Traffic? The issue half the time in NYC is the drivers. I can't compare it to SF since I haven't been there in a while but I still thought it was not as congested to compared to NYC.

NYC has a greater population and also has a greater number of registered cars compare to SF however.

As a comparison, I feel safe riding a motorcycle in SF. I don’t think I would ever ride a motorcycle in NYC.

Riding safely requires predicting what the cars around you are about to do. I find it an order of magnitude harder to predict driver behavior in NYC.