Transportation
If the Traffic page explains how citizens decide to travel, this page is the price list those decisions run on.
Walking distances set what is even physically reasonable without another mode. There is a comfortable walk-up radius, the standard five-minute walking distance used in urban planning. Beyond that radius, citizens will still walk if it beats the bus, but only up to a hard cutoff. Past the cutoff, walking is treated as not feasible in the mode choice model, and the citizen falls back to bus or car. Both numbers on this page come from the walking-distance literature, with the cutoff aligned to the ninetieth percentile willingness-to-walk-to-work of about one mile (around 1500 meters).
Cars
Citizens buy a car once their balance clears the sticker price (base price plus a year of license fees, with sales tax layered on top). They sell when their balance dips below a runway of upcoming license-fee payments. There is no extra commute-length check at purchase time; affordability is the gate. Fuel costs are charged daily based on the fleet you have put on the road. Diesel buses pay per liter, electric buses pay per kilowatt-hour, and gasoline cars pay per liter through the cost-of-living block on the Economics page.
Buses
Each bus drivetrain in your fleet (diesel, electric, hybrid) also pays a per-kilometer maintenance bill, billed daily, on top of fuel and electricity. The numbers come from the U.S. Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database, which tracks operating expense per mile across thousands of fleets:
- Diesel buses are cheap to buy and a moderate cost to keep running.
- Battery-electric buses are more expensive to buy (a cost not modeled on this page yet) but materially cheaper to keep running. Regenerative braking spares the brake pads, there is no engine oil or filter to change, and there are far fewer moving parts. The numbers here already average in mid-life battery replacement.
- Hybrid buses are the most expensive to maintain because they carry both a full diesel drivetrain and a full battery system. Both age. Both need service.
Bus drivers are paid a fixed monthly salary out of the public transport budget for every driver you have on the payroll. The page also lists an hourly market rate, taken from NYC MTA data, that is currently for reference only: the city is not billed per hour of bus operation on top of the monthly salary.
Your levers
The walking distances are fixed. They are behavioral constants from the literature, not numbers you would change in normal play. The real way to grow bus ridership is to bring more citizens within the comfortable walk-up radius of a stop, not to extend how far people will walk.
Fleet composition is the long-run dial. A long-lived electric fleet swings the daily operating cost down over time. A hybrid-heavy fleet keeps maintenance high. Mix accordingly.
Parameters
Walking distance
400
Comfortable walk-up distance — the radius within which a citizen will reach a bus stop on foot, or skip the parking fee for a near-job commute. Standard 5-minute walkable radius used in urban planning.
⚠️ Source pending
Max walkable commute distance
1500
Beyond this, walking is treated as infeasible in the mode-choice model and the citizen falls back to bus or car. ~18 min one-way at 5 km/h. Aligned with mode-choice studies that put willingness-to-walk-to-work at roughly 1 mile (1.6 km) for the 90th percentile.
Source: Yang & Diez-Roux — Walking Distance by Trip Purpose and Population Subgroups
Gas car price
$26,000
Average purchase price of a new car. Citizens buy cars when they can afford it and can use it to commute to work, and sell them when they need money.
Source: Numbeo
Diesel cost per liter
$1
Cost of diesel fuel per liter. This cost is used to calculate the operating expenses of diesel and hybrid buses in the city’s public transportation system.
Source: AAA state gas price averages
Electricity cost per kwh
$0.14
Cost of electricity per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This cost is used to calculate the operating expenses of electric and hybrid buses in the city’s public transportation system.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Electric Power Monthly
Bus maintenance cost per km diesel
$0.75
Maintenance and repair cost per kilometre driven for a diesel bus. Covers scheduled servicing, brake and tire wear, engine repairs and consumables — the day-to-day cost of keeping the bus on the road, separate from fuel. Charged daily alongside fuel against the same publicTransport budget line so the player sees the true operating cost of a larger fleet.
Source: U.S. Federal Transit Administration — National Transit Database operating expenses
Bus maintenance cost per km electric
$0.50
Maintenance and repair cost per kilometre driven for a battery-electric bus. Lower than diesel due to fewer moving parts, regenerative braking and no engine fluids — the figure already amortizes mid-life battery pack replacement. Charged daily alongside electricity against the same publicTransport budget line.
Source: APTA — Cost Effectiveness of Battery-Electric Transit Buses
Bus maintenance cost per km hybrid
$0.85
Maintenance and repair cost per kilometre driven for a diesel-electric hybrid bus. Highest in the fleet because hybrids combine a full diesel drivetrain with a battery and power-electronics system — both age and need service. Charged daily alongside fuel and electricity against the same publicTransport budget line.
Source: U.S. Federal Transit Administration — National Transit Database operating expenses
Bus driver salary hour
$29
Hourly salary paid to bus drivers operating in the city’s public transportation system. This amount is deducted from the city’s funds for each hour a bus is in operation.
Source: NYC MTA
Bus driver monthly
$5,000
The monthly salary paid to each bus driver. This amount is deducted from the city’s public transport budget.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics