NYC is subpar too. The elevators never work, most stations don’t have escalators either, it’s filthy, taking your kids on the train will give them permanent hearing damage and large swaths of the city are completely unserviced.
Your feeling is the result of NYC and the entire USA being generally dysfunctional, not an inherent truth.
It's still annoying to not have a car. I don't have kids but f I did then the first thing I would do would almost certainly be to buy a vehicle.