Lower Edmonton is well connected, mostly by bus. Three stations are close by. Buses run often enough that nobody needs the timetable. Nearly every home can get gigabit broadband. The downside is the traffic noise that comes with all that movement.
Edmonton Green, Silver Street and Meridian Water are the nearby stations, yet only about 6% of working residents took the train to work at the last census. About 17% went by bus, and the area has 131 bus stops to serve them. With three stations nearby, the bus still carries far more commuters.
About 34% of working residents drove to work, and about 20% worked from home. Walking accounted for about 6% and cycling for about 2%. About four in ten households have no car at all, and about 19% have two or more.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times, from 2019, put the nearest town centre about nine minutes away by car, 12 by bike, 16 by public transport and 18 on foot. A town centre within an 18-minute walk is close enough to go without the car.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 94% of premises, superfast reaches about 99%, and no premises fall below the legal minimum speed. Every network has 4G or 5G coverage across the whole area.
The area has 26 public charge points with 29 connectors between them. Only three are rapid units, so charging an electric car here is something to plan for, since a quick top-up while shopping is rarely an option.
For a typical commute, all this means the bus does most of the work and the car is optional for many households. Four in ten have already decided to manage without one.
The same Department for Transport modelling puts a GP surgery about nine minutes away on foot or by public transport and seven by car, and a food shop about eight minutes' walk or seven minutes' drive. Employment centres are five minutes by car, ten by public transport and 31 on foot. The nearest hospital is about 12 minutes by car, 28 by public transport and 37 on foot. Those are averages modelled for the whole area, and the public transport times date from 2019, so services may have been cut since. The car makes its biggest difference on the hospital trip.
The bus figures are current. The average stop sees about 487 scheduled departures on a weekday and about 27 buses in its busiest hour, and every stop has some weekend service. At 27 buses an hour, missing one barely matters.
Every postcode in the area is near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping counts traffic as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 49% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels from trains, again peaking at 75. Visit a shortlisted house at rush hour with the windows open, because the map can say a street is loud but not what the noise is like inside one particular home.
Lower Edmonton is better connected than average. The buses do most of the work and the broadband is close to complete. The traffic noise is the price of all that movement.