<p>That's pretty much the question! Google maps can tell you how far something is, but as ANYONE who lives in LA can tell you, it's rarely the case. I love living in LA, and right now I'm deciding between LA, Berkeley, and SB. Traffic is a BIG factor for me, believe it or not. I don't want to spend valuable study time in traffic. I am intimately familiar with LA and SB traffic, but not Berkeley.</p>
<p>Any input is greatly appreciated! :)</p>
<p>haha, most of my family is in LA and the last time I was there I crashed my car lol, but I love it too.
Ok so heres Berekelys pluses and minuses of traffic:
Bad:
Tons of one way streets
On big game days (ie stanford, USC, etc) the streets get PACKED
Just like any other big college town, parking sucks.</p>
<p>Pluses
You can get almost everywhere on foot or bike within the actual town of berkeley.
Bart/Caltrain system is decent
Once you get out of Berkeley/the city (so over the bay bridge or out of the city) traffic is fine, unlike LA where the suburbs have their own horrible traffic jams as well.</p>
<p>The Bay area and Los Angeles have some of the worst traffic in the United States. From the few times I’ve been up north, traffic’s been pretty bad.</p>
<p>Ew! I hate one-way streets! Santa Barbara Proper is full of them, but luckily UCSB is in Goleta where the traffic isn’t bad at all. You only have to fight the one ways when you go downtown to party or hang at the farmer’s market.</p>
<p>Thanks Corrine and rpicton. Right now I take the bus to school just because I hate college parking, and I take my car on rainy days. Am I silly that traffic and alternate transpo are a big factor for me?</p>
<p>not at all. I don’t think I’ll be taking a car if I end up at UCLA. We actually applied to 3/4 of the same UCs 
I’m hoping to end up at UCLA or Berkeley.</p>
<p>The traffic isn’t bad in terms of cars or poorly designed streets (yes there are 1 way streets, but they are for the most part wide and well paved), but since most people walk the pedestrians make it terrible. The public transportation is great so you shouldn’t need to drive. Also, itunes has a bunch of free audiobooks and educational podcasts, which is what I listen when I drive, walk, take BART, etc.</p>
<p>Traffic isn’t bad in Berkeley unless you are on College Avenue during peak commute times. Freeway traffic is bad, but not LA bad. Parking is a totally different story.</p>
<p>Traffic’s never bad when you have a clothed mannequin in the passenger’s seat.</p>
<p>or a blatant disregard for traffic laws.</p>
<p>Traffic isn’t ideal at Berkeley, but it’s really not that bad. Not as bad is LA for sure! And you can pretty much walk everywhere you need to go. I visit up there all the time and I never used a car. My brother attended Berkeley and never brought his car up there. I don’t know too much about SB but for Berkeley traffic really isn’t that big of issue in my opinion. Parking is pretty bad though.</p>