Europe has much older cities than the US, and larger amounts of land were already taken up, which has limited the amount of "freeway"-style development.
Arguably if it had NOT been for the interstate highway push in the US we'd have an America that would look more European.
I definitely agree with the latter paragraph. But it’s important to note that places like Amsterdam did invest heavily into car infrastructure as well. It’s not completely true that car dependency was staved off by existing road sizes.
Like you allude to, the US was bulldozed for the automobile. We didn’t develop around it. Amsterdam was following a similar path until mass protests in the 70s about people being slaughtered by cars. (https://inkspire.org/post/amsterdam-was-a-car-loving-city-in...)
And over the past several decades, they have made vast changes and redevelopments that we should have been following as well.
And now Amsterdam isn’t just amazing for cyclists and pedestrians… it’s also great for driving. ( https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k)
Arguably if it had NOT been for the interstate highway push in the US we'd have an America that would look more European.