Yep, the citizens are now far smarter in their path finding. They'll walk quite a distance now, or follow a route via multiple different transport types.

A feature I'm really enjoying is pedestrians will walk along routes not intended for them if you've failed to provide adequate pedestrian routes. They will walk alongside a highway without a pavement if it saves them time. Or even more recklessly I've got people finding their way onto my rail tracks to shortcut their way to the station in places I've failed to put pedestrian paths.

Each citizen has their own preferences too, They'll take whatever transport is most suited to them. There's a surprising amount of depth to it.

When traveling by car or public transport they choose:

Teens - the cheapest route.

Adults - the quickest route.

Seniors - the most comfortable route.

https://cs2.paradoxwikis.com/Citizens#Age

This cost is calculated using multiple factors such as the city’s road network, traveling time, travel cost, agent preferences, and more which we will cover in more detail below. Furthermore, agents will adjust their route based on events along the way. They may change lanes to avoid a car accident or a stopped service vehicle or make room for a vehicle responding to an emergency.

https://cs2.paradoxwikis.com/Traffic

Cars have seen massive improvement as well. They do indeed now pull into another lane to make way for emergency vehicles.

No longer do citizens store them in a magical pocket, they need to find parking which can be roadside or in dedicated parking structures.

Roads can be upgraded to remove roadside parking, given wide pavements, you can add signage to prevent left hand turns etc. But rather enjoyably some more reckless drivers will ignore your road layouts and intentionally take turns they aren't allowed to, or if a road becomes blocked they will perform an illegal u-turn and find an alternative route.

Honestly, I'm really not understanding why this game is getting so many people complaining. Sure it has bugs, but the core mechanics are working perfectly fine - it's an incredible feat of software engineering.