Getting around Berkeley by...

Public Transportation

Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay Area (or just Bay Area) have excellent public transportation. The simplest way to get around is to use your feet, the bus (AC Transit), and the subway (BART). An AC Transit pass is included in your student fees so be sure to pick one up. You can find out how to pick up this "Class Pass" at this website.

AC Transit will take you around Berkeley and neighboring cities. BART is useful for getting to San Francisco and the two major airports: SFO and OAK. You can also use it to get to farther cities, but there is really no reason you need to leave Berkeley or San Francisco.

• 511.org is an excellent resource for finding AC Transit (bus) and BART (train) schedules.

Private Transportation

Public transportation is great and all, but if you want to go to In-N-Out to get one of the finest hamburgers available or haul cinder blocks from the hardware store to your apartment, nothing beats having your own car.

A new car will probably be beyond your budget if you are on the usual stipend--at least until you get that incredibly lucrative summer internship. However, a used car can be had very inexpensively. A good starting place is craigslist. Of course you will need to get a California Driver's License and also insurance, but that's also very easy.

The most difficult part about owning a car in Berkeley is parking. It's tough enough to parallel park your car into a tiny space, but you'd be lucky to even find such a space in some parts of town (around campus particularly) at certains times of day. Not only is finding parking difficult, the city meters and restricts parking time. So pay attention to posted signage. But don't let this discourage you. Generally, parking in residential areas is easy--except for areas densely populated by undergraduates. If you must park on the street, you will definitely want to pick up a parking permit from the city. These are inexpensive and can be obtained at the City of Berkeley Permit and Parking Ticket Office. They also sell visitor permits that you can give to visitors that want to park on the street near your home for more than 2 hours.

Some students living in neighboring cities such as El Cerrito and Albany drive to campus. If you live beyond a minimum distance from campus, you can qualify for a permit to park in UC operated parking lots around campus.

Sharing a car

Car sharing has emerged as a viable alternative to owning a car. For-profit and non-profit companies have implemented similar systems in the Bay Area and other major metropolitan cities in the U.S. where members have access to numerous cars parked at usually convenient locations for a price per hour. Since this cost usually covers gas, maintenance, parking, and insurance, car sharing is a good option for people who don't use a car very often or just want a car for a few hours to go grocery shopping.

• City CarShare
• Flexcar
• Zipcar