Hello Everyone,

I'm a student at UC Berkeley, just ordered my first RC car (a used Sakura D3), and was wondering if anyone has recommendations on good spots to drive it. I am also planning to check if campus parking lots/tennis courts/etc might be fine to drive on.

Just curious if there's any local presence since I had stumbled upon a post that someone had an issue with the police in Berkeley while driving their RC car. I went through the city ordinances but could only see this being a noise issue and could not find anything specific to driving an RC car.

Would appreciate any recommendations or comments!

Thanks

Hey Josh! So that's a road car, right? Belt-driven 4wd? Electric, yes?
Noise shouldn't be an issue, electric is quiet. The only concern I'd think the police would have is with traffic, and the reaction TO you. So if you were gonna run on the street, you'd have to choose you place carefully and watch for traffic. That's your obligation. A parking lot would be better, if lightly occupied. But those concrete curbs are a *****. Has it got street tires, or drifting tires?

Hey There, right in my back yard eh? The Bay Area is tricky with RC stuff sometimes. Don't drive them on UC property (learned that the hard way). Otherwise if it's small enough and electric you can fool around in the parks and stuff. The only times I've been harassed by the authorities is with the gas 1/5 ones. Use those in parking lots or by the marina. Tilden park has a pretty strict no RC rule. If you have a 1/10 scale electric no one will bother you but I had a park ranger tell me to take my Baja 5B and leave

Hey Rob! Thanks for the reply! Yes on road 4wd electric belt driven. I think the streets might be a bit busy most of the time, was thinking parking lots but most of the considerably large ones are UC owned and based on sheograth's reply that may be a no go :/ Pretty sure it has drifting tires, but the seller said he'll include a few sets of replacement wheels/tires.

Hey sheograth, definitely in your backyard! thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I got that same impression from several forum posts, so I wanted to get some more information but the city code was not a helpful resource. May I ask what the issue was on UC property? I was thinking the Clark Kerr tennis courts / parking lots might be the perfect place. Thanks for the heads up about Tilden, I suspect regional and state parks are more sensitive. I can imagine that is a bummer If you can only be asked to leave, that doesn't seem too bad, but I'd much rather avoid any potential issues.

Frankly if its electric and small it should be fine anywhere. Its the big loud stuff they don't like.