mev

Eleven years ago, I was living in San Jose. I sold my car and went bicycle touring for a year. When I returned in 2002, I moved to CO. Didn't need a car right away so never bought one. In 2009, I moved to Portland and living car free was even easier.

I am contemplating a move back to San Francisco Bay area - and looking for highlights to consider for remaining car free. So familiar with both being car free (11 years so far) and Bay Area but not necessarily together. Associate the south Bay with easy weather but lots of suburban auto-associated sprawl.

Posting this to get some perceptions on few related areas (ironically mostly on bike alternatives - still remember most of cycle routing and possibilities):
1. Seems obvious to think of find place not too far from Caltrain - but any stations/downtowns better than others? [thinking Mt View to San Jose as candidates]. Alternately, how well does light rail work?
2. Bike lockers at Caltrain stations, easy or hard to get?
3. Airport access, possibilities for long term bicycle parking? Alternately, easy access transfer from public transit.
4. Leads to consider for non-owner liability insurance in CA, car sharing possibilities for cases to use that?
5. Assume I'm already thinking of optimizing the daily commute, grocery/bike store access but any other extra considerations to think of?

Artkansas 

You might want to check with the Northern California forum. Craigslist also has a bicycle forum that is very Bay Area centric that you might check out.

gerv 

Guess you've already checked out https://www.sfbike.org/

They seem to have a few resources.

ro-monster

I actually prefer the Peninsula to San Francisco for transportational cycling; I've lived and biked in both. Even though it's not as compact, the streets are a lot better for bikes -- less traffic, fewer people pulling into and out of parking spaces, no taxis, wider lanes, etc. If you choose your location well, nearly everything you need on a daily basis is located within a couple of miles.

I don't have any particular favorite stations, but you might want to look at the Caltrain schedule and see which stations are stops for express trains. That way you have access to more frequent trains. VTA light rail also works really well (even though I discovered I'm too short to lift my bike onto the overhead hooks). You can also take your bike onto BART at any time other than commute hour. Their respective websites have complete information.

I haven't used them, but I have heard there are waiting lists for some of them.

BART goes right inside the international terminal at SFO. Couldn't be any easier than that. San Jose airport is easy to reach from Caltrain via a shuttle bus, though I don't think you can bring a bike on the bus. I've never seen bike parking at either one, but it might exist.

Zipcar is great, if you are in an area where they have cars. There aren't many on the Peninsula though. Some of the regular car rental places are starting to rent by the hour as well.

Hrm. You'll need some rain gear and fenders during the winter, but you probably knew that. The only bridge you can cross by bicycle is the Dumbarton Bridge, so that may be a consideration if you need to commute to the East Bay.

velocycling

There are 2 zipcars at PA station. Mt.View is nice with a good farmer's mkt. on Sundays. Downtown has really improved( walkable). You can ride across Dumbarton bridge or take the bus to Fremont Bart. I would look at Mt.View, but if you have more $$$ PA is a bit nicer. Facebook is expanding (at Dumbarton bridge) they are committed to improving alternative transportation. Not for the green but Menlo Park is worried about the increase in traffic, so this is a good thing. Also Caltrain now has 48 to 80 bike capacity per train. Bumping is not a problem

junkyardking

San Jose is definitely becoming more and more bike friendly. The only drag about living here car free is that it just isn't that pleasant to ride around in due to it's lack of charm and abundance of strip malls and insta-homes.

The light rail works great for getting around on rainy days. They have bike racks, and always have plenty of room on them, but it stops a lot which makes it about as fast, is not slower than just cycling it. But if you're doing SJ to Mt. View, it may be worth it to get a VTA pass.

Bike parking at the airport is practically non existent, but I know people who have done it. A friend of mine rode his beater there and took a two day trip to LA. He just locked his bike up to a street sign at the terminal and it was still there when he got back.

The mayor's office is currently putting a lot of money into new bike parking. City planners are going everywhere looking for places that need it the most, and deciding what sort of rack would work best where. Within the next year bike parking in the valley will be everywhere.

We're also developing a bike-share program, and with the help of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition a bike Co-op and tool library is in the works.

In short, SJ isn't the best place to live car-free, but we're working on it.