Dunstable is well connected by road and broadband but has no railway station of its own. More than half of commuters drive. A quarter work from home. Gigabit broadband reaches nearly nine homes in ten. The nearest station is over the boundary in Luton.
The nearest station is Leagrave Rail Station in north Luton, and about 1% of Dunstable's working residents commute by train. Buses do slightly better, carrying about 3% from Dunstable's 178 bus stops. Passenger trains stopped running to Dunstable in 1965. Since then the town has been one of the largest in the region with nowhere to buy a train ticket.
Most people in Dunstable drive to work, about 54% of working residents. About 26% work from home and about 10% walk. Cycling is about 1%. About 17% of households have no car, and about 42% have two or more. Those shares point to a town organised around the car, and the buses carry a small minority of commuters.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 16 minutes by public transport, 12 by bike and 22 on foot. These are averages across the area, not timings from any one front door.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 89% of premises and ultrafast about 92%. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed. Mobile signal is as good, with some 4G or 5G network everywhere and every network available almost everywhere. For anyone working from home, Dunstable's connections are fine.
Dunstable has 13 public charging points for electric cars, three of them rapid chargers.
For a typical commute, the car is the default and most people use it. A driver here has the motorway nearby and a bypass to the north, opened in 2017, which took the old trunk road traffic out of the town centre. Someone without a car can manage by bus around town. Getting further means a trip into Luton for the train first.
The same Department for Transport statistics give journey times to everyday services. They are modelled averages from 2019. The distances have not changed since then, but some bus services have been cut, so the public transport times are the least reliable. A GP is about 9 minutes by car, 13 by public transport or 17 on foot. A hospital is about 17 minutes by car and 33 by public transport. A food shop is about 10 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive. The nearest employment centre is about 14 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. By bike it is about 3 minutes, so the fastest way to work in Dunstable is the one used by about 1% of commuters.
The bus figures are current. Across the 117 stops with timetable data, each stop averages about 49 departures on a weekday and about three an hour at peak times. About 86% of those stops have some weekend service. That is a usable town bus network.
About 99% of Dunstable's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats road traffic as significant. The loudest band recorded in the town is 75 decibels and above. No postcodes come close to that level from rail noise, since there is no railway. The mapping does not tell you how loud any particular bedroom is, so visit any house you are serious about at rush hour as well as on a quiet afternoon. The town grew up where two ancient roads crossed, and it has never been quiet since.
The 13 public chargers in the area have 24 connectors between them, and three are rapid. With only three rapid units, charging an electric car in Dunstable is mostly done at home or planned in advance. A quick top-up while shopping is not something to rely on.
For a driver or a home worker, Dunstable is better connected than average. Anyone who needs a train has to go to Luton for one.