Road Networks

If your city is a living breathing organism, roads are the arteries that funnel and transport vital nutrients to all its constituent parts.

Constructing Roads
Road construction in Metropolitan aims to create an authentic experience that provides maximum freedom in design, and is thus split into several phases.

Road Toolkit
Click on the Road Toolkit. This brings up a small window with some buttons.

Grid
The Grid is a temporary planning tool which you can draw as a rectangle directly onto the map. Simply click the Grid Tool in your Planned Road toolkit, click an area of the map, and drag it out to the size you wish. By default, this will produce a grid overlay with subdivisions of 10 and 100 metres. These divisions can be customised in the Options next to the Grid tool. This tool is useful if you want to create an area with consistent angles.

You can customise the Grid:


 * Primary Division: how large are the main cells (indicated by the stronger line). This can be set at multiples of 10, from 10 to 500 metres. The Primary Division must be larger than the Secondary Division.
 * Secondary Division: how large are the smaller cells (indicated by the fainter line). This can be set at any number between 2 and 50 metres. A checkbox can also be used to toggle this division on and off.
 * Opacity: You can raise or lower Opacity between 20-100%

Place Road Tool
The Road Tool is very powerful, allowing a huge amount of freedom, so it may take a while to get used to it. It's important to understand that the Road Tool creates Lanes. Lanes are what you'd expect - channels along which traffic can flow. When you click on the Road Tool, a secondary window will open next to the Toolkit, which is where you customise the type of road that you want to build.

First, you'll notice that there is a graphic showing the Lane Layout. By default, it will show two lanes, each going in opposite directions. If you build a road now, it will create this standard kind of road, common in suburban areas. You will see, next to this graphic, on either side of the lanes, there are + and - buttons. These naturally will add or remove lanes from the configuration. You can also click on the lane itself in the graphic to change the direction. This way, you can create any sort of road you can imagine. You can have a maximum of twelve lanes in a single road.

In between the lanes, you can see an icon called Dividers. By clicking this, you can select anything you want to go in between the lanes. Options include an island (with different fillers such as concrete or grass), or different kinds of barriers and fences. This is optional however. By default, the road will paint lines on the road depending on the configuration. For example, a two-lane bidirectional road will paint a single dashed line in between. A four lane road with two lanes in each direction, however, will paint a double solid line between opposite flowing lanes, and single dashed lines in between lanes flowing in the same direction.

If you right-click a lane, you can further customise it by choosing what kind of network it is. There are some rules though:


 * Public Transport: Bus, Tram, Trolleybus (must be on the innermost or outermost lane)
 * Bicycle Lane (must be on the outermost lane, maximum 1 per direction)

Above the graphic, in between the lanes, you'll see a padlock icon called Prohibit Weaving. Turning the padlock on will prevent vehicles from merging between these lanes. Prohibit Weaving is toggled on automatically when you use a Divider. This is a good way to create priority lanes for Public Transport or emergency vehicles.

Above the graphic, above each lane, you'll see a speed sign which indicates the maximum permitted speed on this road. Click on it to change the speed, or select "unrestricted" if you want a German autobahn!

On the sides of the Road Tool, you'll notice an icon called Shoulder. Here you can designate what will happen on the shoulder of the road (the sides). You can leave this blank, and nothing will appear there (not even parking!). If you want to allow parking on the side of the road, you can select it from the options. Here are the Shoulder options:


 * Highway Shoulder (adds a large space where cars can stop in case of accidents, otherwise unused). Can be filled with varying patterns:
 * Blank / Chevrons / Stripes / Grid
 * Parking space. Can select different options:
 * Diagonal / Parallel
 * Island (filled with usual decorations, trees, or just concrete)

On the outermost side, there's an icon called Pedestrians. Clicking this will toggle footpaths on this side of the road (they are independent, so don't forget to turn them on for both sides if you want a usual city street). You can also adjust the size of the footpath (1, 2, 4, and 8 metres).

For new users, there is an easy way to automate all of these confusing features: below the graphic, you'll see a drop-down box with a list of commonly used road types, named helpfully (eg. 4L City 2:2, which means it has four total lanes, two in each direction, and its configurations are ideal for use in the middle of cities). You can save your own configurations into this list, and you can also favourite up to twelve different road types (which have their own hotkey and make it easy to start building quickly).

Once you've got the road you want, you can start placing your roads!

Road Inspector
If you want to modify the lane layout of your roads after they're placed, you can use the Road Inspector. This brings up an overlay over the roads, indicating all the same options shown in the graphic in the Place Road Tool. You can add or remove lanes directly from the road, toggle the Prohibit Weaving functions, add islands or other dividers, and manage your intersections.

Road & Lane Logic
While the shape of the road as a whole is defined by its general Nodes and Segments, a road is actually a collection of lanes, each with their own Nodes and Segments.

This makes it possible to create incredibly detailed and authentic-looking intersections and connections. For example, let's say you have a six lane highway (6L3:3), and you want to create smooth off-ramps on either side. Once you've chosen the section that will contain off-ramps, enter the Road Inspector mode to view the Lane Layout. Click on the outermost lane and hit B to remove it (alternatively, hold B as you click the lane). You now have a four lane highway at these segments. Now, while the game has automatically smoothed the transition, if you're still in the Road Inspector view, you'll see that the outermost lanes just terminate.

Now, if you go back to the Place Road Tool, you can select a single lane road (the 1L Highway preset is quite suitable), and you can start drawing your off-ramp from or to this vacant node. This is the best way to create smooth entrances and exits to highways, because it doesn't require the traffic to do any merging.

You can also create a major urban street with its two inner lanes reserved for trams, buses, and emergency vehicles. You can create a bicycle-only road with large footpaths on either side. The possibilities are endless!

Modifying Roads
If you've already got roads and intersections that you want to change or customise, the Road Inspector is the tool for you, and can be found in your Road Toolkit.

As mentioned before, entering the Place Road or Road Inspector mode will toggle Lane Layout view, which shows all the nuts and bolts of how the roads work. The Road Inspector also brings up a secondary window next to the toolbox with more tools depending on what you've selected.

Lanes
You can easily add new lanes on either side of your road by clicking on the + sign at the edge of the road. Right-clicking on a lane will bring up the same options as in the Place Road tool, where you can reserve it for public transport. Padlocks in between the lanes can prohibit weaving. You can also create islands in between lanes, and create pedestrian crossings.

Intersections
If you click on an intersection in Road Inspector, the secondary window in your Toolkit will show many options for modifying it.


 * Roundabout (checkbox): Toggling this will automatically turn the intersection into a roundabout and provide the logic for traffic to follow it. This automatic roundabout feature is only available for roads with a maximum of two lanes in one direction. If toggled, a Size controller will appear next to the checkbox, where you can increase the radius of the roundabout up to a certain limit (larger is better for busier intersections).
 * Lane Connectors: This button will allow you to control the way traffic moves through an intersection by linking Outputs to Inputs. You can use this to prevent certain turns, or permit left-turning traffic only from the left-most lane, for example.
 * Traffic Lights: Toggling this will create a traffic light system. This has different modes:
 * Automated Lights: This will time the traffic lights based on the game's judgement of the road. It will take into account the current rate of traffic through the roads and adjust the traffic lights for the most optimal system.
 * Detection Lights: In this mode, you must define a "priority" crossing, which will always stay green by default. Other exits of the intersection will have "detectors", and if traffic is detected waiting at this exit, the traffic lights will change.
 * Pedestrian Crossings: You can select which exits have Pedestrian Crossings, with several options:
 * Pedestrian Priority: Traffic must stop for pedestrians regardless.
 * Automatic Traffic Lights: This option can only be used if Traffic Lights are active, and is the only option.
 * Signage: You can select which type of sign is used at each exit:
 * Stop: Vehicles must stop before pulling out into the intersection.
 * Yield: Vehicles must slow down but don't need to stop unless other traffic is coming, and they must yield to other traffic.

Speed Limits
In the Road Inspector, you'll also see a Speed Limit tool. You can use this modify the speed limits of lanes very quickly by setting a speed, and then clicking on the segment. All the lanes in both directions will change to adopt this new speed limit. If you want you change the speed limit only of one individual lane, you can hold Ctrl and click the individual lane. You can hold Shift to change the speed of all lanes in a single direction.

Detailing Roads
So far we've only touched on the nuts and bolts of roads, which is great if you're only interested in the function. However, there is a lot more to it than that! Now we can add little bells and whistles, and make the roads look fabulous! The Road Toolkit has an icon called Detail, which brings up the secondary window for detailing, and you'll find all these bells and whistles within.

Signage
The first feature is called Signage, and this allows you customise and add signs to your road. They don't just make the road look authentic - they actually help your citizens find stuff! There is a statistic called Accessibility which checks how well your roads are signposted, and having a higher Accessibility score makes your city more attractive for tourists and immigrants.

Signs will snap to roads, making it easy to place them authentically.

There are different kinds of signage to choose from:


 * Side Sign: this sits to the side of a road.
 * Raised Side Sign: this sign sits above the road on a pole that reaches out from the side of the road.
 * Raised Full Sign: this sign sits above the road on a pole that reaches out from both sides of the road.

Once placed, you can click on the sign, which brings up the Sign Creator window. There is an empty slot for each lane of the road that it covers, and you can click in this slot to choose what will be displayed there. You can also merge slots with the + button to create a larger sign that covers more than one lane.


 * Designated Lane: this sign is available if one of the lanes is reserved, and shows what type of vehicle is allowed there.
 * Intersection Info: this sign gives info about upcoming intersections, and which lanes lead to which places. You have a lot of freedom in how you design the sign:
 * Top Text: this will be displayed in a bar at the top, and can be used to indicate the name of an upcoming highway.
 * Route Icon: you can add route icons here. You must have previously set up Routes in the Route Manager.
 * Info Text: This text goes in the middle, and you can use it to indicate important landmarks or information.
 * Exit Only: You can add this to the bottom of the sign if you want to indicate that traffic can only exit via this lane. This doesn't change the logic of the lanes - it is just a cosmetic touch.
 * Speed Limit: this sign will display the speed limit set for that particular lane.
 * Distance Sign: this sign creates a list with space for a location. You can enter your own values here if you wish. If you want help to find accurate distances, you can click the "Find Distance" button, and then click anywhere in the map, and the game will calculate how far it is to drive there (by the fastest route possible). It will tell you the distance, so you can create realistic distances.
 * Exit Sign: this is a simple small sign which lets you number the exits of your highway.