A lot of intersections in residential neighborhoods in Berkeley are very small roundabouts, about twenty feet across. This is part of the city's traffic calming

A lot of intersections in residential neighborhoods in Berkeley are very small roundabouts, about twenty feet across. This is part of the city's traffic calming policy (http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/contentdisplay.aspx?id=8238 http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/contentdisplay.aspx?id=8238) , which also includes such things as random intersections that you just can't go through if you're in a car. As someone who doesn't have a car, I appreciate this, but I imagine that if I drove in town I'd be quite frustrated by the inability to use side streets. (Indeed, the main roads seem to be quite crowded.)