One month after the release of SimCity 2.0, Maxis is preparing yet another "significant update." The 3.0 patch, which deploys later this week, continues to introduce new content and tweaks to the online city simulator. (Perhaps it will also fix the bugs introduced by the latest patch?)

In terms of new content, additional hotels have been added "to increase hotel variety." However, of particular note is how traffic is handled. Fans have been critical of the way traffic was implemented in the game and 3.0 will "update routing system to improve traffic." The routing system apparently "now understands more information about u-turns, required vehicle stops, and vehicle behavior on certain road types. This should make traffic smarter."

There are some other minor real world tweaks made to the traffic system. This one, in particular, made me chuckle: "Vehicles can now make right turns on Red. This should improve some cases of traffic.

You can read the full patch notes for yourself, which includes fixes for school buses, trading, pollution, transit, roads, and more. Thankfully, radiation now causes less ground pollution--which should make the residents of my nuclear-wasted town all the happier.