Personally, I'd say do one thing, and it's not intuitive to me :

Do not specialise.

Do not have a residential zone, an industrial zone, an entertainment zone, and a religious zone.

Make every place you build have everything needed for your population there, and they will not travel (hopefully).

That being said - always plan road networks in advance. If you can get 2 roads through a possible future chokepoint, do it.