South Lambeth is well connected, and the bus does most of the connecting. Buses run constantly. Two railway stations are on the edge of the district. Most households don't own a car. Nearly half the workforce didn't commute at all.
Vauxhall station is the main rail link, on the Wikipedia list of stations serving the South Lambeth side of the borough alongside Oval, and Wandsworth Road station is on the western edge. Only about 4% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 census, against about 12% on the bus. There are 157 bus stops in and around the district.
At the 2021 census about 49% of working residents worked from home, which makes it by far the biggest share. Walking and driving each took about 8%, and cycling about 6%. About two-thirds of households had no car at all, and only about 5% had two or more. For most of its history the way out of Lambeth was a horse ferry across the river, and these days nearly half of its workers don't leave in the morning.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times put the nearest town centre about 10 minutes away by car, 12 by bike, 16 by public transport and 20 on foot. Those figures date from 2019 and describe an average for the area, and the public transport time is the one most likely to have changed since. A 20-minute walk to a town centre is close for London, and the bike beats public transport.
On the same Department for Transport model, a GP is about 7 minutes away by car, on foot or by public transport, a food shop about 4 minutes' walk or 7 minutes' drive, and a hospital about 14 minutes by car or 25 by public transport. Employment centres are about 5 minutes by car or 12 by public transport. These are 2019 averages for the area. Distances to fixed places don't change, but the public transport times are the least reliable, because some services have been cut since. When the walk to the GP takes the same time as the bus, you might as well walk.
The bus service is current and frequent. The average stop sees about 643 scheduled departures on a weekday and around 35 an hour at the busiest time, and every one of the 125 stops with timetable data has a weekend service. With that many departures, you rarely need to look at a timetable.
Gigabit broadband reaches about 87% of premises and superfast about 98%, and no premises fall below the universal service minimum. Every postcode has 4G or 5G from all the mobile networks.
Road noise is the price of that traffic. About 72% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels, the level at which official noise mapping treats road traffic as significant, and the loudest band in the district reaches 75 decibels or more. Rail is a separate source, with about 17% of postcodes near or above the same threshold from trains. The mapping covers the postcode and cannot tell you how loud one bedroom will be, so visit the flat at rush hour and stand in the bedroom with the window open. About two-thirds of households here have no car and still live with the noise from everyone else's.
There are 87 public charge points in the area, with 167 connectors between them, and 9 of those are rapid units. With only 9 rapid units, most charging here is something you plan for, not something you do while out shopping.
For a typical working resident, the commute is a bus, a bike or no commute at all, and owning a car is a choice, not a necessity. South Lambeth is well connected, and the noise from the traffic is the main cost of living close to it.