Parking

On campus

Parking on campus is restricted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You can buy a student parking pass for $465/semester, or you can pay hourly to park in select parking areas.

Around town

Berkeley is divided into sections with different parking regulations. Streets are typically well-signed with info about how long you can park there, when there might be special restrictions (e.g. for street sweeping), and when the parking restrictions do and don't apply (typically restrictions are only during daytime hours, e.g. 9am-7pm or 8am-6pm). 

General types of parking areas are:

• Pay per hour/day

  • These are typically the more popular high-traffic zones, like areas around campus and downtown

  • I think there are more and less expensive areas, but I wouldn't know, because we grad students can't afford to pay for parking

• Free 2-hour parking

  • Many areas near campus and on the outskirts of downtown are of this variety. That means you can drive in and park for free within walking distance of campus if you need to, but you'll have to go out and move your car several times a day. These areas can get crowded, so finding a spot isn't guaranteed, especially during peak hours.

  • Residents who live in these areas can buy a $66/year parking pass through the City of Berkeley that allows them to park permanently rather than obeying the 2-hour limit

• Free parking

  • Rare and elusive but does exist

Parking resources

• SpotAngels is extremely helpful for figuring out area-specific parking regulations. On their web site, mobile site, or app (which I haven't tried) you can navigate around a georeferenced map to see restrictions etc. 

• The City of Berkeley also has a site that's... moderately helpful in some cases. It has a map of all the parking zones (not georeferenced) and information about regulations in each zone.

Public Transportation

BART (Bay Area Regional Transit)

There are five BART lines in the Bay Area and surroundings. See train map here. Google Maps is typically pretty good with incorporating BART schedules into public transportation directions. BART stops running at midnight and starts running at 5am on weekdays and 6am/8am Sat/Sun, respectively.

Getting into and out of BART stations requires scanning either a Clipper Card (which you'll get). You can add money to your Clipper Card at any BART station. You can also add money to your Clipper Card online, but it may take a few business days for the money to be applied to your account. Your card will be charged when you exit the station at your final destination, based on the distance between where you scanned in and where you scanned out.

Bus system - AC Transit

Students can ride city buses for free with their student Clipper Card by simply scanning the card when they enter the bus. Hours of operation and bus frequency vary pretty widely depending among routes. Find maps and schedules on the city website here. The city website says it also has real-time bus information, although that info doesn't always seem entirely accurate. 

It is not uncommon for buses to run late or very far off-schedule. Advance planning is recommended if you absolutely must be somewhere at a certain time.

A particularly helpful resource is the Transit app, which can track real-time locations of buses, show you which buses are in your immediate area and where they're going, etc. Google Maps also does a nice job of incorporating bus schedules into public transportation directions, but because buses aren't always exactly on schedule, you'll want to take the exact timing of these directions with a grain of salt.

Campus buses

UC Berkeley has a shuttle system that services areas around campus and can get you to the downtown BART station, up into the Hills, and to residence halls and parking lots. Shuttles are free for students - just show your Cal ID to the bus driver when you get on. Cost for non-students is less than $2 (varies depending on the shuttle). These shuttles tend to be more reliable than the city buses, but their hours are limited.