I live about 2/3 miles from the city centre in Nottingham. 3 min walk to bus stop with services every 15 or so minutes through the night - 5 min walk to tram stop with services every 3-5 minutes until 11/12 at night.
I also have a bike, there are a limited number of places to ride without getting killed, but still enough to be useful.
I chose to live close to my job, with the trade off that I will need to move house should I ever change job (selling/buying property is not easy though, but it is very rent-able)
It is my experience that once you move out of "home", getting a driving license becomes significantly more expensive and difficult, because you lose out on cheaper practice in a relative's car.
Now with inflation and cost of living like it is, it would be financially impossible for me to learn to drive, even on a salary around ~25k.
Getting around Nottingham is a breeze. Nottingham probably has one of the best run transit systems of any city in the UK, especially once you consider it's size. Proper integrated ticketing with smart cards, trams and very well run, clean buses. Did I mention the buses are almost entirely run by the local council?
Unfortunately, moving around outside of Nottingham becomes more painful. Really been let down by rail service post pandemic, especially to the destinations I want to visit the most. At least travelling to London on business isn't too bad...