Lane Arrows - CitiesSkylinesMods/TMPE GitHub Wiki

Verified: December 2021 - TM:PE 11.5.2

Overview

Lane arrows can be used to organise traffic flow across road junctions and level crossings.

Arrows only affect normal road traffic. To customise tracked junctions, use Lane Connectors instead.

Usage

Choose Lane Arrows on the Toolbar:

Lane arrows tool

You can set a keyboard shortcut to activate the tool in the Keybinds settings.

Applicators

See the Shortcuts section below for more applicators!

Click a road segment at a junction to edit it.
A panel appears showing arrows for each lane:

In the image above, traffic entering from Lane 1 must turn left, while Lane 2 can go straight ahead or right.
Click arrow buttons to toggle direction on/off for the associated lane.

Limitations

Lane arrows can't be changed on junctions using:

Lane Connectors
- Lane connectors take precedence over lane arrows.
Highway Junction Rules
- See: Enable highway-specific lane merging/splitting rules in Policies settings
- You can use Lane Connectors to override such junctions

Vehicle Routing

Vehicles calculate their route before starting their journey. As a result, when you change lane arrows, only vehicles spawned after that point will be aware of your changes.

To force existing vehicles to calculate new routes when you make changes, enable Apply AI changes right away in General settings.

Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are applicable when the Lane Arrows tool is active...

Selection:

Click a segment entering a junction - choose segment to customise
- Any previously selected segment wil be deselected
Right-click anywhere - deselect current segment
- If no segment selected: Exit the Lane Arrows tool as if you pressed Esc
Esc - exit Lane Arrows tool
- Returns focus to the Toolbar and enables its Adjust Roads mode.

Basic Applicators:

These are applied to the currently selected segment.

Click an arrow button - toggle the direction on/off
Delete or Backspace - reset selected segment arrows to default state

Bulk applicators:

See Dedicated Turning Lanes guide for more information.

Alt+Click segment entering a junction - Automatially configure turning lanes for that segment
- Repeat the shortcut to cycle through alternate configurations
Control+Click a junction - Give all roads at the junction a turning lane
- Same as Alt+Click, but configures all segments entering the junction
- Repeat the shortcut to cycle through alternate configurations
Priority Signs bulk applicators can add turning lanes for an entire route

Camera / Overlays:

The Lane Arrows tool does not have any overlays.

Mouse wheel - zoom in or out
PageDown - underground view
- This activates a simplified version of the Traffic Info View
PageUp - overground view

Notes

Unlike Lane Connectors, which explictitly link an incoming lane to one or more outgoing lanes, the lane arrows just set a general direction.

(todo: image)

You could think of this as an arc drawn around the edge of the junction, and depending on the lane arrow the arc will be mostly to the left, ahead, right, or a mixture of those. Any road containing outgoing lanes that is within the arc is seen as a valid exit from the junction.

FAQ

Does it affect frame rate or cause lag?

No. Vanilla game already has lane arrows, we just change where they point.

Vehicles are ignoring the changes I made

Vehicles responding to emergencies ignore lane arrows

Reckless Drivers will sometimes ignore lane arrows

Passenger, sightseeing and evacuation buses can ignore lane arrows, if enabled to do so...

Lane arrows are causing buses to take strange routes

Buses often need extra flexibility to reach their next stop. In Policies settings:

Enable Busses may ignore lane arrows for passenger and sightseeing buses

Enable Evacuation busses may ignore traffic rules for emergency evacuation buses

Painted road arrows are not reflecting my changes

The arrows painted on the road surface are determined by the road asset, not TM:PE. Some roads have missing arrows, or don't show arrows at all, or show incorrect arrows (particularly if the asset was designed for traffic driving on the other side of the road).

When I load my city, my lane arrow customisations are gone

Try unpausing the game. See Lane arrow and connector not loading for details.

Can I customise the painted road arrows?

Yes, use BOB, the Tree and Prop Replacer mod (or similar):

Open BOB and select a road

Set replacements for the arrows:

Note that some roads may have different names for the arrows (the arrows are toggled by hidden flags, not by name).