One of the issues with the original Cities: Skylines is the way you unlock new public transportation options. The unlocks are based entirely on population milestones: you get access to taxis and buses when your population reaches 650 people, but cable cars, trains, trolleybuses, and monorails come later down the line when you have enough citizens to qualify as a Big Town and a Small City. That means you need thousands of residents before you can access those important services.
The problem is that well-designed cities are built around public transportation systems like trains and trams, and that works much better than building a city that supports thousands of residents and then trying to cram public transportation into an existing design. Lay the tracks before you build the skyscrapers, in other words.
