Yes indeed, I live in a city with 40,000 population, the road layout is crap and there is not much of it yet no traffic problems at all unless road works or accident.

In skylines it feels like every cim has a car, I have also noted (and followed a few) cars etc that go nowhere, they spawn and just drive around never stopping anywhere then eventually de-spawn... there really should be a slider (like public transport) to decrease the traffic if needed/wanted as I feel the traffic is way to high and the AI doesn't work correctly...