One of the EPs, can't remember which, added the option to walk to lot instead of using a taxi or owned cat. I'm curious as to whether any other players make up specific rules as to when this can be used instead of a vehicle.

My specific rules:

- Travel to another subhood always requires a vehicle.
- If the lot is in the same subhood, I decide based on distance and the Sim's fitness whether they walk or use a vehicle.
- My main neighbourhood, Riverbreeze, is divided by a... well, you can guess. One half is the residential section and the other half is the commercial/apartment section. Most Sims use a vehicle to go to the other side of the river.
- In Downtown, I don't put any restrictions on distance. after all, that's the benefits to living downtown! (Most of them even walk to work.)

Additionally:
- Since I'm using the community time project, if a Sim walks to a community lot, I make them linger around a bit extra time and then manually lower their motives a bit to simulate the travel time and effort for walking. If'd be neat if someone could figure out to bake this into the mod itself.

My rules are pretty simple. They can walk anywhere in the same neighborhood. They have to take a car or taxi to get downtown. They have to own a car to travel between subhoods--taxis don't go that far.

If I put in Bluewater Village, which I haven't in my current save, I head-canon that they can "walk" there because there's a free shuttle that goes between the main neighborhood and Bluewater.

I should have game play rules on this but I don't. If the sims have a car I tend to use it, if they don't they normally walk everywhere. I have no patience for call a taxi and never use it unless its for a date. I am always amazed at the YouTube videos where people continually call for taxis and it isn't due to game play rules, it seems they are unaware they can just walk.

One of the neighbourhood decos is a bus stop, I think.

I usually just let people walk by default. If they have a car they might use it if I just feel like it, or if they go to Downtown/a subhood, if they're old and frail, teens who want to drive just because they can, or have a nice car they want to show off. I can't be arsed to call taxis if I don't have to, so if I have them walk overly long distances I just pretend they walked to and from a bus stop or train station or something, which seems more realistic to me than constantly riding taxis anyway.

Honestly?
For a good long while now I haven't played with community lots, haven't given my sims jobs, and kids haven't gone to school (it's just been easier for pictures/storytelling purposes), so cars are mostly for deco and the odd parking lot or posed picture. I've used buses and other vehicles for the same purpose.

I've never been much of an "I need rules for my sims" kind of player. In the odd chance I use vehicles for other things than the above, I just do whatever is more convenient. Usually some type of car/drivable vehicle or taxi. Maybe walking, but I keep forgetting they can do that.

I usually make them walk. I'll have sims own cars if they roll the want for one and have space on the lot for a driveway, but I tend to not use them even if they own one. I find they bug out too often with "watch out!" queue stomping and random route failure issues (when there isn't anything blocking the path to the car!) for me to reliably have sims use them for anything but woohoo/makeout, take for a spin, or driving to work instead of taking the carpool. Not sure what causes it but I frequently have to delete and re-purchase the car/driveway because it will randomly become unusable (sims will stomp feet and complain and never get into the car). If I have more than one sim traveling together with a car, the passengers often route failure and cancel the "get in" interaction, causing the sims in the car to leave without them! And then I'll load into the comm lot wondering "where the heck is half my household?!?"

As for the taxi, I never use them unless it's automatically summoned from someone asking my sim out on a date via the phone. I also frequently play with tiny size lots, and those run out of "parking" spaces pretty fast if you have multiple service sims visiting at once (maid and gardener or repairman etc) or someone else's carpool or schoolbus waiting in the street. Sometimes I end up with sims waiting in purgatory in a taxi until someone leaves and the vehicle can properly pull up and let them out. The return home failsafe mod has been a lifesaver!

It doesn't make sense to have sims walking incredibly far distances, but in my experience walking is the least annoying and potentially glitchy transportation option. All they have to do is walk to a pedestrian portal, easy peasy!

I usually have the pixels walk-and in Tinsel Town, I've erected a bus service (Chris Hatch) to use as well. I firmly believe that the cars should only be used for work. I also have found ride able bikes that can double as cars, so trying to do that too, because they should try to save their planet too.

I allow them to walk within the same neighborhood. I consider them all to be small. I've set the motives of the walking car to consume some energy and comfort. It has the same set of properties as other cars, which can add motives. I've changed the arrival interaction with a lower priority, so that I can give another command and interrupt the walk to a payphone, where they have no reason to go to. I think walking was added by Voyage to allow to explore vacations.

You can remove Watch Out by having this return false: "CT - Car Footprint Blocked By Sim?"

As someone who's very anti-car IRL, I don't tend to let my sims have them either. I don't use subhoods a whole lot, but when I do it's taxis to get to them. Otherwise everyone walks everywhere. If the public transport mods were a bit more simple I might use them. Anyway, cars take up far too much space on the lot, as I tend to use smaller lots.

If you ever decide to upload it, you have at least one downloader!

Simler90 has a mod like that.

https://modthesims.info/d/633035/walk-to-lot-mod.html

I downloaded it but honestly I found it too annoying - it just takes too long to wait for the taxi or a car and the motive drain was too much. I might add it back in for a challenge hood along with a mod that charges for taxis.

In theory I tend to use the taxi if they are going to another subhood but in practice I am too impatient and let them walk everywhere :P

Edited to add: Apparently, I DO still have the Simler mod in, so I didn't find the motive drain too annoying.

Walk.

Taxis are used for group outings and dates, of course, but otherwise, my sims walk.

It is quicker and easier (as @simsfreq says above) and it also means I don't have to use space on the lot for a garage and a driveway (I can use it for something better )

Not really a rule - since I don't have rules - but simply about what I find convenient.

Pescado has your back. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=2680.0

I never call a taxi except on a date. My neighborhoods are either walking neighborhoods or have great bus service that runs between subhoods. Some of my sims own cars, but they only take them to work and to subhoods. Within the neighborhood, they walk.

I don't have rules.
In my current hood with no subhood attached, everybody walk everywhere. Many of the residential lots don't have enough space for a driveway.
Nobody owns a car at the moment but it may change if I decide to put a car dealership.

They take a taxi for outings and dates as intended by EAxis.

The only time a taxi ever shows up at any lot in my game is when someone is moving out.

I really like the idea of having Sims "walk" everywhere, but actually pretending that they're taking a bus - that way, their arrival on foot is just them walking down from the bus stop.

I was kind of going the opposite way all this long - felt like Sims walking everywhere is too cheaty and unrealistic, especially between subhoods - but reading about the bus stop neighborhood deco sparked a whole new idea in my head. Calling for taxis truly does take forever, I guess I'll be back to having Sims walk again pretty soon.

I always forget to place bus stops. I have the mod, even made the bus stops cheap, and still I hardly ever use it.

I also have a rule of requiring a car or taxi to go to another subhood. Most of my sims don't have cars, so I don't have strict rules with the subhood. Sometimes it's thunderstorming and I think it's silly to have them walk and sometimes I choose walk just because I want them to leave immediately and not wait on a taxi.

I usually just go by whether a Sim is travelling within the same hood or to a subhood and the weather. If I played larger and more developed saves, though, I'd probably take distance into account as well.

I started a custom neighborhood this year and have a similar rule in mind: walking within the main hood, but need a car or taxi to go downtown (even though there's no downtown yet and no one owns a car)
Since my hood is supposed to be a village/small town at the beginning of my gameplay, the career options are also limited to what would realistically be available in such a rural area, and my Sims walk to work. When an downtown is added new careers and higher career levels will be accessible but then Sims will also need a car to get there

I don't think I've bought one of my sims a car in at least 16 years. So many of the maxis lots don't accommodate them (particularly well at least) and I find cars don't really add anything to my gameplay. Walking is very convenient though and I like to picture my sims strolling around.

I used to be like a lot of simmers in the thread and never used cars and just walked everywhere--it really is way more convenient. But I did have a few cc cars in my Download folder. And so like, a decade or so ago, I made a deal with myself: If I want to keep my cc cars, I have to actually use them. So my sims now drive everywhere and pretty much every household has at least one car. Now like I said, it's been several years since I implemented this rule so I am not always too strict about it. But generally, yes, I use cars all the time and my sims must drive. In fact, I also installed a mod that removes carpools and the school bus, just to help make sure I really stick to my guns. Now my sims really do need a car if I won't let them walk because they need it to get to work. And whenever feasible they must drive their sim kids to school, too! No Taxis unless the sim is really desperate. I hate using them, as it takes forever. But if sims do use it, I have a mod that makes it cost money.

Anyway, like a few other simmers, I set rules by neighborhood/distance. If it's a more rural type of hood, like say Riverblossom, everyone needs to drive everywhere, all the time. For other neighborhoods that are more city-like or have a cluster of buildings close together, I might let them walk. If I'm feeling really generous because it's a new hood and some sims don't have cars yet or because I haven't set up community lots for use with cars, etc., then I might let sims walk anywhere in the hood. But that's rare.

Most of the time, walking is restricted to one or two neighborhood blocks--my sims can't walk across the entire hood. So for example in Downtown or Belladonna, sims can walk anywhere close by. But anything further they need a car or have to get a taxi. Like, if you're Downtown, no, you can't walk from Mendoza Lane and all those other houses to all the way back where Sim Bowl Lanes or Hans' Trap Door Club or the graveyard, etc. are. I think that's fair because even if I imagine the hood to be a small community, the maps are quite large.

In Uni hoods, though, sims there are allowed to walk anywhere on campus. They can also walk in BV hoods, too, now that I think about it. But sims definitely need a car for any travel between subhoods or to another campus, etc. For this reason I used to also have a rule that sims going to Uni needed to have a car. But I kinda forgot about that rule, plus it was tough for any Uni premades I happened to play. I already make them take out a bunch of student loans and sometimes I just want to have them travel Downtown and be on a community lot without the Uni countdown clock, you know? But I might bring that rule back because the economic challenge is nice.

Which brings me to the other reason why I like using cars and driving everywhere: it costs money. It was definitely way too easy for me and my sims to make money. Even my poor or challenging households (like the Brokes) would be rolling in dough after a generation or two. So making my sims have to buy a large purchase item like a car helps with that. I mod the cost of some of the cars I download and make sure I have a good price range of vehicles that sims of all classes can sink their money into. So my poor sims can scrape together $1,000 and still drive and my middle class and rich sims can spend thousand or tens of thousands on fancier models. I also use the Vehicles Cost Money mod to simulate gas and other car maintenance costs. So yeah, I like the extra challenge it can be to own and use cars--sometimes poor sims don't have enough for gas money and they have to figure out what to do to get to work and school. And because I don't allow the carpool anymore, even families that were comfortable might need to spend their savings on a new car if everyone's work and school schedules aren't compatible.

Having all sims own a car has slowly transformed the way I designed my lots and makes homes more expensive, which I like. When I first implemented the rule, I just made sure that sims had a car, maybe made sure that homes had enough space for a two car driveway. If there wasn't enough room for a car, I would at least stick their car in their inventory to simulate them owning it--I still do that sometimes, if I don't have the space. But now when I plan lots, I am more thoughtful. Homes must have space for at least two cars. Low end housing might just have a driveway, but middle and upper class houses will have garages and enough space for three or four cars so both parents and teens can have a car and get to work and school. This can sometimes be a challenge for apartments and for smaller residences in my cities and neighborhoods where houses are smaller and closer together, but I come up with ways around it. I might put parking lots in apartment complexes so sims can rent a car when they need. Or I might just place car extensions in the basement and build deco driveways--I'm okay with sims fading in and out of the lot.

For community lots, yeah some are small, but enough of them are huge and can easily fit a parking lot. Some of them even had parking lots included; I just reconfigured them a little so that I can use the Park in the Car Park mod. Because I implemented these driving rules years ago, I have now made over a decent number of lots that I can place down and use in a new hood if I don't feel like building just yet. And my new builds generally do take parking lots and driveways into account--even my tiny lots might have one or two parking spaces. I will just make lots a little deeper and keep them narrow if I want that close-together-city feel. That actually works out for the better because neighborhood blocks are usually very deep anyway. Instead of moving a lot off road or placing deco in the middle of a block, I can just push my buildings back.

I mean, I do wish driveways weren't so wide, that they were two or three tiles wide instead of five--it would have saved me so many headaches when building! I'm still experimenting with townhouse layouts, for example. My past attempts have been just too wide and it is a challenge to fit cars in without going above two floors. (I don't mind upper dummy floors for aesthetics, but I hate playing anything above two stories high.) But overall, I do really like including cars in my gameplay and towns. Deco cars and parking lots can help make community lots and towns feel more alive, and again, I like the challenge of using cars and restricting travel. I really feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of NL all these years later!

Right now in my game, I'm trying to incorporate William's No Driving without a License mod into my play. It's taking a bit longer than expected for sims to get their license, mostly because there aren't enough options for driving lessons, . But I'm looking forward to adding this new rule for driving into my play.

In Real Life I'm the same; I've never had a car and I never want one. I reckon by the standards of many people here, I reckon I'm very indulgent of my Sims, and I want them to live happy fulfilled lives, but I draw the line at cars. If I can manage a lifetime without one, so can they! Three or four of my Sims (mostly living downtown) have got bicycles by mickyss (https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=117872, https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=120850, https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=117995, and https://modthesims.info/download.php?t=261069), but most use the taxi, as I don't have the EPs that allow walking to school/work/lots. It's something I would like, but not enough to put up with all the other things I'd get with those EPs. I really wish EA/Maxis had enabled walking to places from base game. I'm pretty sure that Real Life humans thought of walking a couple of million years before anyone dreamed up cars and taxis.

For longer journeys I usually use the 'bus or the train myself, but Chris Hatch's 'bus mod also requires those EPs. Because my Sims have always used the taxi service, I'm thoroughly used to it and don't perceive it as slow. My Sims find ways of using the few minutes that they have to wait; for example, they check food supplies in the fridge, so they buy the right amount when they reach the shops. When I go out myself, I tend to take about ten minutes to put on outdoor clothes, make sure I have money, cards, telephone etc. with me. I then have about 7 minutes walk to the 'bus stop, an average of about 6 minutes to wait for the 'bus (It's a good service) and then maybe 7-8 minutes 'bus journey to the nearest High Street shops. I think it's quite good, but it's not instant. If anything I think my Sims get to the shops slightly faster than I do. I do use sub-hoods, at least in and around Veronaville, but if the they're travelling to another sub-hood, then there's another loading screen, which I feel represents the longer journey. On my old netbook it could be a bit slow, but on the Dell gaming laptop, the loading screen times are insignificant. I'm quite happy with them, and my Sims seem happy enough too.

Finally I see no rational reason why anyone would pay thousands of Simoleons to buy a car, when they live in a place with a free taxi service. Except perhaps that kind of fortune Sim, who just want to show off that they've got money to waste.