Bracknell is well connected, mostly by car and by broadband. There are two stations, and hardly anyone takes the train to work. Nearly half drive. Close to four in ten don't commute at all. The town was built next to a railway and ended up running on a hatchback and a router.
The railway is there if you want it. Bracknell and Martins Heron stations are both on the Waterloo to Reading line, with trains west to Reading and east to London. At the 2021 census about 2% of workers used the train to get to work, and about 1% took the bus, even though the area has 354 bus stops. A place this close to a direct line into London that barely uses it has made a choice.
Here's how Bracknell actually gets to work. At the 2021 census about 46% of workers drove and about 39% worked from home. About 6% walked and about 1% cycled. About 13% of households have no car, and about 47% have two or more. The drive has two cars on it because two people drive to two different places, and neither of them is a station.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, modelled for the area rather than measured from any particular door, put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car and about 19 by public transport. By bike it's about 16 minutes and on foot about 30. Half an hour's walk into the centre of a town this compact is the price of all those ring-road estates. The same figures cover everyday trips. A doctor's surgery is about 8 minutes by car, 13 on foot or 11 by public transport. A hospital is about 17 minutes by car and about 39 by public transport. A food shop is about 9 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive. Somewhere to work is about 13 minutes by car and about 9 by public transport. The public transport figures date from 2019 and some services have been cut since, so trust the car and walking times more.
The buses are better than their passenger numbers suggest. Stops with timetable data average about 61 scheduled departures each on a weekday and about 4 an hour at peak, and about 98% of stops have some weekend service. These are current schedules, not models. A stop with four buses an hour is a bus service. The people of Bracknell have decided they'd still rather drive.
Broadband is where the town is strongest. Gigabit-capable broadband reaches about 98% of premises, and superfast about 99%. Mobile coverage is complete: every operator provides 4G or 5G across the whole area. Working from home is easy here, and so, it turns out, is never leaving the house.
The cost of all that driving is road noise. More than 99% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats it as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is separate: about 12% of postcodes are near the 65-decibel mark from trains, and none are above it. Neither figure says how loud any particular bedroom will be. Visit at rush hour with the windows open.
There are 28 public charge points in the area with 47 connectors between them, 3 of them rapid. With only three rapid units, you'll mostly charge at home overnight, and topping up while you do the shopping will be hit and miss.
For a typical commute, most people here will drive, a sizeable minority won't travel at all, and the train is for occasional trips to London. Getting around town is easy by car, doable by bus and slow on foot.
Bracknell is better connected than most towns its size, as long as you have a car and a good connection at home. If you're relying on the train every day, it's a weaker proposition.