GTA 6’s roads are narrower than GTA 5’s: what r/GTA6 thinks that changes

Overview

Reported In a September 18 thread on r/GTA6, u/KidAteMe1 argues that GTA 6 draws its roads far closer to real proportions than GTA 5 did. In Grand Theft Auto V, the post says, two cars could fit side by side in a single lane; on the Leonida streets shown so far, a lane holds one.

Reported The post calls the change deliberate and expects two things from it: a denser city, because less of the map is spent on asphalt, and slower travel, because tight lanes punish weaving through traffic. The replies took the argument to motorcycles and aiming, and questioned one of the pictures the post used as evidence.

Key facts

• Reported Posted: September 18, 2026, on r/GTA6, by u/KidAteMe1.
• Reported The claim: a GTA 5 lane fit two cars side by side, while GTA 6’s lanes fit one, as real roads do.
• On screen The footage: the post’s GTA 6 screenshot, taken from Rockstar’s gameplay footage with the minimap and Rockstar’s logo in its corners, shows a convertible and a pickup filling two lanes of a Vice City street.
• Reported Map size: TGG, who watched developers play at Rockstar North, says Vice City is about twice the size of Los Santos.
• Reported Fuel: TGG’s preview notes say cars need fuel and electric vehicles need charging.

What the post argues

Reported The first consequence the post names is density. Players have complained that Vice City does not look much bigger than Los Santos, and the post’s answer is that Los Santos spent much of its area on oversized roads. Even if the two cities had the same dimensions, it argues, realistic lanes leave room for more buildings in the same space, and the interiors players expect to enter would add to that.

Reported The second is travel. Players often say Red Dead Redemption 2 feels huge because a horse is slow, and the post expects tight roads, denser traffic, what it calls rumored fuel mechanics and possibly harsher consequences for a damaged car to slow GTA 6 down in the same way. Its prediction is that early in the game, players will ditch their car mid-chase and steal another to keep escaping, instead of blitzing across the map.

Reported The poster says Los Santos felt sparse during a GTA 5 playthrough, and wondered at first whether that came from too few pedestrians and cars or from car-centric American city design. Looking at the real places behind it settled the question for them: those are much denser, so the wide lanes were a design choice, one the post blames for a weaker city layout.

What the previews already report

Reported The fuel the post files under rumors is in TGG’s preview. According to the r/GTA6 summary of TGG’s notes, cars need fuel and electric vehicles need charging, and driving feels weightier and less arcade-like than in GTA 5, with higher top speeds.

Reported On size, the same summary says Vice City is about twice the size of Los Santos, and that Vice City and its surroundings are 11 times bigger than Los Santos and its surroundings.

Our read Put together, those undersell the post’s own point. Its density argument assumes two cities of equal size, while the previews describe a Vice City twice as large, with narrower roads carrying its traffic and far more ground left for buildings.

What the replies added

Reported The top reply went straight to motorcycles: weaving a bike through tight gaps in traffic will be more satisfying. Another commenter said GTA 5’s roads were so wide that a car could slip through traffic just as easily, which is why they almost never rode a motorcycle there, since a crash in a car did not send them flying.

Reported Aiming came next. According to the r/GTA6 summary of TGG’s preview, there is no more auto aim, only aim assist. One reply recalls that when TGG asked about it, Rob Nelson said the aim could be fine-tuned back toward GTA 5’s; another says some stickiness can be added back, but nowhere near the old lock-on.

Reported A commenter hopes the limited weapon wheel carries into online play, so fewer players pull out a rocket launcher at random. Another pointed out that Red Dead Online still let players carry all their weapons, unlike the story mode of Red Dead Redemption 2.

The pictures behind the post

Reported Several replies questioned the post’s first comparison, a GTA 5 panel that commenters called AI-generated, heavily modded, or GTA Vice City’s map rebuilt in GTA 5, and one called the whole post AI-written. The poster answered that they had copied the first images they found when searching for GTA 5 road proportions.

Our read That leaves one reliable picture in the thread: the GTA 6 screenshot from Rockstar’s own footage, used at the top of this story. It makes the point without any comparison, with a convertible and a pickup side by side and little room to spare between them.

Context

Our read Narrow lanes connect to three things we already track: the size of Vice City, the fuel and heavier handling noted in our vehicle customization file, and a police force that previews say remembers your car. Slower, heavier driving would make the getaway a bigger part of every job.

On screen An Extended Look already builds a job around one: the Raul job’s getaway is a full police chase, from 13:58 to 14:08 in the video.

Our read

Our read The post’s core observation holds up in Rockstar’s footage, and the previews back its guesses about fuel and weight. Its density math is a theory, not a measurement: no one has published a road-to-building ratio for either city, as the post itself admits. How much the tight lanes change driving will be clear on November 19.

Questions

Are GTA 6’s roads narrower than GTA 5’s?

On screen Rockstar’s gameplay footage shows traffic filling Vice City’s lanes with little room to spare. Reported u/KidAteMe1 says a GTA 5 lane could fit two cars.

Does GTA 6 have fuel?

Reported TGG’s preview notes say cars need fuel and electric vehicles need charging. Rockstar has not said so itself.

Is auto aim gone in GTA 6?

Reported According to the r/GTA6 summary of TGG’s preview, auto aim is gone and aim assist remains.

How big is Vice City compared with Los Santos?

Reported TGG says Vice City is about twice the size of Los Santos, and Vice City with its surroundings 11 times bigger than Los Santos with its surroundings.