Baldock is well connected for a small town, and most of its residents barely use the trains or buses. It has its own station. Full-fibre broadband reaches most homes, so four in ten working residents commute as far as the next room. Most of the rest drive. The buses run, but not often.
Baldock Rail Station is in the town. Letchworth Garden City, Hitchin, Ashwell & Morden and Arlesey stations are all within reach as well. Even so, only about 4% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 census, so for most people the station is somewhere they could commute from, not somewhere they do. The town has 40 bus stops, and under 1% of workers commuted by bus.
The census shows how Baldock actually gets to work. About 42% drove and about 40% worked from home, and between them those two groups account for most of the workforce. Walking took 8% and cycling 1%. About 15% of households have no car and about 40% have two or more. A household that has organised itself around the car will have no trouble here. One that hasn't will need to plan its week.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 8 minutes away by car, 11 by bike, 14 by public transport and 18 on foot. A doctor's surgery is about 8 minutes by car, 12 by public transport and 13 on foot, and a food shop about 8 minutes by car or 11 on foot. A hospital is about 18 minutes by car and 49 by public transport. Getting to a centre of employment takes about 26 minutes by car and 19 by public transport, so on that one journey the model has the train or bus beating the car. These are modelled averages for the area. The distances don't move, but the public transport times date from 2019 and services have been cut since, so they are the shakiest figures here. The hospital time is the finding: on public transport, an outpatient appointment takes up most of a morning.
The bus stops with timetable information average about 19 weekday departures each, and fewer than one an hour at peak. About 78% of them have some weekend service. A stop is only as useful as its timetable, and a lot of these timetables are thin. The departures from the nearest stop to any house on a shortlist are worth looking up, because averages hide stops that see almost nothing.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 88% of premises, superfast reaches all of them, and no property falls below the legal minimum service. Mobile coverage is complete, with every operator present almost everywhere. For the four in ten working from home, that is the connection that matters most.
Every postcode in Baldock is at or near 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic as significant. The loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 43% of postcodes are at or near the same threshold from the railway, peaking at 70 decibels. The roads that once made Baldock a crossroads can still be heard from every corner of it.
The area has 4 public charge points with 13 connectors between them, and 2 of those connectors are rapid. Two rapid connectors aren't enough to make charging something a resident fits in while shopping. A home charger is the realistic plan.
Baldock is better connected than it is used to being. The station and the broadband are strong, the buses are thin, and the car still does most of the work.