Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
Cities in Motion, a Game Evokes Thoughts
More or less, it is not simply a game anymore; it is like a massive city planning
simulator. Cities in Motion is a city simulation game that I have been playing for
hundreds of hours. Unlike a normal RPG (role-playing game), cities in motion is
simulation game that has infinite number of ways and solutions in planning out the
city and traffic - that’s what this game is for, and that’s what I am in to – always
looking for a practically new way in solving traffic and transportation solutions. Also
unlike some common simulation games, Cities in Motion develops as time flows –
cities expand; people commute shift; and even car possession rate varies over time. To
solve the transportation issue, players need to build stations, buy vehicles, configure
the timetable and set up mass transit lines... It has been a successful city-developing
game… However, what I am going to talk about is not only the game, but is
something this game leads to.
Produced by a Finnish video game development company, Cities in Motion focuses
on an unusual and odd aspect of the video game market. When most of the video
gamers are immersed in playing Battlefield, Call of Duty, Counter Strike Global
Offense, Total War series, MineCraft, and League of Legend etc, there is a small
portion of gamers are enjoying themselves playing a less popular genre of game –
traffic simulation. Despite the relatively low revenue collected from selling the first
version of this game, which is Cities in Motion 1, the developers kept on working and
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
made the second version came out, which is regarded as a great improvement by the
players – road system is far more sophisticated; a higher variety of buildings and
high-density places; day-and-night system and the presence of timetable and
improved AI movements and choices all made this version more entertaining.
Touched by the developers, I stick to this game in return and found out that this game
totally brings me lots of pleasure and thoughts.
The solutions to traffic problems are closely related to urbanization. Right now the
process of urbanization is a hot topic. People debate whether should let urbanization
keep going like this or regulate the influx of population. It’s not hard to list out the
problems associated with urbanization: high house price, competitive job market,
traffic congestion, and green – island effect, deteriorated environmental conditions,
and burdens on the use of water, electricity and sewage system. Sure there are some
problems with policy and regulation, but people tend to blame more onto the city
planning approaches. Undoubtedly, many problems related to urbanization are largely
contributed by the city policy and history; however, an integration of development of
public transportation and systematic city planning strategy would significantly relieve
this. For this, European cities have done a great job in planning a network of
transportation in getting people around. Just throw out a small everyday example.
There are suburban trains serving commuting and suburban neighborhoods. There are
subways with higher frequencies and larger capacity serving center area of cities.
There are trams and buses serving communities, main streets and every corner of the
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
city. As for other parts of the world, public transportation is not so wonderful that
there are not enough people on vehicles during the rush hour; instead, there are more
cars on the road than ever.
Once upon a time a friend of mine asked me why I am so into this. I couldn’t give him
a definite answer. I could say I just like thinking about it out of nothing.
“It seems I have the gene that makes me interested in this. I like to look at the maps
since I was very young. So staring at the maps is like a strand deep in my spirit. Of
course I don’t staring at the maps for nothing, I like to see how the cities layouts; I
like to see how the roads are designed and located; I like to see the area that the city is
focusing on developing. I think that makes me interested in playing as Cities in
Motion for fun.”
“So what’s your thought on the city planning right now?”
“Well it depends on what part of world we are talking about, when looking at the map,
different countries, different regions have the different ideas in developing cities. I
also found it very interesting that countries develop cities with their styles more than
the actual geographical conditions that certain city is located in. So some countries are
really not good at developing cities and long-term planning. So for circumstances like
this I could say the city isn’t function very efficiently.”
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
“European nations, North American countries and Japan are regarded as the
developed world; you think that they are better with city planning also?”
“Yeah, admittedly yeah. They are really good at planning out cities and especially
utilize the unique physic resources and conditions that city has. European countries
are always located along the rivers; obviously this comes from ancient times. Many
European countries have a rich and old history and many old cultural buildings and
artifacts and other stuff are being preserved very well. Even though some cities are
not located by the river, smart ancestors built aqueducts to get water from afar into the
cities through a delicately built sloping bridge structure. Aside from this, Europeans
especially Germans considered the planning way beyond their generation. For
example, the city government of Qingdao could still find out the blueprint and spare
parts for their broken points of sewage system. Since it was built in 1900s when
Germany rented part of the city of Qingdao. After all the infrastructures are very
reliable in developed worlds, while the problems of such often occur nowadays in
developing nations. ”
“So when planning out the public transportation system in Cities in Motion, do you
like to borrow from the real-life examples?”
“Sure I do, and I also try different styles of transportation in fixing a city’s traffic.
European cities and American cities are both mostly spread out, but American cities
have way wider roads compare to European countries due to the difference in
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
regulations, policies and car possession rate and idea of transportation. Unlike
Americans, Europeans has a more environmental-friendly view of transportation and
enjoyed taking public transportations home and work.”
European city planners often plan their cities based on the public transportation
system. They look at lines that have spare capacity. Communities will then be
developed around that area. With regional buses connect every house, metro and
suburban trains go to city. Another important point is the integration of intercity
transportation and city transportation. Bus terminals are usually located right next to
the main railway station, which make it very convenient for travelers. Airports are
also covered with mass transit like suburban trains or airport shuttle buses. For
example, Vienna Schwechat Airport is covered with two railway lines, the one is the
CAT (City Airport Train), a non-stop service with best quality railway carriages and
locomotives between airport and city, the other is a suburban train line six, stopping at
every station and equipped with medium amenities. They offer these two different
services to provide better services for businessmen and travelers and locals.
This game makes me really look into these questions and there is still a lot to discover.
As I further go on with the game, the city develops due to shorter travel time within
the city. The buildings grew larger, the population density of the city increases, and
number of possession of cars increases. With the unchanged street layout of the city,
traffic congestion as a common urban problem comes up. Every large city experiences
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
a certain level of traffic jam, but which city’s is more severe? Lists vary, but I
gathered two most commonly accepted lists. One is from the Forbes, which the top
three is Brussels, Belgium, Antwerp, Belgium and Los Angeles, USA. The other list
is from NeoGeography, and the top three cities are Moscow in Russia, Istanbul in
Turkey and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It is very confusing that out of three most
congested cities, two are from the Kingdom of Belgium, according to Forbes,
Personally speaking; I have been to Belgium, Los Angeles, and Istanbul. It is not
strange at all to see Los Angeles and Istanbul are in the list. But when it comes to
Brussels I could not agree with the ranking. Immediately I checked the typical traffic
information at 6 pm on Google map for these cities. The portions of the roads that are
jammed for both city of Brussels and Los Angeles are pretty much same. Even though
Los Angeles is way more spread out than Brussels does. Highways from both cities
receive the highest pressure and largest amount of traffic, while major roads relieved
some level of the pain. The traffic information for Istanbul wasn’t available, but I
know Istanbul so well, that two bridges across the Bosporus channel are the worst
places to go through in the peak hour. Back in the game, an exit of highway or a
crossing could cause a traffic jam. And this will intervene all the above-ground
transportation like buses, trolleys and even trams that goes through this particular area.
With a constant schedule, there are always a constant distance between each bus.
When the buses go into the congested area, it is hard to go through it. Passengers
waiting in the stops will spend way longer times expecting the bus to come, since
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
buses are all cramped in a short distance. When the congestion gradually goes away, a
line of buses will come out one by one and this explains when people sometimes see
three or four buses come at the same moment. To some extent, with a short interval,
seven or eight buses from the same line. This causes the transportation very inefficient,
but such a problem is yet to be solved.
The key to solve such issues is mass transportation. It is now the most practical
way to relieving the pollution and helping the economy. According to many civic
service department website, public transportation reduces carbon monoxide emission
by 95%, VOCs by 92%, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide by 55%. Public
transportation would save million hours of travel time and millions of gallons of fuel.
It would also save billions of dollars of congestion costs. For a country that has a
successful transportation network, these are already benefits for years. For those who
are still attempting to improve the network, it is very hard to start. Just in America,
the buses only carry slightly more passengers onboard than a normal auto does
according to Department of Energy’s Transportation Energy Data Book. For a
real-life example, I saw some MTA line 34 18 meters long articulated buses stuck in
the middle of the traffic congestion carrying very few people even though the interval
is very small and the bus is very cozy and attractive.
After all, relieving the urban pollution problem isn’t only making public
transportation system more efficient, but it is also necessary to change the public’s
Creative Writing Prompt April 2nd
CAS138T
Wenjie Zheng
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
transit behavior. As far as there are no regulations on the increasing number of cars
running on the road, any improvements made are not functioning in its full efficiency.
The game of Cities in Motion, utilizes some most basic elements of transportation,
explains some sophisticated urban phenomena. When we look into the way how cities
develop, public transportations should always be the first thing we look at. There is
one saying, “the best way to view a city is to take its public transportation.” Indeed,
when you are a traveler in an unfamiliar city, do you like it when you are in the
middle of a traffic jam, or find hard to get aboard a subway, or complaining the
expensive transportation fares or swiftly riding around the city with its delicately
designed, traveler-friendly transportation network? The question is out, whether to go
environment friendly is up to you, go take a mass transit or not?
Wenjie Zheng