Starting my little city off: 

I started with mostly gravel roads since it's cheaper. I loved the graphics so far - they weren't as cartoonish as I'd expected. About halfway down I decided to make a 4 lane meridian road. 

Now it's time for some higher density: 

To the south is a coast line, I decided to focus the higher density there for a historic coastline feel. 

Now time for some more expansion: 

By the way, you can see the elevated metro line if you look closely. I should've waited until after unlocking more tiles before making a subway. I already had a 3 line bus network. But i had no idea how city connections/expansion worked. It was a pain to build and I ran out of money many times. 

Thank you if you read all this. Now time to download DLCs and mods hehe