When were you in NYC? We have more bike lanes than Stockholm these days. :)
Proof:
http://www.amny.com/transit/new-york-city-to-reach-1-000-mil... vs http://www.fourteenislands.com/bicycle-paths/
Couldn't find data for Stockholm, but here is a NY-Copenhagen comparison: black lines are the relative NYC allocation spaces, orange bars is Copenhagen. Relatively speaking, Copenhagen has much more biking space: https://whatthestreet.moovellab.com/newyork/results?bike=0.1...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_in_Copenhagen#Infrastr...
What can I say, there were some but not a lot. And many of these lanes were just painted on the road.
I think this is the big difference, cars drove on the biking lanes but in Stockholm the overwhelming majority of these lanes are protected so cars cannot drive on them.
Yes, that's the unfortunate reality of NYPD policing. They basically park in bike lanes with little or no consequence. However, with dedicated lanes a lot of progress is being made. Already there is a dedicated bike path that will allow you to drive for hundreds of miles north with little contact with cars.