Helena Joyce
Cities Skylines is a city management game that simulates real-world problems, including noise pollution. While noise pollution is inevitable, it is important to manage it because it can negatively impact the happiness and well-being of citizens, causing them to move out or even leading to their premature deaths. This guide will discuss strategies to reduce noise pollution in your city, including zoning noisy buildings away from residential areas, using trees and office buildings as sound barriers, and creating pedestrian-only streets to minimise traffic noise.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Noise pollution sources | Traffic, commercial and industrial areas, city services, leisure buildings |
| Impact of noise pollution | Decreased citizen happiness and well-being, potential citizen illness and death |
| Noise reduction strategies | Place noise-polluting buildings away from residential areas, use office buildings as sound barriers, incorporate trees and green spaces, implement traffic restrictions |
| Noise monitoring | Check noise levels via the informational panel, indicated by headphone icon |
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What You'll Learn
Keep noise-polluting buildings away from residential areas
When playing Cities: Skylines, you will encounter real-world problems such as noise pollution. Noise pollution can be generated by traffic, commercial and industrial areas, certain city services, and even leisure buildings. High noise pollution will see citizen happiness and overall well-being decrease, and if noise pollution issues are not addressed, citizens will slowly get ill and die, causing strain on your medical facilities.
To decrease noise pollution, it is important to keep noise-polluting buildings away from residential areas. When placing unique buildings, an orange circle will appear around them, indicating that the area within this circle will experience high levels of noise pollution. As such, you should avoid placing noise-polluting buildings within these circles.
One way to do this is by creating buffer zones between noisy areas and residential zones. Office zones, for example, generate no noise pollution and can be used as barriers between industrial areas and residential zones. Similarly, trees can act as sound barriers and reduce noise pollution. Placing trees alongside roads and highways or creating tree-lined roads can help to reduce noise pollution and increase land value.
Additionally, when designing your city, try to avoid building residential zones along central routes or high-traffic areas. Instead, opt for narrow roads in neighbourhoods and keep noise-polluting buildings at least one block away from residential areas. Large noise polluters should be three or more blocks away. By implementing these strategies, you can effectively decrease noise pollution in Cities: Skylines and create a happier and healthier environment for your citizens.
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Use office buildings as a sound barrier
In Cities: Skylines, noise pollution is an inevitable part of building your city, but it is important to plan wisely to avoid noise in certain areas. While noise pollution may not be a bad thing, you don't want it near residential zones, as this can make your citizens ill.
Office buildings can be used as an effective sound barrier between noisy areas and residential zones. In real life, commercial buildings are often located next to major roads and act as a sound barrier for nearby residential buildings. Similarly, in Cities: Skylines, office zones do not produce noise pollution and can be used as a buffer between industrial or commercial areas and residential zones.
When placing your office buildings, ensure that there is a sufficient distance between the noise-producing areas and the residential zones. A large noise polluter, such as a highway, should be at least three blocks away from residential buildings. You can place office buildings in between these zones to act as a sound barrier.
Additionally, you can use trees alongside roads and highways to further reduce noise pollution. Trees can be placed in a strip between commercial and residential areas or alongside highways to help block noise.
By using a combination of office buildings and trees as sound barriers, you can effectively decrease noise pollution in your city and create a more pleasant environment for your citizens.
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Plant trees alongside roads and highways
Trees are an effective way to reduce noise pollution in Cities: Skylines. While “normal” trees that are not attached to roads do not seem to have an impact on noise pollution, roads with trees alongside them do help to reduce noise. In fact, the game's official wiki mentions that trees can reduce noise pollution.
To reduce noise pollution in your city, consider planting a lot of trees alongside roads and highways. This will not only help to reduce noise but also make your city look more realistic and aesthetically pleasing. You can also use a tree 'paintbrush' mod to cover large areas with trees more easily.
In addition to tree-lined roads, you can unlock highways with sound barriers as your city grows. These sound barriers are specifically designed to block noise from traffic and can be useful if you need to have a highway cutting through your city.
It is important to note that while trees can help, they may not completely eliminate noise pollution. Properly zoning your districts and keeping noisy buildings away from residential areas are also crucial steps in managing noise pollution in your city.
By combining tree-lined roads, sound barriers, and thoughtful district planning, you can effectively reduce noise pollution in Cities: Skylines and create a more pleasant and healthy environment for your citizens.
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Create pedestrian-only streets
In Cities: Skylines, noise pollution is an inevitable part of building your city, but there are ways to manage it. One way to decrease noise pollution is to create pedestrian-only streets.
Firstly, it is important to understand that noise pollution can make your citizens ill. If a citizen lives in a building next to a road with high sound pollution, an icon will appear above the building. Hovering over this icon will show that the noise is making them sick. Therefore, it is important to keep noise-polluting buildings away from residential areas. Large noise polluters should be at least three blocks away from residential buildings.
To create pedestrian-only streets, you can use the landscaping tool to build pavement paths. These paths are pedestrian-only and are separate from road networks. They do not carry power, water, or sewage lines, but they can connect to sidewalks, allowing citizens to cross from one sidewalk to another. When creating these paths, make sure they do not overlap with road intersections, roundabouts, or dead ends.
You can also create pedestrian streets, which are small roads that general traffic cannot drive on. While these paths are meant for foot traffic, you may see city services and some residents driving on them if necessary. You can place public transportation stops on these streets and even add a tram line to combine foot traffic and public transportation.
In addition to creating pedestrian-only streets, you can also place trees along roads and highways to help cut down on noise pollution. Trees can be used to separate residential and commercial areas, providing a buffer zone that reduces the spread of noise pollution.
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Implement district-only traffic policies
To reduce noise pollution in Cities: Skylines, one strategy is to implement district-only traffic policies. Districts in the game allow you to separate sections of your city and apply unique policies to each, giving you more control over the city's management. Here are some strategies for using district-only traffic policies to reduce noise pollution:
Separate Residential and Commercial Areas:
Keep residential districts away from commercial, industrial, and office zones. Noise pollution from businesses and industry can negatively impact the well-being of citizens living in nearby residential areas. By creating separate districts, you can minimize the impact of noise pollution on residential areas.
Implement Buffer Zones:
When designing your districts, consider leaving a buffer zone of two to three squares between residential and commercial areas. This space can be utilized for pedestrian paths lined with trees, helping to reduce the spread of noise pollution. Trees act as a natural barrier, absorbing and deflecting sound waves.
Use Office Areas:
If your city demands more industrial districts, consider placing office areas instead. Offices serve as both commercial and industrial buildings, generating less noise pollution while still meeting the city's industrial needs. Additionally, IT clusters from the Green Cities DLC can further reduce noise pollution by having fewer workers and generating more tax revenue.
District-Specific Policies:
Utilize the seven policies available for districts to customize their characteristics. Implement policies such as \"Gated Community\" to divert heavy traffic away from residential neighborhoods. You can also set policies to ban trucks from residential districts or specific roads within those districts, reducing noise and air pollution.
Operating Districts:
Create operating districts far from your main city to contain specific services, such as police or cemeteries. This prevents service vehicles from constantly travelling to and from the large city, reducing overall traffic and noise pollution in the central areas.
By implementing these district-only traffic policies, you can effectively reduce noise pollution in Cities: Skylines, creating a more peaceful and healthy environment for your citizens.
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Frequently asked questions
Click on the informational panel on the upper left-hand side of the screen. This will open a panel with different icons. The noise pollution icon is the one with headphones. Clicking on it will display the noise pollution levels throughout your city.
Noise pollution is generated by traffic, commercial and industrial areas, certain city services, and even leisure buildings.
High noise pollution will see citizen happiness and overall well-being decrease. If noise pollution issues are not addressed promptly, citizens will slowly get sick and may eventually die, causing strain on your medical facilities.
Trees can act as sound barriers and will reduce the noise produced by highly trafficked roads and business centers. You can also create and enforce district-only policies that prevent heavy traffic and combustion engine vehicles from traveling through designated districts. Ensure noise-polluting buildings and commercial businesses are well away from residential areas, with at least one block of separation. Large noise polluters will need to be 3+ blocks away from residential areas.
