High Barnet is reasonably well connected for an outer London suburb. It has an Underground line and nearby rail stations, though only a few residents use them to get to work. Buses are frequent. Nearly half of working residents work from home. Broadband reaches only about half of homes at the fastest speeds, while the buses run all week.
The town has its own Underground station on the Northern line, and New Barnet, Oakleigh Park and Hadley Wood rail stations are close by. At the 2021 census only about 2% of working residents took the train to work and about 6% took the bus. The area has 207 bus stops. The rails are there, but most residents don't commute on them.
At the same census, about 46% of working residents worked mainly from home and about 28% drove to work. About 5% walked and about 1% cycled. About 24% of households have no car, while about 30% have two or more. For nearly half the working population, the commute is the internet connection, and the next most common way to work is the car.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 9 minutes away by car, 12 by public transport, 10 by bike and 15 on foot. The same figures put a GP about 8 minutes away by car, 11 by public transport and 14 on foot. A hospital is about 14 minutes away by car and 20 by public transport. A food shop is about 7 minutes away by car and 10 on foot. Somewhere with a decent number of jobs is about 11 minutes away by car, 22 by public transport and about 111 minutes on foot. These are modelled averages for the whole area. The car and walking times hold up well because the distances don't change, but the public transport figures date from 2019 and may have aged as bus services have been cut since. Almost two hours on foot to a sizeable pool of jobs is a clear result, and it helps explain why the car is the town's second most common way of getting to work.
The buses run more often than the stop count suggests. Of the 182 stops with timetable data, each averages about 239 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 13 an hour at peak, and 98% have at least some service at weekends. That's a working bus network, and a High Barnet resident rarely needs to plan a day around a timetable.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 49% of premises and ultrafast about 54%, while superfast covers about 95%. Every postcode gets 4G or 5G from every mobile network. Mobile coverage is complete, while full-fibre coverage is roughly half finished.
Road noise is almost everywhere, with over 99% of postcodes at or near 65 decibels. That is the level at which official noise mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded here reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate and much smaller source, affecting about 4% of postcodes, though its loudest band also reaches 75 decibels. Barnet grew up as a stop on the Great North Road, and the traffic has stayed even though the stagecoaches have gone. These are area-wide figures, so a quiet back road and a main road will sound very different, and visiting the street at rush hour is the best way to hear it.
There are 23 public charge points in the area, with 38 connectors between them, and 3 of those are rapid chargers. With only 3 rapid connectors, charging an electric car here mostly has to be planned in advance, since there's little chance of topping up quickly during a shop.
For a typical resident, the commute is either the home office or the car. Frequent buses cover the short trips, and the Tube and rail stations take the minority who commute into London.
High Barnet is middling for connections. The buses and mobile coverage are strong, the Tube is close by, and only about half the homes can get the fastest broadband.