Knowing where to start in a new game of Cities: Skylines can be tough. Players are dropped straight into an open expanse of land, with no infrastructure to speak of besides two stubs of highway. From this, an entire road network and functioning city must be constructed, all of which stems from the city entrance.
City Entrances have a simple but crucial purpose – to allow highway traffic to enter and exit the city. Despite its importance, it can be challenging to create a city entrance that keeps traffic flowing smoothly and avoids congestion. Here are some of the best ways to create a city entrance in Cities: Skylines.
7 Transition To Collector
A simple and cheap option, this entrance is best used by newer players or for areas of the city expected to have light traffic. It is created by linking the highway to a standard medium road, often known as a collector, through small one-way slip roads. This allows traffic to flow freely from the highway into a collector, which then gives access to smaller, two-lane roads.
This method is great when just starting out, as it’s cheap and remains effective in the early game. As the city grows, however, players will need to allow traffic to flow in multiple directions, and the collector will soon see congestion build up. It’s essential that players upgrade from this simple entrance to avoid getting overwhelmed.
6 Simple Roundabout
Roundabouts are a useful way of maintaining traffic flow in Cities: Skylines, and work well as a city entrance. Constructing a roundabout requires the player to build one-way curved roads in a circle, with multiple collector roads running off from it. If players don’t want to do it manually, there are roundabout templates that do it for them.
The idea is that roundabouts minimize wait times at an intersection, allowing traffic to quickly head off in the direction it needs to go. These simple roundabouts can serve as an effective city entrance throughout the game, although they may have to be upgraded or enlarged if the traffic volume climbs too high.
5 One-Way System
A rather unusual but surprisingly effective city entrance, this one-way system is essentially one massive roundabout. It extends the highway through the city, allowing cars to join and leave the traffic flow as they please. Players can create this system by selecting their one-way road of choice and building two long strands all around the city, making sure it all links up and the strands are heading in the right direction.
This is useful as a starting point, but as the population expands, this system is going to become more and more inefficient, as one-way roads will have to snake their way around the entire city to cover it all. Vehicles will then have to travel long distances for what should be simple journeys, which will increase traffic and congestion. If players opt for this system, they should upgrade it to a standard highway later in the game and ensure there are plenty of connections along its route.
4 Slip Roads
Providing a handy way to split traffic flow, slip roads allow vehicles from the highway to drive straight into the zones they need to be in, without the need for intersections or connector roads. To create this entrance, players should use the highway to divide the city into two and add highway ramps to direct traffic straight into either side. The two sides can then be connected by an overpass.
If players keep adding ramps along the highway, it should create a mini one-way system each time. The key problem is that smaller roads are not designed to handle high traffic, and players will start to see bottlenecks form at these slip roads. It is best to construct plenty of ramps for vehicles wanting to enter/exit the highway, thereby providing lots of routes on and off and easing congestion.
3 Extended Roundabout
Sometimes a small and simple roundabout isn’t going to cut it. This extended roundabout is much larger and can cope with a much higher amount of traffic than its modest cousin. It is constructed much in the same way as any roundabout, but there are fewer template options for players to utilize the larger and more complex they want to go.
A key difference is the small slip roads that link the roundabout to the connectors. Instead of vehicles having to wait for a gap before entering the roundabout, these slip roads make the joining process a lot smoother. At the same time, vehicles exiting the roundabout can maintain their speed as they are transferred directly onto the road without having to turn. It’s a minor difference but coupled with the larger size, this roundabout is even more optimized for traffic flow.
2 Diamond Interchange
One of the more difficult interchanges to build, this city entrance is simple, elegant, and effective. Much like the slip roads strategy, the highway continues through the city, dividing it into two. Where it differs is the more sophisticated way of linking the two sides. To create this interchange, players should lower the terrain to create an underpass for the highway. Then, simply build a connector road overhead and some long ramps to link it to the highway.
While it doesn’t handle as much traffic flow as a roundabout, the diamond interchange allows vehicles to head in any direction they want without much congestion. It also avoids the disruption caused to the highway by placing a roundabout right in the middle of it, which forces all traffic to join it instead of carrying on forward. As a result, this city entrance is often more beneficial than a roundabout, despite the slightly reduced traffic flow.
1 Double Diamond Interchange
By far the most complex city entrance, the Double Diamond interchange combines the best qualities of the regular diamond interchange and the extended roundabout to create one formidable piece of infrastructure. Constructing this interchange will be difficult and expensive, as it essentially duplicates parts of the original. To construct this interchange, players will need two overhead roads, each being one-way. They’ll also need their slip roads to diverge into two, one heading left and one heading right.
These additions make the interchange function similar to a roundabout, without any intersections, meaning cars can travel through without ever stopping. This maintains the traffic flow of roundabouts without disrupting the highway and is a highly efficient way of creating a city entrance. There are sure to be even more elaborate and effective designs for players to experiment with, but something like this should be all they need to ensure smooth traffic in a bustling metropolis.
Cities Skylines is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia.