i'm moving to philadelphia!

hi. so ill be relocating to philadelphia as soon as this winter and as late as next summer. i have a few questions

compared to places like new york city, what is life like in philadelphia? how bad is the traffic? should you bother even having a car? what is the public transportation like?

is there a nice area (by 'nice' i mean being remotely near metro philly and not being dangerous) where i could live by myself for $800-$900 a month (rent+utilities)?

Welcome.
Public transpo here is inconvenient and expensive, exept for the buses and subway. Car insurance is the most expensive in the country, so if you can stay insured and licensed in FL that would be the cheaper (but illegal) way to go.
Traffic is not bad at all, outside of the usual rush hour stuff. Real estate is silly lately. Finding an apt. in that price range is possible, but you're not gonna be in the best neighborhood, to say the least. South or west Philly would be the best bet, followed by the broad street area downtown if you want your own place. If roomies are acceptable, pretty much all of Center City becomes possible. Rittenhouse square/Fitler square and Society Hill are the most expensive and nice, but Northern Liberties and Fishtown/Brewerytown are the up & coming hip spots with the best bars and the coolest people, IMHO.

what is the philly renting community like? im considering rooming with somebody, but i cant talk anyone down here into coming up there with me. should i look on craigslist?

No idea, i've never rented, to be honest. There are close to a dozen colleges and universities, though, so finding a roomie shouldn't be hard.

University of the Arts
Penn
Drexel U.
Temple U.
Moore
Tyler
Phila. Community College
Arcadia U.
Penn. Academy of Fine Art
Medical College of Phila.
College of Textiles and Sciences (now called Philadelphia University, i think)

and probably a few more i've missed...