UkWinds5353

Technically I'm American...but a older version of one.

Trying to be mindful of the travel distance versus actual travel time. I did a GPS on the travel time and it's a possibility that my feedback is flawed but it's reading out as 50 miles but the time on the road is 90 minutes. Does that sound faulty in your opinion? Because if the travel time to some of the places we're considering are shorter than we think then that changes the formula quite a bit. I know how normal daily traffic can alter a drive time. At this point we are open to adding a few other places if the distance in minutes make sense.

Pulaski

Depends on the time of day, whether you are going against the flow (reverse commuting), and/or driving into the West End.

90 minutes sounds about right for free-flowing traffic, at least as far as the outskirts, say Richmond or Hammersmith - but I would drive to somewhere like Winchester or Basingstoke and take the train from there.

rebs

We regularly drive between East Dulwich in London and East Dorset (quite near Bournemouth). It's a journey of 110 miles, takes approx 2 and a half hours - maybe 2 hours 20 if lucky or 2 hours 40 if busier.

Pulaski

In fairness 15-20 miles of that (as the crow flies, which could easily be 25-30 road miles) is across south London within the M25 and roads in south London are terrible (for example the "South Circular" is an utter joke), and of course often terribly crowded.

By way of comparison, a journey that doesn't involve lots of miles within the M25 - I used to do Kew to Gloucester, towards the end of the Friday evening rush hour, departing around 6.30-7pm, and 90 miles only took 2 hours despite stop-start traffic for the first few miles on the M4, and could be done in only about 90 minutes at other times of day (one time, I did the reverse journey, leaving Gloucester around 6am on the day after boxing day, in about 1hr 15m - my average speed was over 70mph ) . Later I moved back to Wimbledon and an additional 7-10 (road) miles would add 25-50 minutes to the journey.

rebs

Oh, for sure - it's incredibly depressing when the sat nav shows well over an hour to go on the journey and it's only 30 miles (or less) in distance! However, to my mind, driving to somewhere outside the M25 doesn't count as driving to London

BuckinghamshireBoy

Pulaski

Which is precisely why I recommended taking the train to London from Wincheter or Basingstoke!

BuckinghamshireBoy

Absolutely!

That map route mentions tolls, is that the "congestion charge"? I haven't driven in London for +/- 20 years.

UkWinds5353

That sound so familiar. Driving anywhere in the New York Tri-state area takes an hour every place you go, and the distance in miles is never equal to minutes traveled. Back then you just got use to being in the car a lot, but what did help was having multiple travel routes to utilize. There was the Toll Parkway, Interstate Highways and the various back roads that came in handy during those times when a accident brought traffic to a complete halt. At least you could find a way to go around the problem but no matter what there was always a lot of time in queue.

I look back on those times and wonder how easy it is for people to get accustomed to waiting and traveling.

Pulaski

Probably. I can't think what else it would be.

UkWinds5353

I can't get over the amount of money levied on property tax in the UK compared to here in the States. Makes me wonder what are we getting for our money and how much of that is going into the pockets of politicians.

The UK government might tax it's citizens for the NHS but at least you don't try to break the back's of home owners to the degree seen here in America. A home in the UK valued at 3m pounds is taxed equal to an American property valued at $300k. That is mind boggling. That is a taxation of $3,800,000 vs $300,000 having equal property taxes. And UK utilities are much much cheaper. And today Donald Trump said America was Great Again

Jerseygirl

Property taxes in the US go towards paying for schools etc...in the UK income taxes pay for schools. Thus good school district in the US = high property taxes. It’s taking from Peter to pay Paul.

UkWinds5353

That's exactly right. The money in theory is suppose to pay for schools and road maintenance ect but in reality this system of taxation creates a more divided class system. If one lives in the better funded area they then benefit from the higher taxation. That can leave a lot of people out. And often time we see some of that funding diverted to pet projects depending on the municipality. The American taxation scheme has a lot of flaws built in.

UkWinds5353

This property makes London look very calm and peaceful.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property...60358224.html#

christmasoompa

That's because it's not really London. Maybe officially a London suburb, but really an Essex town (and a pretty naff one at that). If you are happy being that far out of central London then I'd look at areas with fast train links instead, for example I live much further out of London but I can be in central London (Paddington station) in 25 mins on a fast train. You'll get more for your money but it could be quicker to get in to central London even though it's further out. Might be worth looking along the Crossrail route maybe?