Benson is well connected by road and broadband and poorly connected by train and bus. Almost nobody commutes by rail. The car does most of the work, and home working covers most of the rest. The broadband is good enough to make staying at home a sensible choice. The village connects to the world through its routers and its driveways.
The nearest station on the list is Cholsey Rail Station, outside the village, and fewer than one working resident in a hundred commuted by train at the 2021 census. Buses carried about 1%. The area has 30 bus stops, which is a decent number for the ten or so people who use them to get to work. Cholsey is where Benson catches a train when it has to, and the census says it rarely has to.
At the same census, about 40% of working residents worked from home and about 38% drove. About 12% walked to work and about 6% cycled. Only about 7% of households had no car, and about 54% had two or more. Benson runs on the car and the home office, and the train barely features.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area in 2019, put the nearest town centre about 14 minutes away by car, 25 by bike and 30 by public transport. On foot it is about 64 minutes, which is no walk anyone does twice.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 59% of premises and ultrafast about 65%, and superfast is available to about 98%. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed. Mobile coverage is near-total, with some 4G or 5G signal everywhere and every network available almost everywhere. Two homes in five can run a full working day without leaving the village, and the cables in the ground are the reason.
In practice a typical Benson commute starts in the driveway or in the back bedroom. Anyone planning a working week around buses or trains is choosing the hardest way to live here.
The same Department for Transport statistics give modelled averages for the area's everyday trips. The public transport times date from 2019 and have aged worse than the car and walking times, because a house stays the same distance from the GP while buses get cut. A GP is about eight minutes by car, 15 by public transport and 22 on foot. A food store is about eight minutes by car and 21 on foot. A hospital is about 32 minutes by car and about 84 by public transport, so for anyone without a car a hospital appointment takes up most of the day. A sizeable workplace is about five minutes by car and 24 by public transport.
The buses run more often than the commuting figures suggest. The 18 stops with timetable data average about 28 departures each on a weekday, fewer than two an hour at peak, and all 18 have some weekend service. They run all day and through the weekend. The people of Benson just prefer the car.
Every postcode in Benson is near or above the 65-decibel road noise level, the point at which the government's official noise mapping treats traffic noise as significant, and the loudest band reaches 75 decibels or more. Rail noise does not register anywhere. The mapping shows which roads carry the noise, not how loud a given bedroom will be. The government's strategic noise map, checked for the exact house and the road beside it, will show whether it is on one of the loud stretches. It is a lot of traffic noise for a village better known for its lock and its brook.
Benson's transport links are middling. A household with a car and a fast connection will hardly notice, and one that depends on the train will notice every day.