How To Manage Traffic In Cities Skylines 2

Traffic Management for a smooth flow on roads.

Traffic jams in Cities Skylines 2 not only frustrate you but result in poor management of many other services. You need roads, traffic lights, and roundabouts to manage the traffic properly. As the size of your city grows, it gets difficult for you to detect and fix the traffic jams.

If you are facing Traffic congestion at various spots and are getting constant complaints from your citizens, you have come to the right place. I will address all the ways you can utilize to clear those bustling areas and improve your traffic flow.

Use Traffic Map Overlay

Finding Traffic Jams is an evolving process. As you start, it’s easy to look at all that goes on and find the problematic traffic zones. Areas with a Traffic Jam present can be identified with a distinct symbol of 3 cars.

You can hover over these symbols to manually adjust the road network to resolve the Traffic Jam. As your city expands, this method becomes far too tedious. Not to worry, though, as the game offers an alternate way of identifying the overall flow of your traffic.

To access this alternate method, click the ‘Info Views’ button in the top left corner of your screen in Cities Skylines 2. This will open a dropdown with various icons.

The second column from the top left here will have a small car icon labeled ‘Traffic.’ Click this for statistics and two map legends describing Traffic Flow and Volume. The best part is the various levels of these ratings are color-coded.

When your road is green, traffic flow is smooth. Where roads are dark orange or red, you might want to make minor adjustments in Cities Skylines 2.

Build Larger Lanes

Make sure you have many lanes corresponding to your city’s scale. If you’ve created a large-scale industrial hub city, being stingy with just a series of Double Lane Roads would be unwise. This will cause traffic congestion. Feel free to put in some Eight-Lane Divided Roads to offer some more lanes to facilitate increasing traffic load in Cities Skylines 2.

Similarly, you can set an asymmetrical road to accommodate traffic flow in one direction. This way, there will be less congestion, and citizens might also be able to reach their required destination without getting stuck in traffic.

Add Highway Connections

This is an effective strategy if you want to clear your main streets and direct the traffic to the highway by setting alternate paths. Furthermore, this will help clear the main intersection and allow the residents to take other ways to reach the highway Roads instead of the long conventional routes.

You can also make crossroads branching from your main roads and intersections. Put in some slip roads to ensure smooth traffic operations by giving them alternate paths to various destinations.

Install Roundabouts

You can create roundabouts at different intersections since those prevent traffic holdups and open more freedom of travel than boxed junctions. This will reduce the use of Traffic lights in Cities Skylines 2, and the residents can traverse those busy areas constantly.

Installing roundabouts means diverting the traffic flow in one direction so the traffic will keep flowing without stopping.

Place the right Traffic Signs and Signals

While it may be tempting to cut expenses, skipping traffic signs and signals is unwise. With appropriate signs like ‘No Left Turn’ and ‘No Entry,’ you can dictate the direction of the traffic flow. You can also fit a Traffic Light at an intersection to mitigate a colossal organizational headache.

Integrating the Public Transportation system

Investing in public transport like bus stops and train stations is also a solid way to mitigate traffic. Trains have a high capacity, facilitating over 800 passengers, potentially 800 fewer cars roaming the streets.

It would be best to upgrade your infrastructure to support a more robust, citywide public transport network. Similarly, integrating Trams into your public transportation will allow you to carry more passengers than trains. This way, you will see fewer cars on your streets than before, and the traffic flow will be constant.  

Build Parking lots

A city without a parking lot is just a ticking traffic jam time bomb. Without designated parking zones, citizens will take matters into their own hands, parking cars on roads. Creating parking lots throughout the city can significantly reduce undue traffic jams in Cities Skylines 2.

Upgrade Road Networks

Always be wary of your population density. Upgrade your road networks and infrastructure hand in hand as you build more houses since a densely populated city center means more people driving vehicles and adding to the street congestion.

You’ll have more traffic jams if you neglect to upgrade your infrastructure to the same proportion as your housing. You will need to keep larger lanes so that the traffic does not get held at any point and the citizens remain happy in Cities Skylines 2.

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...