> NYC has a better subway system than most Euro cities. Probably because NYC has the advantage of being old before cars became affordable.

Nah, it's just because it's very, very big, nearly 9 million people. Very big European cities have comparable transport, but most European cities are smaller than this.

NYC's subway system is a little smaller than London's (though its commuter rail system is much smaller), and both cities have similar populations. And a little bigger than Paris's.

(Comparing metro system sizes can get messy, because there are things that are called metros but aren't really (eg SF muni metro, which shares space with cars) and things which aren't usually called metros but are metro-like (some S-bahn type things, in particular))

> NYC has the advantage of being old before cars became affordable.

Aren't Euro cities generally much older than those in the New World?

NYC was never bombed to rubble and explicitly rebuilt after the American dream that everyone should drive everywhere.

Most cities weren't bombed, and no all that were got rebuilt only for cars.