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You can, but it’s painful. Amsterdam has just completed a new subway line that crosses under the entire city. It took about 15 years of construction (after 15 years of political discussion and planning), cost about 3,1 billion Euro and damaged some historical buildings because Amsterdam is essentially built on a swamp (no humans were harmed though). Still, this is a city that’s many years older than even the oldest city in the US. It can be done.

> You cant retrofit subways to existing cities

How many million people lived in London, Paris, Moscow or Tokyo when they started building their respective subways?

The answer is 2.5 million, 3.3 million, 3.8 million, and 8 million, respectively. And all of those were started before 1930, so it was actually possible with the technology 100 years ago.

The view that is US centric is "Nothing will work / we're unique" when it comes to questions of mass transit (and other things).