What's the best way to get around in London?

[pandeo]

If you’re living in London is it a good idea to own a car or can you really get around best on foot and the underground? Does it depend on the area where you live?

[Nic]

If you are living anywhere central, meaning within the bounds of the North and South circular roads (roughly tube zones 1, 2 and 3), public transport is by far the cheapest and easiest way to travel, and often the fastest. Anywhere will be within 10-15 minutes of a rail station except for odd spots like Crouch End. Bicycles may be better depending on where you are and are going, but cars are only worth it, on average, when you have to carry goods, are going to the countryside, or late at night when the roads are clear. The rest of the time, traffic jams, congestion charges, finding a parking spot, parking fees, etc, make them an unattractive option. In other words - cycle or use public transport, and rent a car/taxi when you need one, which won't be that often.

[Aleksander_Sumowski]

In a lot of cases the best way to get around London is by bicycle. It's often the fastest way that lets you skip crowded tube carriages, have a morning workout and not be stressed. If that option is not for you then public transport is the way to go. Using a car is a distant third option. Not recommended in my experience.

[Susi_O_Neill]

Definitely use the tube and bus!

Subscription services like Zipcar are good if you need to sometimes drive with a family / heavy load:
https://www.zipcar.co.uk/

Or at night, there's 24 hour buses (and on Fri & Sat night the night tube on certain routes) or Uber is super competitively priced and you can always get a driver really quick.

[Alessandro_Santo]

Easy choice: scooter! It cost 50% of public transportation and it's 3x faster (and doesn't even compete with cars or bicycles!)

[Daniel_Easterman]

I agree with most of Nic's points. But I would add that bikes can be very unsafe and there have been lots of tragic deaths of cyclists around Central London. I would only use a bike if you can guarantee that your commute has decent well-marked cycle lanes. It's true that the bike is a far cheaper, healthier and fun way to get to work than the tube, but unfortunately unlike other cities, it's pretty dangerous in London!

[irissrivero]

Hello Robert,

Don't even dream of having a car in London. You can rent one when needed for weekends or holidays.

[Goce_Mitrevski]

Bike, foot, public transport. Loads of shared cars options i.e. ZIPCAR. Unless you leave outside London, than you might want a car.

[matejhargas]

I concur that owning a car in London is a big nono. Public transport is frequent, the network is dense and it's super good in general. You can use car sharing services if you really need a car (they call them car clubs). And I would argue that even living outside of London and commuting is better by public transport - I lived in Woking, which is some 50km outside of London and barely used my car outside of the infrequent road trip. That all said, not owning a car will save you the nerves and being stuck in traffic (mostly) but will not make it too much cheaper as public transport can get quite expensive. Just to give you an idea for my trips to London from Woking: it was always a choice between cheap and slow (by car the 50 km would take up to 90 mins and cost me the gas and some cheap parking somewhere in the outer Zones plus a ride on the Underground to get to central London) or quick and expensive (by train into central London within 30 mins but would cost me some 20-25 GBP return). Hope this helps, good luck for your London adventure!

[Simon_Farrell]

Wholeheartedly agree with Nic - anywhere in Zones 1,2,3 and often even further out. I lived for 20 years in western zone 6 and only used a car to travel out of the city or haul large items. Travelling into and out of the centre by public transport is quick and easy. Travelling around the periphery by public transport is a bit harder because most tube and train routes are designed for commuting into and out of the centre, although there are plentiful local bus services for short trips in other directions. TFL have a great journey planner app at tfl.gov.uk as well as plenty of transport maps to give you an idea of how dense the pubtrans network truly is.