Never mind your coworker, you don't sound like you know anything about NYC aubway.
Please, spare me the elitist New Yorker crap. I never said I did, just recanting what some of my co-workers say, who happen to work for one of the largest financial institutions in NYC. They live outside the city (NJ, Long Island, etc.) and come in on the trains to Penn Station, then they walk several blocks to work. But they will not ride the subway to get around the City when they are there. They tell me they don't feel safe these days riding the subway, Why is this so difficult to believe?