (After Dark DLC)
  • Cyclists cannot use sidewalks (pavements) and must instead use bike paths or dedicated cycle lanes
  • Can cause more road traffic as cims resort to using their cars or taxis
  • See also: Encourage biking
• Combustion engine ban (Green Cities DLC)
  • Prevents combustion engine cars from using the roads
  • Can push more cims, particularly tourists, to use public transport
  • See also: Electric Cars policy
• Heavy traffic ban
  • Blocks cargo vehicles from using the roads
  • Similar to TM:PE cargo vehicle restriction, but applied to a district instead of individual roads
• Old town (After Dark DLC)
  • Only residents can use the area for motor vehicles
  • Blocks non-local traffic
  • Also blocks some public transport vehicles (likely a bug, see #371)

Transport preferences

These determine what kinds of transport cims prefer to use or must use.

• Come one, come all (Stadiums in Match Day DLC)
  • This is actually a Stadium policy
  • When enabled, cims will prefer public transport when attending matches at the stadium
• Encourage biking (After Dark DLC)
  • Cims try to cycle more often, reducing road vehicle usage
  • See also: Bike ban on sidewalks
• Electric cars (Green Cities DLC)
  • Cims living in the area are forced to buy electric vehicles
  • See also: Combustion engine ban
• Free public transport
  • Cims much more likely to use your public transport services
  • Only applies to bus, tram, metro, monorail, and local train fares.
  • For district policies, only passengers leaving from that district will get a free ride.
  • Intercity trains, cargo trains, ships, planes and taxis will still continue to provide revenue, regardless.
• High ticket prices (Mass Transit DLC)
  • Fewer cims use public transport (so more road traffic and congestion)
• Prefer ferries (Mass Transit DLC)
  • Cims will try and use ferry service if it is available

Services

These affect services directly, although their effect on traffic is often minimal.

• Automated Sorting (Industries DLC)
  • Increase mail capacity by 20%
  • May increase number of mail vans, may reduce number of mail lorries.
• Fast Recovery (Natural Disasters DLC)
  • No searching for survivors after disasters
  • Fewer disaster recovery vehicles on the roads
  • Road blockages due to collapsed buildings can be cleared faster
• Free WiFi (Industries DLC)
  • Reduce mail accumulation by 15%
  • Fewer postal service vehicles in those areas
• Harsh prison dentences (After Dark DLC)
  • Reduces crime rate
  • Fewer police vehicles in those areas
• Helicopter priority (Natural Disasters DLC)
  • Police, fire and ambulance services will dispatch helicopters to the area, instead of road vehicles
  • Most effective in remote areas that would take long time to reach by road vehicles
• Park maintenance boost (Park Life DLC)
  • Increases Park Maintenance vehicles' shift length by 50%
  • Possibly more park maintenance vehicles on the roads
• Recycle garbage (Park areas in Park Life DLC)
  • Decrease garbage accumulation by 20% for the Nature Reserve buildings.
  • Fewer garbage trucks in those areas
• Recycle Plastics (Green Cities)
  • More goods produced at recycling plants = more trucks spawned
• Recycling
  • Slightly reduced garbage accumulation
  • Fewer garbage trucks on your roads

Transport patterns, volume and congestion

These affect volume or flow of traffic, and traffic patterns, which in turn affects congestion.

• Ad campaign (Arenas in Concerts DLC)
  • More visitors to festivals
  • Make sure you have good public transport, and/or plenty of car parking!
• Advanced Automation (Industry areas in Industries DLC)
  • Increase industry production output by 10% = more cargo vehicles
• Advertisement campaign (Parks) (Park areas in Parklife DLC)
  • 20% more visitors to park area
• Advertisement campaign (Varsity) (Campuses in Campus DLC)
  • Draws 20% more visitors to arenas on campus
• Airplane Tours (Sunset Harbor DLC)
  • Increases entertainment and city attractiveness
  • Likely to pull in more tourists, also more leisure travel.
• Anti-Slip Studs (Winter maps in Snowfall DLC)
  • Less elderly injuries = fewer ambulances/hearses
• Automated toll
  • Faster passage through toll booths (less congestion)
• Big business benefactor
  • High density commercial buildings double their sales
  • (Not tested yet) More cargo deliveries are required
• Boost connections (Park Life DLC)
  • 20% more outside traffic (more traffic and congestion)
• Education Boost
  • Cims prefer education to work
  • May increase traffic near education buildings, may reduce traffic near industry areas
• Improved logistics (Industry areas in Industries DLC)
  • Extractors and processors store 20% more stuff
  • Can increase or reduce cargo traffic flows depending on how your industry is set up
• Improved Work Safety Supervision (Industry areas in Industries DLC)
  • Better healthcare = fewer ambulances/hearses
• Industrial space planning
  • Doubles goods from industrial buildings = more cargo vehicles
• Industry 4.0
  • Increased production output by 50% = more cargo vehicles
  • Reduces workplaces by 30% / zoned industry = fewer cims travel to industry
• Lightning rods (Natural Disasters DLC)
  • Less building fires during thunderstorms = fewer fire engines
  • Fewer blocked roads due to building fires
  • See also: Smoke detector distribution
• Main Park (Park areas in Park Life DLC)
  • Increases number of visitors to park
• Match Security (Stadiums in Match Day DLC)
  • Less crime = less police and prison vehicles
• Night tours (Park areas in Park Life DLC)
  • Park gets 30% more custom at night (more traffic)
  • Note: Not sure if it actually affects traffic that much
• NIMBY (After Dark DLC)
  • Leisure shuts down at night (less traffic)
• Pet Ban
  • Slightly less garbage = fewer garbage trucks
• Prefer parks (Park Life DLC)
  • Parks, Plazas and Park Areas draw 10% more visitors
• Recreational Use
  • Slightly more tourists
  • Slightly less criminals = fewer police vehicles
• School's out (After Dark DLC)
  • Cims prefer work to school
  • May increase traffic near workplaces, may reduce traffic near education buildings
• Small Business Enthusiast
  • Small businesses increase sales = more cargo vehicles
• Smoke detector distribution
  • Significantly reduced fire risk = fewer fire engines
  • Fewer blocked roads due to building fires
  • See also: Lightning rods
• Smoking Ban
  • Slightly better health = fewer ambulances/hearses
• Studded tires (Winter maps in Snowfall DLC)
  • Snow doesn't slow down traffic speeds as much
  • See also: Road Conditions
• Student Healthcare (Campus areas in Campus DLC)
  • Slightly better health = fewer ambulances/hearses
• Tourist Travel Card (Sunset Harbor DLC)
  • The city will receive 8% more tourists.
• VIP (Natural Disasters DLC)
  • Limits emergency shelter use to local cims

See also:

Settings:

• Gameplay
• Policies

Toolbar:

• Parking Restrictions
• Vehicle Restrictions

Info views:

• Public Transport
• Traffic
• Traffic Routes

Mods:

• Real Time - Cims get daily schedules, creates rush hours
• Optimised Outside Connections - helps tame traffic spawned at outside connections
• Rebalanced Industries - tames industry area traffic
• Realistic walking speed - makes cims walk at human speed