Nightlife/bars in Boston are absolutely not the issue here. Compared to Boston, everything in San Francisco closes much earlier and public transport is inferior to boot. Yet people still flock there.
Public transportation is a million times better in San Francisco. Not once have I ever felt like a car was necessary in the ~5 years I've lived here. In the 7 years I spent in Boston, at no point did I have a commute that was less than 3x as long with public transportation compared to just driving. The only time public transportation works in Boston is if you don't have to diverge off the red line.
(Anecdotally,) I disagree: I didn't discover many of the best parts of SF until I started driving around here. It feels like SF geography is really designed to keep you out of certain neighborhoods unless you're driving there to see friends.
In Boston, though, even when I had a car, I didn't feel like I was hanging out in better places than when I was riding the T everywhere I went.
Again, just an anecdote, but one shared by several friends.
I think your point is a bit separate from the parent post. I definitely can get anywhere I need to on the T in Boston, it "goes everywhere".
The problem is that the way its laid out does not support movements in a reasonable amount of time unless you happen to be along one of the primary spokes. If your trip involves the outer parts of the green line your completely screwed, it stops every 2 blocks so it takes forever to get anywhere. I used to live in Coolidge Corner and work near Alewife, that is a 15-20 minute drive that took around an hour and half on the T, in T cars packed so tight you were reaching through and around people to hold on to a bar. I despised that trip, if it weren't for the fact that a parking space costs $300+ a month I would never have done it.
Or 30 minutes by bike, Boston is very bike friendly, if you are not too scared of the weather, that is. But that's something that 300$ of good equipment can fix.
I was disagreeing with this line: "Public transportation is a million times better in San Francisco. Not once have I ever felt like a car was necessary in the ~5 years I've lived here."