New York, New York, so good they named it twice

New York, New York is so good they named it twice. But Homer Simpson hates New York City and many Americans would never want to live there, Why?  I think, it's a high density and public transport friendly city. New York is not car (and particularly not SUV) friendly and parking is expensive. But NYC is only major city in United States of America that can claim over 50% of commuted is done using public transit.

London Underground System Map

Cars and Parking are also discouraged and expensive in London, Paris, Tokyo, Denmark, Amsterdam, Stockholm, all cities great public transport networks.

Commuting by general use public transport is not really common in the United States of America. Most children grow up getting on a big yellow bus for school and that's the only public transport they use. Maybe that causes a bias against public transport, an association with schooling before legal driving age.

Or maybe that public transport is great leveler, there is a brilliant mixture of people on New York Subway (or other cites Metro or Underground, Overground transit system) which people find scary in the increasingly divided society in the USA.

I like New York City's  urban melting pot a great deal. It is a bigger version of what I lived with in Stockholm, Sweden. Although Stockholm's SL integrated Metro,Bus,Tram and Ferry system is absolutely the best I have experienced. London and Paris are probably on a par with New York being cities of similar size.

At around 35% of commuting is the efficient and clean Washington D.C.'s metro system. But I suspect this is largely due to so large federal support due to being political capital with major sites of polical, military and tourist interest being located such a small area.
Next around 30 comes San Francisco's Muni and BART systems (which I have yet to try) and Boston's Metro (which seemed good from my one brief trip there).

At roughly 25% commuter usage come Chicago and Philadelphia. Chicago Transit's downtown loop is iconic, how the natives felt about it's with only 75% of commuters not using public transit. (I used the system once going from O'Hare Airport to Union Station.
While the region Philadelphia's area combination of SEPTA, PATCO and NJ transit is not great, the single line PATCO speedline is the best in Public Transit in the region. Really the token system on SEPTA's subway needs to be replaced and improved integration between systems in the area is also needed.