Ldnn1

St Albans or Luton would be better than MK from Cambridge.

Swiss Tony

Strikes me like one of those situations where we need the full details to help properly.

So you have "some" kit that you need in Cambridge, Docklands, Soho and Birmingham on 4 consecutive days.

How feasible would it be to drive Cambridge-Docklands and drop the car after your day there.

Take a cab into Soho (Addisson Lee are a good option because they have people carriers with lots of space and can be pre-booked) then get another cab to the station at the end of the day. Train to Birmingham & then hire another car if necessary?

It's that schlep out of London on the Friday night that you need to be concerned about - although sharp increases in petrol prices should start to reduce traffic levels a bit.

Clint Bint

Do what I always do.
Find either a railway Underground station on the very outskirts of London and drive around until you find a good,quiet residential area with no parking restrictions.
Park up and walk to the station.
It's free and your car is perfectly safe.
It also saves you the prospect of having to stay in some dull,chain motel in Outer Mongolia.
Voilá.

shorthauldad

Gah, this is starting to feel like I'm being interrogated by my wife!

Nope. Kit (heavy, bulky) really needs to stay in the car, I don't need it in Docklands or Soho. Will need need it beforehand, will need it afterwards. Don't want to schlep it round London on public transport (hence the initial question being "Q: Where should I leave my car?"...)

Still not really understanding from the locals and experts just how bad the London-Birmingham traffic is on a Friday evening.

Are we talking losing an extra hour in traffic, or losing an extra three hours in traffic? Are we talking "leaving between 5pm and 6pm = dire", but "leaving after 7pm = OK"?

Google Maps was telling me (last night, Westfield > central BHM, ~7.30pm) that the additional delay was of the order of 15 mins. Was this a unusually good (a fluke) or even wildly inaccurate?

I admire your courage!

bibbju

I don't really understand why you don't understand other than you don't like the pretty clear message of "don't do it!"

Don't pay attention to Google Maps, the timings can be wildly inaccurate when it comes to London traffic. Local knowledge is key so I would really pay attention to the locals trying to help you on this thread.

Trying to drive out of London on a Friday is always VERY busy and involves long tailbacks/traffic jams. The only way to avoid this is by being on the road by Fri lunchtime (not an option in this case) or leaving late (and by late I mean 9pm or later) on Fri evening.

Driving between London and Birmingham is also usually very busy, so trying to combine this direction of travel with leaving London on a Fri evening is just asking to sit in traffic for hours. I'm not sure how much clearer I can make it. As an example, I've left at 6pm on a Fri evening from Marylebone and it's taken me 5 hours to get to Oxford on the M40 (at which point I abandoned the trip and was back home in London in less than 45 mins). This is the same route you're talking about getting from Soho to the M40. I've had Fri evening (6pm) drives from Canary Wharf to Whitechapel take 90 mins to travel 2 miles (and yes, I could have literally hopped backwards more quickly!) I'm sure most of the contributors on this thread have lots of "leaving London on a Fri evening traffic" horror stories to share. The moral of these painful lessons is don't do it unless you absolutely have no choice. You will hope for the best and then have lots of time sitting in traffic to kick yourself for being naively optimistic. We've all been there and it isn't pleasant.

trueblu

I used to do this a lot...but anything zone3 and nearer doesn't appear to have that option anymore: they've really clamped down on this practice. Any particular neighbourhoods you have recent experience with and would like to recommend?

Several recent trips involving car to Central London: since my hotel was fairly centrally located, the parking rates were crazy. So it was actually cheaper to drive the car around with me than to park and get public transport! I don't mind driving in London, actually, I rather like it (used to live in London aeons ago). However, the one thing that has gotten worse, at least according to friends still living in town is theft from cars. Given OP has a lot of "heavy gear" -- this may be a factor for them. It may be best to bite the bullet and pay for a decent car park with CCTV and security rather than come back to find expensive equipment stolen from vehicle.

tb

Swiss Tony

I'll give you a clue as to how bad this is...

We live half way up the M40. My wife used to work in WC1. On her last day before taking maternity leave, the company insisted she be driven home.

It took 3.5hrs - over double the journey time by public transport. We're an hour short of Birmingham and the M40 although typically very fast, can be at a standstill anywhere. Once you're past our way the junctions do space right out, too.

Throw something else into the mix - if you don't need the heavy kit in London, can you drive from Cambridge to Birmingham (1.5-2hrs) then train it down from there? It's an hour from Birmingham International to Euston, so you could still make it down on the Thursday morning.

shorthauldad

Thanks, will ponder this idea!

:D!

This seems the most sensible option to me.



You need to go further away from the stations, 15-20 minute walk.

10-15 minute walks from stations usually bring you to areas where you can park in the evenings or the weekends, but will be "permit holders only" from 10am-11am or 2pm-3pm on weekdays or something like that.

Just look up the parking signs on google street view.

Clint Bint

I'm not going to give away my best spots

But anytime I use LHR I can always find a residential street within walking distance of Hounslow Central.
For LGW I use Horley and catch a bus to the airport.