Canterbury is well connected for getting around the city and middling for getting out of it. Almost a third of workers never commute at all. One in five walks to work. Hardly anyone takes the train. The city's real transport system is a pair of comfortable shoes and a broadband router.
There are two city stations, Canterbury East and Canterbury West, on separate lines that were built by rival railway companies and still behave like it, plus smaller stations at Sturry, Chartham, Bekesbourne and Adisham in the villages. Only about 3% of workers commute by train. Buses carry about 4%, from a network of 266 stops.
The commute mix says more than the timetable. At the 2021 Census, driving was the most common way to work at about 34%, followed closely by working from home at about 31%. About 20% walked and about 3% cycled. About 32% of households have no car at all, while about 24% run two or more. That is a city split between people who never leave it and people who drive out of it every morning.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics, which are modelled for the area as a whole rather than a route from any particular door, put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 13 by bike, 19 by public transport and 26 on foot. A GP is around 9 minutes by car, 14 by public transport or 18 on foot. The hospital takes about 12 minutes by car and 27 by public transport, and a food shop is about 10 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive. The nearest large employment centre is about 15 minutes by car or by public transport, but around an hour on foot, which is where the walkable-city story runs out. The public transport times date from 2019, so treat them with more caution than the car and walk figures.
The buses are more than a stop on a pole. Each stop averages about 144 scheduled departures on a weekday and about nine buses in the peak hour, and about 91% of stops have some weekend service. For a city this size, that is a working bus network rather than a gesture. Cyclists get national routes too, with National Cycle Route 1 running through the city and Route 18 heading towards Ashford. The average home is about 340 metres from the national cycle network, and about 78% of postcodes are close to it.
Broadband is solid rather than spectacular. Superfast broadband reaches about 95% of premises and gigabit about 68%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum service level. Mobile coverage is close to complete, with 4G or 5G from at least one operator everywhere and from every operator across about 99% of the area.
The noise is the cost of all this traffic. On official noise mapping, where 65 decibels marks road noise as significant, almost every postcode sits near or above that threshold, with the loudest road band reaching 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, and about 51% of postcodes sit near its 65-decibel threshold. None of this predicts what a particular bedroom will sound like, but anyone viewing near the ring road should do it at rush hour.
Charging an electric car takes planning. There are 22 public charge points with 29 connectors between them, and only four are rapid. With so few rapid units, charging is something you book into the week rather than something you do while buying bread.
Canterbury is better connected than most cathedral cities, with a real bus service, fast broadband and everything within reach on foot. Just don't expect the trains to do the heavy commuting for you.