I used to live and ride in Berkeley.

Berkeley is a special place in the universe. Both extremes of human
intelligence find their places in close proximity there. On one hand,
you have students who are bright enough to get into UCB, but somewhat
deficient in walking-around sense. A pair of these, who wandered into
the street like cows in Delhi, got me a ticket for "failure to yield
to a pedestrian". As I explained to the "officer" as he was writing
the ticket, had I ACTUALLY failed to yield to the pedestrians, the
pedestrians would have been UNDER my car. My one consolation was that
they jumped about 10 feet into the air when I slammed on the brakes
and leaned on the horn.

Meanwhile, people are dealing drugs on the street on Telegraph ave., a
block away. Thank god for the berkeley PD!

At the other extreme are the "maniac" volvo drivers who cruise down
the street at 5 mph- I guess they drive volvos and go slow because
they are concerned about getting into wrecks. They brake for no
apparent reason, and seem to be telepathically linked to pedestrians a
half block away- they will stop before the pedestrian even realizes he
wants to cross the street.

I shopped for a house there once. THAT was an eye opening experience.
It seems the students at UCB, make up a sizeable political force.
They want low rents, so they voted for rent control. The result is
"mixed" neighborhoods where weeds grow 6 feet high in some yards
(rented by students) and very nicely trimmed lawns in others. Real
estate prices are typical Cal-idiculous. Hah!