Starting a new town in 0.9.6d. Have trees and stone marked for harvesting, but most villagers are still running around putting down the roads I laid out. This shouldn’t be the case when there’s no wood or stone in stock. I think roads should be the last thing they deal with, not as it seems to be, almost the first thing.
I think it’s because roads increase travel speeds, but I agree that they shouldn’t be prioritized over stocking the essentials. I had to remove large rocks from priority because all of my people were working on that one rock instead of spreading out and some working on trees to get houses and the storage yard built.
At T1 don’t build roads at all, everything is close enough to not need them.
It just helps me make sure I’m building straight rather than crooked. Although sometimes even with roads laid down if I mess those up I find I have to rejig and put them straight. 
It would be a good idea to limit the number of builders. Why do you act like you haven’t played many games? This problem can be solved by setting one builder and leaving the rest as workers.