The city center is also well linked to the rest of the bay area through the BART, ferries, inter-city buses and other  rail links. However when I talked to people who lived outside the city, they did say that they needed a car to get to mass transit, but rarely drove into the center of town themselves. One reason is that the streets are pretty narrow, which does not allow cars to go very fast and does not leave any room for double parking.

One motor vehicle that gets a little more respect in SF is the motorcycle. Although they can be a little too noisy if not properly muffled, motorcycles take up much less public space than cars and are extremely fuel efficient.

But I could not find any true bike lanes anywhere except between Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate bridge, which was mostly used by tourists riding over the bridge.

All in all, I think NYC could learn a lot from SF about how to organize streets to be more efficient and pleasant.