Westminster is very well connected, mainly because so few of its residents need connecting to anywhere. Most people worked from home at the last count, and most of the rest walked. Buses come so often that nobody reads a timetable. Trains are close, gigabit broadband is nearly everywhere, and a car is the thing people here don't own. The two weak spots are the traffic noise and almost nowhere to charge an electric car fast.
The rail terminals sit on the doorstep: London Victoria and London Charing Cross are both close, and Vauxhall and London Waterloo are just across or along the river. Yet only about 3% of working residents took the train to work at the 2021 Census. Buses do more of the local work, with 282 stops across the area and about 6% of workers commuting by bus. Living beside two main-line terminals and not using them is the most central London habit there is.
The Census commute mix tells the real story. About 56% of working residents worked mainly from home, and about 15% walked. Cycling took about 3% and driving about 5%. Roughly 70% of households have no car at all, and only about 5% have two or more. Downing Street is in the neighbourhood, and the most powerful commute in the country is a walk along a corridor.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey times from 2019 put the nearest town centre about 12 minutes away by car, 18 by public transport, 13 by bike and 25 on foot. Everyday errands are shorter still. A GP is about 5 minutes on foot or by public transport and 7 by car, and a food shop about 3 minutes' walk or 6 minutes' drive. A hospital is about 11 minutes by car and 16 by public transport, and the nearest large employment centre about 7 minutes by car and 6 by public transport. These are modelled area averages, steady for the car and walking times, while the public transport figures date from before some services were cut and deserve the least trust.
The bus figures are current, and they are remarkable. The average stop sees about 789 scheduled departures on a weekday and around 41 in the peak hour, and every one of the area's stops with service data has buses at the weekend. At that frequency, running for the bus is a lifestyle choice.
Broadband is strong. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 90% of premises, ultrafast the same, superfast about 92%, and no premises are recorded below the minimum service level. Mobile coverage is complete, with every postcode reached by every network.
Traffic is the price of all that access. About 87% of postcodes sit near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping counts road traffic as significant, and the loudest band recorded reaches 75 decibels. Rail noise is a separate source, with about 22% of postcodes near or above the same threshold, again peaking at 75 decibels. Neither figure tells you how a particular bedroom sounds, so ask which way the bedrooms face and whether the windows are secondary glazed before committing to a flat on a main road.
Electric car owners have 157 public charge points to choose from, carrying 204 connectors between them, but only 2 of those chargers are rapid. That makes charging something to plan overnight, with no topping up while you shop. Westminster has more Grade I listed buildings than rapid chargers by a long way, which is about right for a place where the car was never the point.
For a resident who walks, rides the bus or works from a laptop, Westminster is very well connected. It loses ground on noise and electric charging, but anyone who needs a car to function here has picked a strange place to live.