Berkeley Traffic School

The Census Bureau estimates 121,911 residents in Berkeley on July 1, 2025, on about 10.4 square miles of land between the bay shoreline and the hills. Three state routes cross the city. Interstate 80 runs along the waterfront on the Eastshore Freeway, San Pablo Avenue is State Route 123, a major north and south road across the flats, and Ashby Avenue is State Route 13, an east and west street through south Berkeley that becomes Tunnel Road on its way to the Caldecott Tunnel.

Tickets in Berkeley come from two agencies. The Berkeley Police Department patrols city streets such as Ashby Avenue, Shattuck Avenue and University Avenue, and the California Highway Patrol's Oakland Area, which lists Berkeley among the communities it serves, handles state highways such as Interstate 80. Every one of those tickets goes to Alameda County Superior Court under one set of traffic school rules.

In the California Office of Traffic Safety's 2023 rankings, Berkeley had more pedestrians killed or injured than any of the other 62 cities of similar size, 93 people, a rank of 1st, where 1st is the worst result. Bicyclists ranked 2nd, with 106 killed or injured, and the city's total of 615 people killed or injured ranked 14th.

Berkeley's Vision Zero program aims to end traffic deaths and severe injuries on city streets by 2028. The city says that in an average year two people die and 21 are severely injured in collisions here. Police counted 784 collisions in 2025, 11 percent fewer than in 2024, yet fatal collisions rose from 4 to 5, and 499 crashes injured someone.

The worst single intersection in 2025 was University Avenue at West Frontage Road, near the University Avenue exit off Interstate 80, with 15 collisions and 13 of them causing injuries. Ashby Avenue appears four times on the department's list of the 10 highest-collision intersections, at Sacramento Street, Shattuck Avenue, Telegraph Avenue and College Avenue. Police choose targeted enforcement operations at such places from crash data and the public Traffic Concern Survey, and one February 2025 operation put 17 officers on Berkeley streets and wrote 185 citations for speeding, phone use and seatbelts. For 2026 the department is buying 5 new LIDAR speed units and training patrol officers to use them.

The Berkeley Courthouse on Martin Luther King Jr. Way is not one of the court's traffic locations. Adult traffic tickets from Berkeley go to Alameda County Superior Court, and the closest of its three traffic courthouses is the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington Street in Oakland, DMV court code 01440, where the Traffic Division clerk's office answers at (510) 627-4700. The court also hears traffic in Fremont and Dublin, so the courthouse on your citation and courtesy notice is the one to follow.

Traffic school has to be granted by the court. Alameda County Superior Court asks you to pay the bail and a state-mandated traffic school administrative fee before signing up with a school, and your courtesy notice shows the amounts and the date to finish. Mirai Traffic School charges $24.99 for its course, separately. The court looks for a valid license on the day you were cited, no traffic school in the 18 months before, and a moving violation that is not a misdemeanor and involves no alcohol, drugs or mandatory court appearance. A failure to appear, a warrant or a civil assessment on the case has to be settled before you can attend.

When you pass the final exam, Mirai Traffic School reports your completion to the DMV electronically, and the court retrieves it from there. Mirai Traffic School is on the California Traffic Safety Institute list for Alameda County as E0756, the list the court sends drivers to. Check your case with the court before the date on your notice, and make sure your name, license number and court code 01440 match.