No, the main incentive for living in SF for me is not driving. I work at Dolores Labs and live 5' away. Not worrying about driving makes a huge difference in lifestyle. It leaves more time for fun / productivity. It also makes it much easier to go to meetups.
I've been living in Chicago for four years now without a car. I'm getting one soon, but only for road trips and visiting my parents.
I cannot express myself emphatically enough about how wonderful it is to not have to rely on a car. I've saved so much money and headache, and it's been such a freeing experience, I don't know if I could ever go back to having even a short driving commute.
In the past three months I've lived in Palo Alto, SF, and now Menlo Park, and have been to just about every stop on the Caltrain from SF to San Jose.
SF may be easier to get along without a car, but I don't find SV particularly difficult. Some combination of Caltrain + Zipcar + Uber + taxi + bus + bike + short walks is always available.
The only hitch in that is caltrain stops running at midnight. Even if you're not out partying, but just having a later dinner, you always have to keep an eye on the time, and make sure you're in the cab (muni, etc) before 11:30 to get on that last train of the night.
Yeah. Though actually living north (say, in SF) and being social south is even worse. The last northbound train leaves Palo Alto at 11pm (every day but Sunday, when it's 9:30).
The rates are comparable per sqft if you're willing to be in a seedy part of town (mission, west soma). If you want to be in the nicer parts of SF, if you can even find a good listing, it will cost way more.
That said I'm super happy with workout out of the mission near the 24th street bart. And it's very affordable.
