A little trick U learned at launch, is I build trafficless as possible, then when I think I'm done, then I add the traffic buildings like tourism. This helps keep you from constantly fiddling with your city. Especially on larger cities.
But there are very few required mods for this game. I do think there might be one or more mods it needs, as the underground intersection wasn't working at all and has missing road/lines everywhere underground.
When I mean required, I mean that city won't load at all without it, or completely cripple the city. NExt2 will cripple the city if missing as you will lose vital roads.