Rickmansworth is well connected on paper and mostly driven in practice. It has its own station on two lines. Broadband reaches almost every door. Nearly half of working residents stayed home at the last census. The car does most of the rest, and the trains carry fewer locals than the town's history would suggest.
Rickmansworth Rail Station is in the town and is served by two lines, with Chorleywood the next stop along and Watford Junction and Watford High Street within reach. At the 2021 census, though, only about 1% of working residents commuted by train and about 1% by bus, despite 136 bus stops in and around the town. Parliament approved an extension from Rickmansworth to Uxbridge in 1861 and nobody ever built it, so the town has been missing a connection longer than most residents have had a car.
The 2021 census shows how the town really gets to work. About 46% of working residents mostly worked from home, about 38% drove, about 5% walked and about 1% cycled. Only about 13% of households have no car, and about 44% run two or more. The station is in the middle of town and the commute is in the driveway.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics for 2019 put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car, 19 by public transport, 15 by bike and 31 on foot. Half an hour's walk is a long way to buy a pint of milk, which is why the town drives.
The same modelled statistics put a GP about 8 minutes away by car, 13 by public transport and 16 on foot, and a hospital about 15 minutes by car and 32 by public transport. A food store is about 7 minutes by car and 8 on foot, and the nearest employment centre about 16 minutes by car and 12 by public transport. Distances to those places do not move, but the public-transport times come from 2019 and buses have been withdrawn since, so they are the figures most likely to have aged badly.
The buses themselves are better than the commuting figures suggest. Stops in and around the town average about 71 scheduled weekday departures each, about 3 an hour at peak, and about 80% of stops have some service at weekends. That is a working bus network that most people here have decided not to use.
Broadband is where the town does well. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 92% of premises, ultrafast about 94% and superfast about 99%, and no premises fall below the universal service minimum, with mobile coverage from every network close to complete as well.
Road noise is the other side of all that access. Close to 100% of Rickmansworth's postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Motorway junctions sit within the town's boundaries, which is handy for the airport and less handy for the bedroom. Rail noise does not reach the 65-decibel threshold in any postcode. Stand in the garden of any house you are considering at the morning rush, because the map tells you the band and only the garden tells you the direction.
There are 9 public charge points in and around the town with 16 connectors between them, 3 of them rapid. With so few rapid units, charging here is mostly something done at home or planned in advance.
Rickmansworth is better connected than most commuter towns its size need to be, with a station, fast broadband and buses to spare, and a population that mostly drives past all three.