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ial zones. Therefore, the most desirable zones are those with low transportation costs.

Bid rent is maximum amount that a firm or household is willing to pay to occupy a distinct parcel of land. That goes to say that all other things being equal land goes to the highest bidder. This is also seen in SimCity 4. Although for the most part zones are better off in SimCity if they are segregated, if industry is closer to the commercial markets, and transportation costs are low then those are the most desirable places and should be rented out in such fashion. I found that this is applicable in SimCity 4.

Around the freight train station the industrial factories being built were of higher wealth and then moving poorer as you moved outwards into agricultural zones. This was also found for residential sites but for different reasons. The best residential sites were found to be those close to schools, hospitals, police stations, and firehouses. Transportation seemed not to play such a major role as it did for industry and commercial zones. However for those residential sites with low density zones around schools, hospitals, police stations, and firehouses, the wealth of the residents was much higher. It is interesting to note that residential houses that were closer by industrial and commercial sites actually went to less wealthy dwellers. This could because of pollution or increased density. However as long as the zones weren't directly beside each other, this seemed not to matter.

The model of a monocentric city is that of a city that has its commercial base on the inner circle of the city, which is the most desirable area; from there outwards commercial is followed by manufacturing, then residential zoning. For an earlier question I was asked to replicate a monocentric city and I think it is noteworthy to cover some of the problems that I found when doing so. The first problem I had was that there were no high wealth commercial, industrial, or residential residents. This could because none of the land was desirable because of its close proximity to other zones. This goes against the monocentric model that says that the most desirable should be those close to the center of the city. It is clear that the developers are not familiar with this part of urban land economics.

Conclusion
In conclusion, one very important thing to remember is that SimCity is a game, meant for entertainment. I found that throughout the process of making a city there was more an emphasis on 'making money' then the actual structure of the city, this of course is because SimCity was created for an entertainment factor rather than for students to study urban land economics, although I did find it a useful tool. In deciding whether the developers had an idea of the finer points of urban land economics, I have no doubt that they have a consultant helping them but the problem arises on the complexity of building a city.

The challenge for developers is that have to make a challenging, realistic, and entertaining game that has to be playable for the majority of the population. The problem with including all the finer details of urban land economics is that; first, it could potentially make the game far to challenging for those who aren't familiar with urban land economics; and second, it could potentially take away from the entertainment value of the game. With that in mind, I wouldn't suggest chang