Rochester is well connected, and most of it runs on the car. There are high-speed trains into London, but few people take them to work. More than a quarter of workers never leave the house. The broadband would embarrass half of rural Kent. The Romans laid the road out and it still carries most of the traffic.
Rochester Rail Station sits in the town, with Strood and Chatham stations either side of it, and there are high-speed services into London. Even so, only about 4% of working residents commute by train. The area has 368 bus stops, and about 2% of workers take the bus. So the town has the full public transport set, and most residents use it about as often as the cathedral's spare hymn books.
Most people get to work by car. About 51% of working residents drive, and about 28% work from home. About 7% walk and around 1% cycle, which in a town this hilly counts as optimism. About a fifth of households have no car, and about 39% have two or more. The town was built on a river crossing and now runs on its driveways.
The Department for Transport's journey-time statistics are modelled for the area, not routed from any particular door. They put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 16 minutes by public transport, 13 minutes by bike and 23 minutes on foot. A 23-minute walk to the shops is exercise for some people and a reason to own a car for others.
For everyday things, a GP is about 7 minutes by car, 10 by public transport and 11 on foot. A food store is about 6 minutes on foot or by car, so nobody here runs out of milk for long. Getting to work is about 15 minutes by car and 10 by public transport. The hospital is the weak point, at about 18 minutes by car and 41 by public transport. The public transport times date from 2019, and services have been cut since then, so treat those with more caution than the car and walking times.
Across the 348 stops with timetable data, each stop averages about 20 scheduled departures on a weekday, and about half a bus in the peak hour. About 89% of stops have some weekend service. That is a bus network for people who check the timetable first. It is not one you can rely on to turn up whenever you reach the stop.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 83% of premises and superfast about 98%. No premises fall below the legal minimum broadband speed. Mobile coverage from at least one operator reaches 100% of the area, and coverage from every operator rounds to 100% too, so your phone signal won't stop a working-from-home day.
Road noise reaches the 65-decibel mark near more than 99% of postcodes. That is the level at which official mapping treats road noise as significant, and the loudest band here reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source: about 26% of postcodes sit near a railway reaching 65 decibels, and the loudest rail band is 70. Neither figure tells you how a particular bedroom will sound. Visit at rush hour, not on a Sunday afternoon.
There are 9 public charge points in the area with 15 connectors between them, 4 of them rapid. With 4 rapid units for the whole town, charging is something you plan in advance, not something you fit in while shopping.
Rochester's connections are one of its strengths. The car and the home broadband carry most of the load, and the trains are there for the days you need them.