Adopt a Traffic Circle

Volunteer to adopt a traffic circle. Volunteers maintain the planted area inside the traffic circle to ensure they are clean, attractive, and do not interfere with visibility for cars. 

Volunteer to adopt a traffic circle to help keep your street beautiful and safe. To adopt a traffic circle, sign up to volunteer either online or by email: 

• Online: Apply to become a volunteer 
• Email: Complete a Volunteer Agreement form and send it to adoptaspot@berkeleyca.gov 

Volunteering to adopt a traffic circle has benefits for yourself, your community, and the environment: 

• Community: Adopting and maintaining traffic circles with neighbors helps create a sense of community. 
• Safety: Maintaining the vegetation in a traffic circle helps with visibility. 
• Street beautification: A clean traffic circle makes our community more attractive and welcoming. 
• Habitat for birds and pollinators: Well-maintained vegetation creates a thriving home for birds and pollinators. 

Volunteer responsibilities 

Volunteers agree to maintain their traffic circle, including: 

• Weeding 
• Debris and trash removal 
• Pruning plants so they are no higher than 24” above the height of the traffic circle curb (you can use the traffic signage in the circle to measure, as they are exactly 24” tall) 

All other requirements found in the Volunteer Agreement form.

Each traffic circle has an inlet, which is a maintenance hole covering to our city’s sewer system. Volunteers should trim plants and remove debris ten feet around the inlet once a week. In addition, we may request you clear your inlet before a major storm event. 

We will provide a reflective vest, gloves, and bags you can use to clean up trash surrounding the inlet. Supplies are granted upon request via email to adoptaspot@berkeleyca.gov 

Volunteers who wish to plant in their traffic circle should choose a plant species from the suggestions for traffic circle plantings list. If you want to plant a different species, please fill out the Planting List and submit to the City for approval. 

Make sure to register the adoption of your circle on our online volunteer community and add your completed volunteer work to our ArcGIS site (available in Spanish as well) so that your volunteer efforts are recorded and kept up-to-date.  

For services or issues that go beyond the volunteer expectations listed above, reach out to the City for support. Request a service, such as vegetation collection, debris trimming, or other maintenance of your traffic circle. You can also report issues such as missing traffic signs or damaged maintenance hole coverings. Submit requests online, or by phone at 311 or (510) 981-2489. 

Check out our video and subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.