A1(M), A505 northbound conditions in rush hour

[czakal]

Hello everyone,
I currently live and work in London at my company's London office but I'm thinking of moving to Luton or Welwyn Garden City (where I've seen interesting property on offer) and working from my company's head office just outside Bedford in the future. How congested are the roads going north from Luton (A505/A602) or Welwyn (A1(M))? I'm hoping that most of the traffic in the morning rush hour is southbound and the northbound road should be not too busy. If anyone has experience I'd be interested to hear.

Thanks
czakal

[Beehive Bedlam]

Why do you care about traffic assuming you will be riding a motorbike?

[czakal]

From my current experience using the A12 to go into central London, there's still plenty enough traffic to slow me down in the morning.

[Stalk]

Not sure about the traffic as I left Hatfield in 1987 and Luton in 94. Luton was a shithole then and from what I hear it has gone downhill. Have relatives in WGC, its not much better with the police loosing control in Woodall to large gangs of out of control kids (15-19 age group). Forget Hatfield all together, the town is dead since British Aerospace closed in 93. Maybe consider Hitchin or Letchworth?

[UncleFester]

I live near Knebworth ... commute to Potters Bar .. did commute to Milton Keynes and back ... the roads are nice. House prices are good. You can get a garage and a garden and a house with 3 bedrooms for < 300k.

Makes London look even more like the expensive shithole that it is.

Oh and Stevenage to London on the fast Virgin train is < 25 minutes.

Lots to like.

Bedford is still a knob to get in and out of but on a bike you'd be fine. Time is key, < 7.30am will be fine > 8am won't be. Same goes for leaving.
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2017 Z1000SX

[czakal]

Ok thanks for the tips, at least now I know why Luton is not more expensive than Bedford even though it's closer to London.

[UncleFester]

If you are mobile - look at the villages. Barton le Clay / Silsoe / Cople / Moggerhanger .. Sandy and Biggleswade are a little bigger.

Bedford / Luton no thanks. And if you head towards MK way, prices will rise steeply.
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2017 Z1000SX

[thx1138]

I live in Bedford, there are some nice bits (

erm, if you are riding north from Luton to Bedford during commuting times, you will hit a couple of roundabouts, and tail backs, and filtering is more or less a must, it's not as bad as going south, but the roundabouts themselves cause the tailbacks by default really

depending where you work in Bedford, you might want to skip the Black Cat roundabout by cutting off near Sandy, or even Old Warden and cut Biggleswade roundabout out too

[UncleFester]

Me .. i'd go via Barton and the A6 and then filter up the backroads of which there are many Avoiding the A1 / A421 for as long as possible.
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2017 Z1000SX

[czakal]

My company's office is close to Sandy. I had thought of Luton or WGC at first because it's closer to London if I need to go into town, but it seems like it does get time consuming commuting into Bedford from those towns anyway.