Badly, unless you count your car keys as infrastructure. Hardly anyone commutes by train. Full-fibre broadband has barely reached the town. There's one public charge point and nothing rapid. By car Petworth is well placed. Without one it's a long wait at a bus stop.
There's no railway station to speak of. The line through the town closed to passengers in 1955, and about 1% of working residents commute by train. Buses stop at 14 places in the area, and about 1% of residents take one to work. Those two numbers match, and neither is going to reorganise anyone's week.
The car does most of the work. About 54% of working residents drive to work. Another 25% work from home and about 13% walk. Around 41% of households run two or more cars, and only about 14% have none. The household that keeps one car here is the brave one. The household with none is either retired or very organised.
Everyday journeys come from the Department for Transport's 2019 journey-time statistics, modelled for the area rather than timed from any particular front door. The nearest town centre is about 8 minutes by car, 10 by bike, 12 by public transport and 15 on foot. A GP is about 9 minutes' drive, 15 minutes by public transport or 17 minutes' walk. A food store is about 8 minutes by car or 16 on foot. The nearest hospital is about 36 minutes by car and 49 by public transport. The nearest sizeable concentration of jobs is about 16 minutes by car, 37 by public transport and about two hours on foot. The public transport times date from 2019, and services can be cut faster than roads can move, so give them less weight than the car and walking figures.
The buses themselves are thin. The ten stops with timetable data average 13 scheduled departures each on a weekday, and fewer than one an hour at peak. All ten get some weekend service, which is more than many rural stops manage. But a bus you have to plan the day around is closer to an event than a service.
Broadband is the sharper problem for anyone working from home. Superfast broadband reaches about 98% of premises, so ordinary streaming and video calls work. Gigabit covers only about 3%, and ultrafast about the same. No premises fall below the legal minimum service level. The connection will carry a Teams call. Uploading a large file is another matter.
Mobile coverage is sound. At least one operator reaches 100% of the area with 4G or 5G, and all operators together reach about 98%.
Road noise comes with the location. Every postcode in the area sits near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic noise as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is not a factor. What that sounds like inside any particular house depends on the walls, the windows and which side the bedroom faces. The town's through traffic is part of the deal when you buy here.
Electric vehicles are poorly served. There's one public charge point in the area, with two connectors, and none of them is rapid. Charging here is something you plan for, not something you do while picking up the shopping. Most owners will want a driveway and a home charger.
For a typical commuter, all this adds up to one routine: drive, or work from home and hope the upload behaves. The short car times to shops, a GP and work make Petworth easy for drivers and hard for anyone else.
Connectivity is Petworth's weakest point: fine behind the wheel, and poor everywhere else, from the train timetable to the fibre cabinet.