I compare Austin because I've been to Austin, so I saw it for my own eyes. I've been to a range of European cities (especially the UK where I live) and all of them were more walkable than Austin. I'm not the only person to observe this. There's a number of Youtube channels (Not Just Bikes for one) that talk about this in great depth.

Amsterdam is comparable population wise.

There are 2.4m people in the Austin metro area.

Ok, and what European city (greater metro area mind you) would you think is a good comparison?

Comparisons can be made between dissimilar things. The entire point of the comparison is that the cities are different.

Helsinki? Population 1,559,558.