Why Building Megacities is a HUGE Mistake in Cities Skylines 2

Bigger isn’t better. In episode two of Cascadia, I keep building our alternate-history British Pacific Northwest city, and I do it by letting small towns grow together into neighborhoods instead of chasing a sprawling megacity. Along the way you can see why the megacity approach falls apart: one highway entrance turns into a bottleneck, closely packed rail and intersections turn into a traffic nightmare, industry next to downtown brings pollution, and growth outruns housing and services until you have a labor shortage and not enough schools. Keeping the scale small gives you neighborhoods that feel like real places with their own identity, and that’s what I’m building toward here. In this episode I lay out a colonial survey grid, build a custom Golden Gate-inspired bridge, add the early railroads and waterfront, put in the first tram line, and detail a few neighborhoods. I finish with a roadmap for the next few episodes. 0:00 Intro and small towns growing together 5:35 Building the custom bridge 13:12 Why a unique city identity can wait 28:05 Railroads, waterfront and traffic trouble 39:18 First tram line 54:55 Roadmap for next episodes and naming the towns 58:22 Closing cinematics Tags: Cascadia, cities skylines 2, cities skylines 2 gameplay, cities skylines 2 episode 2, cities skylines 2 realistic, megacity, why megacities fail, city building mistakes, realistic city growth, city planning, urban planning, traffic problems, public transportation, alternate history, pacific northwest, British Columbia, historic city, waterfront development, custom bridge, city builder series