Like other SimCity-style city builders, Cities: Skylines 2 is mostly a traffic simulator. Players need to make sure city residents can get to their jobs and visit local shops without clogging up the streets with traffic, and yet avoid creating too much noise and air pollution in the process.
One of the most important tools in the player's toolbox is the ability to replace and upgrade existing roads. This keeps players from having to destroy old roads and redraw them from memory. This feature was in the original game as well, but upgrading roads in Cities: Skylines 2 is even easier than before.
How to Replace a Road
Roads come in three sizes: small, medium, and large. Players can also get access to highways, but these are special road types that come in every size.
Converting a road to another type of the same size is as easy as it gets. First, choose the desired road type from the road construction menu, then choose the "Replace" tool mode. Target a road segment with the cursor and click on it to turn it into the new road type. If players are placing a one-way road, click and hold while moving the cursor in the desired direction.
The harder job is upgrading a narrow road to a wide road. The new road will overlap with adjacent buildings and other structures, and players may need to move, demolish, or otherwise rearrange the neighborhood before the new road will fit. The game automatically demolishes any zone buildings in the way at no cost to the player, but other structures must be dealt with manually.
For instance, in the image above, the game refuses to replace a two-lane road with a six-lane road because it overlaps with a pedestrian path. Pedestrian paths aren't technically roads, and so players must destroy the path and replace it later if they want to place this upgrade. The game indicates this with the warnings "Invalid Shape" and "Overlapping Items," both in red letters.
Fortunately, there's a way around this issue. Thanks to a new feature, players can move the cursor across the chosen road to have the upgrade expand the left side, the right side, or (at least when upgrading small to large) both sides. For instance, in the above image the upgrade only expands the right side of the road. This only conflicts with zoned buildings, and so the "Overlapping Items" warning is orange instead of red and the upgrade can go through. Because of this, players should place all their civic buildings on one side of a road if they plan on expanding it in the future.
Any road upgrades from other sources will stay on the new road, so long as the new road type is compatible with the upgrades. For instance, if players replace a two-lane road with trees and a tram line with a pedestrian road, the tram line will stay while the trees disappear.
Highways are unique road types for a few reasons. First, traffic on highways can move faster than on any other road type. Second, highways don't support building zones and don't count as road connections for civic buildings. Finally, highways don't carry water, sewage, and low-voltage power lines the way other road types do. This means that highway connections won't automatically bring utility connections with them. Players must manually add pipes and power lines to account for this. Highways are also the loudest road type, so be careful when using them to replace roads.
How to Upgrade an Intersection
Along with roads, players can also adjust intersections. Cities: Skylines 2 supports four types of intersection: right-of-way yield, roundabouts, stop signs, and stoplights.
To unlock the smallest roundabout, players must reach the first milestone. To access more, players must invest one development point each into Advanced Road Services and Roundabouts.
By default, intersections between small roads use stop signs while intersections involving medium and large roads use stoplights. This is a good starting point, but players may want to adjust these intersections based on traffic use.
- Remote and rarely used intersections can get by with right-of-way yield. This means that vehicles on the narrow road must yield to vehicles on the wider road, or vehicles that need to turn must yield to vehicles going straight
- Stop signs force vehicles coming from every road to stop at an intersection. This works for low-traffic intersections where vehicles are likely to come from any direction.
- Stoplights are better for moderate-traffic intersections, but vehicles can pile up behind the lights.
- Roundabouts keep things moving even in high-traffic situations, but they take up more space than a regular intersection and still don't prevent all traffic jams.
Players can replace the current intersection type by choosing the desired type from the Roundabouts or Advanced Road Services tab and then clicking on the intersection. Players may need to move civic buildings and paths to make enough space for a roundabout, but the other intersection types can go anywhere. To create a right-of-way intersection, choose the current intersection type and then press the cancel button instead.
How to Replace Parking Spaces
Another function of the Advanced Road Services tab is road verges. Most road types come with a sidewalk for pedestrians and enough shoulder room for parking, but players can replace this parking area with grass, trees, or an extra-wide sidewalk. Players can replace the parking area on one or both sides of the road in case they prefer an asymmetric look.
The main reason to do this is to prevent roadside parking. If vehicles are constantly entering a major road from parking spaces, they can disrupt the flow of traffic and cause jams. Players can then make up for the lost convenience by building parking lots.
The last upgrades in the Advanced Road Services allow players to create pedestrian crossings and add streetlights to streets that don't normally have them. These include the special narrow roads in the Small Roads tab and highways. This also electrifies the upgraded roads (another new feature in the sequel), which means they can carry low-voltage power to new areas. The last upgrade unlocks along with highways, and it allows players to add sound barriers to highways that reduce noise pollution.
Cities: Skylines 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.