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Anything you want to know about highways? (Patreon)

Published:
2024-03-06 09:44:54
Imported:
2026-06

Content

So in the Cities Skylines 2 series I try and add in a bit of knowledge about how things are designed, why they are like they are- like in the most recent ones it was a bit on road signs, why they are the size they are and how the sign faces are designed. I don't always have an idea of what to talk to about so I figured it was worth asking you guys if there's anything you've ever wondered "why?" about anything to do with roads and highways. Leave a comment below with your question and I'll try and answer it in a future video!

Comments

HigherStatus15

What would be the best way to start a career in civil engineering

Steen Goblin

Why aren't the highways in the UK not grids, they're more like concentric circles and spokes?

RealSoftwareEngineer

I don't know how much you know about different countries highways but I would be interested to learn about US vs Germany vs Italy since I think they are 3 very different examples of how an highway can be built.

Le Grand Vedette

Not anything specific but I like all your videos explaining stuff with actual knowledge.

!Swendler!

I feel like every city i see, has ring roads around it, but you arent doing any in your realistic city. Why?

rick

Light signals controlling traffic sounds a bit interesting

Alan-Michael Sutton

I absolutely love the real-life discussions and examples you bring up in the CS2 vids! I would definitely love to know more about the process behind highway construction as it pertains to how engineers deal with weathering and the weather in general, such as drainage.

hennamin

Is the famous paddy also an engineer!??

Henry Ashman

Might be hard to do, but having driven around the M25 a fair bit, it would be good to visualise how lowering the speed limit early helps reduce traffic around an accident. Especially to understand why they keep the limit reduced for miles after the incident.

Forquilla

To be honest, when you explain things about road engineering in UK it feels like watching a documentary about aliens, since nothing there really applies to the rest of the world 😂

skatingmermaid

What are the best interchanges for different use cases (e.g. high/low traffic etc.) in real life and how to build them in different games. Inspired by your videos I tried to build realistic interchanges in CS or in Infraspace but they somehow seem “wrong” or I can’t fit the roads properly in or they look wonky.

Mr metal michael

Why do some motorways have long dual carriage ways/ slip ways to join but others are just like a roundabout out of town?

Tanoshi

Interchange, Intersection... I kinda get the difference, but why are there so many designs of either of them and what how do they work or what makes one better then the other in what situations? Another thing I was curious about how does the process of designing complex highway Interchanges work.. where would they even start when planning those and what would you need to watch out for etc.? I know you talked about this before that on highway ramps you don't have a perfectly round curve and the bend changes so cars have a better angle to speed up or more time to slow down. I actually tried to see if highways in my area do this, and they don't.. so is there a reason why they may have not done that? like not enough space or budget perhaps?

Dara Dermody

I wonder if Road Maintenance Simulator has had any good updates that make it worth a revisit ;)

Drew

I would like to know why they need 20 people watching 1 person work when they are building a highway...

Dave Modular

Why do roads need maintenance? Why can't they design them to last forever?

GetSchwifty

I'd like to know, if there are different types of asphalt, like there are many types of concrete and if so, how do the differ?

GetSchwifty

Also I'd like to know how people responsible for designing a highway scout the surroundings for animals. For example, at least in Czech republic we have places where highway is placed above the ground / small bridges are placed for animals to cross.

Tom23rd

Why is it that you hear "more lanes won't fix traffic" about highways?

Finnegan

Since when are you Certified engennier

lineaira

Having driven through the UK on a couple of occations, I wonder about animal safety as well. The first thing that shocked me is the Enormous amount of roadkill on dual carriageways and B-roads, this was in the English Midlands, mind you.. Are, in general, animals taken into account and are save crossings guaranteed in any way, shape, or form? I know that in most other countries I've been a lot is being done (since the early 2000's only...) to make roads saver for animals. Currently in Germany on B roads close to known crossing points for toads/frogs for example, we actually have signs to warn you about them possibly crossing, on top of channels/bridges for them to savely pass under the road. (Yet somehow going from a 100 to 50 road doesn't have any visual or actual difference in the road width, the only thing you notice is actually entering a town...)

lineaira

Also, on drainage, did you have to advise on the road surface in relation to road surface permiability and run-off. I know there's different types of road surfaces and substrates that offer more or less permiability/run-off. Is this also taken into account for the drainage solutions that are being designed? Could you do a bit going deeper into that?

Noah leitner

As a truck driver or “lorry driver” I’d love some highway knowledge on how you highway engineers take into consideration (if any) of us when designing the highway.

JackOHeadshot

I would like some facts about winter maintance. And some parts of the road in my city have sign that there are automatic "sprinklers" for anti freeze, how do those work? Do you have them in UK? How do you prevent roads on bridges from freezing over as they are more prone to it then other roads?

Marcin Kowalczyk

I'd love to know about cases where a new highway is to be planned but existing infrastructure / buildings are in the way. How is that handled? Also are all highways built equal or if for example heavy cargo traffic is expected is different concrete being used ? etc.

Alex Johnson

Not messaging more about highways yourself but I think I speak for everyone when I say we would like to hear more about the projects you worked on over the years and the challenges you faced within those projects and how you overcame them

Warren Garabrandt

Probably because the bottleneck is where traffic filters into surface streets with red lights and stop signs and pedestrians. The traffic slows abruptly, causing a back up into the highway. Adding more lanes just gives more room to back up into, it doesn't alleviate the congestion source.

Warren Garabrandt

How do engineers decide where to put interchanges between highways and surface streets? For example, in my town, we have 3 exits to the interstate highway, but at least 2 other places where an exit would be quite handy, at least for me. How do they decide where to just do an overpass, and where there will be a full interchange?

Peter Schmalfeldt

I think it'd be cool to hear some things that people might see every day, but might not fully understand how they work. In the US, I'm always fascinated by mile markers and exit numbers and how they match up ( in most states, some do their own thing ) Also patterns with naming conventions for highways, like does the UK have patterns for highways that go North and south, and different patterns for East and West ... or patterns for roads that connect highways.

Jacob Dutt

I'd be curious to know how much weather/environment or even just like country affects how highways are built? Like what considerations for the UK you'd have to make compared to some of your ones abroad, particularly where they're more surprising and not just like UK is wet, middle east is not

Melissa Wing

I’d like to know why the work on the M1 central reservation is going to take so long 😂

Brad

Why are so many intersections built at the top of hills? It makes it so hard to see the oncoming traffic when you're trying to turn.

Bernie

Maybe grading? Driving through i-70 in the Rockies I see max grading all the time but what do the percentages really mean?

Jeanetta Szerletich

How are speed limits determined? In my city there's a section of interstate that, based on its layout and openness, it 'feels' like it should be a standard 70mph speed, but instead its 55 mph and undercover cops love busting people there for going too fast. How did they determine 55 when everything else informally tells us to go faster?

Katie

I second this, if you know about wildlife bridges I’d love to learn more about them. In the US we occasionally have huge wildlife bridges that span over highways but I’m also curious how it’s determined smaller ones are needed and for what animals

Justin Beachley

I'm kind of curious how deep a typical highway actually goes to keep the surface stable. I know it's more than just a layer of tarmac, but you don't really see how many layers or what kind of material is under what we drive on.

Yzekial

A bit about how self driving vehicles could impact highway design/maintenance would be interesting

Site Reliability Engineer

How are large structures built? Like the golden gate bridge. Seems too big to build, yet we've done it

PaddyFan

What is the best highway design you’ve ever seen and why, and what is the worst?

Wight Rhino

Given all of the constraints in the standards dictating highway engineering (and everything else) design, and budget constraints, how much room for creativity is there, how would a highway with unlimited budget look from one designed on a shoestring budget?

Gutter Guru Azaretto

whats more expensive to build, bridger or tunnels, and which are more fun to work on

Tiki Cowboy

Yeah, I'd love to know a bunch of stuff! 1 - How close to a highway are you typically allowed to build things? Or, conversely, if building a new highway, how close to existing structures can you get? For context, In one of your CS2 videos, you built a bridge connection right into the city and it made me wonder if a city planner would ever approve that. 2 - How is highway drainage accounted for? Here in the US, there are highways that stretch for over 100 miles without passing through a town; are there drains along that entire stretch, or are they only placed in proximity to built-up areas? 3 - How expensive are highways, typically? I live in Austin and there's a ton of construction on major arterials inside/around the city. Always curious how much projects like that cost. 4 - Speaking of arterials - what's the difference between arterials, distributors, collectors, etc.? Is it primarily volume of traffic, drive speed? Maybe that's enough for now, haha!

Jared Pruitt

These are fantastic! I'm already excited for the next video

Colonel Bacon

Why do highway projects take so long? What do you think is a fair amount of time per mile? 3 days a mile? A month? Six months? Is there an actual metric that is used in the real world to try and stay on track, or is that why we get projects that are years late?

dominic chim

What were the considerations for the spaghetti junction at Birmingham

jahr

How much of your time was spent wearing a hard hat vs at a desk? Yes, I've considered the very likely chance that you'd wear one while clicking.

Piggy Sue

"Why is this like this" - ok I'm curious what triggers a one-way road designation? And similarly, when does a road get upgraded and expanded, like what's the tipping point?

Couture Hedgehog

Are there "rumble strips" or grooves on the side of the road in the UK? The US has them so people get woken up if they fall asleep driving

Liam

We have these in Australia too

tomken

Could you tell us more about the different types of asphalt?

Sabrine

I don’t know how much you have traveled but you could talk about different countries road systems or something like that

TacoSmackO

Not specifically about highways but more general on roads. I wonder, in Cities Skylines when we picked a road we could see types of vehicles that are using the roads, from where are they coming from and where are they going, etc. How irl we know that kind of information? Ohh, and how to make people to use public transport or sustainable transportation more rather than private vehicles, cus currently I am writing my thesis about Green Infrastructure and it would help 😂

Jonsey

Just driven to my parents who live in the highlands of Scotland and I'm from Dorest. It's like 12 hours (I have appreciated some good highway drainage along the way). I want to know what is wrong with the M6 and why is it always the worst bit of that journey?! Thank you!

PantheraPardus28

I would like to know: Why is there a camber on residential roads, but never a camber on a motorway? And how do roads change to fit in with the landscape around them? Like with other projects where people reject the idea of a new building because it would be an "eyesore", how do things like AONBs affect roads?