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I have free maps covering the whole of Greater London -- 14 maps in total. Similar quality maps are £5-£10 each.

Available here (for residents of London) and from most bike shops. If they'd not been free I'd probably have bought a decent phone by now.

But computer science graduates don't go into IT. Thats a blue collar profession now.

Well, that depends what the survey means by "computer science".

Here's the link to the report. Find the link "Table 3" within it for a PDF of the broken down results. Note that the only IT/Computing subject is Computer Science, and it has almost as many graduates as all of the physical sciences. I think it includes IT degrees too.

In the UK I would expect that rail and sea transport would be more important too.

Yes -- and I would think rail transport has even more CS areas than road transport. As well as usage/capacity measurement/predictions and logistics, there's complicated timetables, electronic signalling, electronic ticketing, service information (on platforms, on trains, online, by text, printed)... Recently some rail-related APIs have been opened up, leading to this live train map mashup (also the London Underground). Someone from my class at university works for the company that makes the London Journey Planner, which is excellent. Another works for Network Rail on signalling systems, another for rail freight logistics.

And the cycle scheme:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/12444.aspx

Perhaps the authorisation and charging will somehow be linked to your oyster Card

(Or steal a bicycle? Plenty of criminals use bicycles as getaway 'vehicles', they're much faster than cars in central & inner London, and cars can't chase bicycles down narrow streets or steps. Of course, look out for the police on bicycles.)

Even better, for pure silliness factor, how about a Thames Clipper!?

>mostly my lights are to be seen

Get two, and space them horizontally.

Sounds very reasonable if it's dark -- but I don't think it would make that much difference in London, where I live. The roads are extremely well-lit (not so well lit that I'd go without any light at all, but some people do) and traffic speeds are generally pretty low.

Being hit from behind is quite rare (PDF source). The best thing a cyclist can do to avoid injury in London is not cycle alongside a vehicle, especially at junctions, and super-especially long vehicles (30% injuries).
Surprisingly (and the drivers won't like this, but it's in that report...) the next thing to do is look out for cars running red lights or not giving way when they should (17% injuries). Two lights might help here, in some cases where the driver thinks "the cyclist is far enough away, I can get out in time".

it ultimately comes down a judgment call for things that can't be easily automated

At least 9 out of 10 taxi drivers in NYC do not know enough about the city's streets or the city's traffic patterns to know when it is appropriate to make a judgement call to deviate from the GPS-selected route.

If NYC required taxi drivers to pass a test comparable to "the Knowledge" test required of London taxi drivers (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpartners/taxisandprivatehire/1412.aspx), that would be a different matter.

Last spring while Cirque du Soleil was doing their "Kooza" thing at Randall's Island in NYC, only 1 out of the 20 taxi drivers that I caught from a Manhattan Hilton had even heard of Randall's Island let alone knew how to get there.

I am shocked that a website like this, filled with geeks, have forgotten to mention Forbidden Planet, the biggest comic and toy store in London - and I believe all of the UK. It's just a little bit south-east of Tottenham Court Road tube station.

I cannot recommend strongly enough the Transport For London journey planner. It'll give you excellent guidance on getting from point A to point B, complete with selecting which types of public transport you want to use.

It's not a bad idea to swing by Forbidden Planet on the way down to London's Chinatown. Found a nice thread here discussing Malaysian/Chinese cuisine in London.

Soho is directly north of Chinatown. Full of sex shops, gay bars, hole-in-the-wall strip joints and prime people-watching real estate. Best to go in the evening to really see the colourful people coming out. Have a pint at the The Ship in Soho. Wonderfully weird clientele. Old middle-aged punks, lesbian goths, dodgy looking ex-roadies, pensioner couples and gawking tourists who've heard about the pub.

Slightly north and a ways to the east of Chinatown is the Covent Garden area which is the heart of theatre in London and another great place to wander and people watch.

For seeing the sights in London I heartily recommend London Walks (requires Javascript). They feature several trips which go all across London and have many for particular locations like the British Museum (which has 13 acres of floor space, so it's easy to get lost) which can optimize your time by hitting the highlights for general touristy stuff (leaving you time to go back for further perusal of those or looking for off-the-beaten-track items of personal interest). Do take advantage of some of their day-long trips to places outside of London such as those to Salisbury and Stonehenge, or to Canterbury and Leeds Castle, or to Bath--especially if you plan on staying in London for the entire time. Visiting only London and saying you've been to the UK would be like visiting New York City and saying you've been to the USA. If he is giving tours at your time in London, I suggest taking in the Jack the Ripper walk with Don Rumbelow (who literally wrote the book on Jack the Ripper).

Someone recommended getting the Oyster Card, but you might check to see if the London TravelCard may be better for you. The TravelCards are only available to people visiting from outside the UK and can be cheaper than getting an Oyster Card. Here is a side-by-side comparison. Note that the TravelCard can also be purchased through the AAA.

Check with your bank and your credit card companies for their foriegn exchange fees and use the best card for your purchases and walkabout cash. Please check NOW--you don't want to find out that your cards are unusable overseas when you get there. You might avoid the convenience kisok ATMs in favor of those at banks for obvious reasons.

Above all else, remember: you will NOT see everything!. You can literally spend years seeing the sights of London alone much less those of the UK, so don't try to take it in all at once by limiting your visits to, say, the British Museum solely to an afternoon. Take your time and enjoy your time away from work, and if you miss something this time you can always catch that particular sight the next time you visit.

• London Underground Journey Planner
• Accessible overland train timetables
• Accessible overland train timetables (mobile version)
• Crowd sourced *nice* things in London
• UK journey planner by every means available

It's also useful to know that each post code (zip code) is allocated to a small group of houses (say ten-ish) within the same street.
That's accurate enough to navigate using just the house number and post code. So if you wanted directions from, say, the British Museum (WC1B 3DG) to Buckingham Palace (SW1A 1AA) you'd google this: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=WC1B 3DG to SW1A 1AA

Get yourself a London A-Z (Zed ;) - most of the time dead tree maps still beat electronic (and there's no cellphone reception on the Underground).

Get yourself an Oyster Card. It's a significantly cheaper way to travel.
You don't have to register it if perhaps you're sensitive about personal privacy (just remember you're constantly under CCTV surveillance).

CCTV cameras will watch you everywhere Unless you happen to be the victim of a crime, in which case the cameras will be "switched off" or "pointing the other way".

Mobile data is pretty cheap (assuming you have a compatible phone) - pick up a Three or T-Mobile sim at the airport.

Lastly, no geek can be without their coffee fix: try Monmouth Coffee, Flat White or Cafe Amato.

I'd definitely take a laptop for a 2 week trip as it makes planning and locating touristy things that much easier. Try and stay in a place with free wifi - hostels will usually have free wifi, hotels usually charge. Free wifi options: http://londonist.com/2007/05/free_wifi_in_lo.php

For getting from Heathrow to London - if you're staying near Paddington I'd suggest the Heathrow Connect instead of the expensive Heathrow Express. They both run on the same track but the Connect is less frequent (every 30m and has a couple of stops so takes 10 mins longer) but is almost half the price. Alternatively take the tube (subway) if you've got the time to spare or aren't staying near Paddington.

Transport: the tube is usually the easiest option, though often it's quicker walking if only one stop. If staying out, tubes stop around 00:30 (earlier on Sunday nights) but there are nightbuses - see http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/ for planning a bus route to/from your hotel. For tubes/buses: you can buy a (pay as you go) Oyster card when you get here (£3 refundable deposit).
Cabs: you can only hail black cabs. Other cabs (usually cheaper) are called "minicabs" and can only be booked by phone. Addison Lee is the biggest minicab company but not the cheapest.

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/calendar/events/ is good for London geeky events - worth checking out when you're here to see if anything interests you. Other people have covered the museums so I won't bother.

Worth a read: http://wikitravel.org/en/London

Buy a copy (in London) of Time Out London (weekly events/gigs/film/tv/theatre etc listing magazine) and also one of their London guidebooks. They're the best guides. May also be worth picking up a free "TNT" magazine (they're everywhere) for gig/party listings - is popular with backpackers/younger people.

Try some markets in London too: Borough Food Market on a Sat morning; perhaps Camden Market ("alternative" but rather tired) on Sat afternoon. Spitalfields on a Sunday (trendy junk). Columbia Road flower market on Sunday morning is very good too (for something a bit different). There's Christmas markets in Hyde Park and by the O2 (North Greenwich tube).
Main deparment stores are between Oxford St tube & Marble arch tubes - just walk along Oxford St. Selfridges is more popular with Londoners than Harrods. If you want a shopping mall then there's Westfield (Google for locations).

Get a single ticket on a boat to Greenwich to see the meridian line, naval observatory, painted hall etc. But don't take a boat back as it takes forever - instead get the tube back.

Out of town: Brighton is also worth a weekend trip (train is 1hr from Victoria or London Bridge). Sat/Sun are best for the shops on the lanes. It's the closest seaside town to London - though take a map so you know how to find the lanes (on left hand side as you walk from station to seaside). December won't be so great but it's still worth a visit.

You can go to Oxford, Brighton etc on the bus but I prefer the train (quicker, more comfortable). I'd recommend pre-booking at least a day in advance - when you book you can choose to pickup the ticket from a machine at the station. http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/ is a good site for getting an idea of rail fares - if they're too expensive then take a bus (most buses leave from the coach station near Victoria station).

Actually Transport for London, which includes bus, bike, foot, boat, and other options for getting around the London area. The TFL Journey Planner is a fantastic resource.

It has been mentioned elsewhere, but I'll repeat the advice: get an Oyster card when you arrive. It's faster and cheaper than other ways to pay.

TFL = Transport for London, not Tube. It covers buses, Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and some overground services amongst other things.

I thought the same, then reminded myself of the transport system here.

Details here - it will make your use of public transport (bus, tube etc) faster and cheaper - you just touch it to open the barriers. Oh, and leave the laptop, there are plenty of internet cafes.

* Get yourself an Oyster Card - you can get one from the tube stations at Heathrow Airport and are valid on most public transport in London including all Underground (tube) trains, all local (red) buses in London, some "overground" (i.e. not tube) trains (from 2nd Jan 2010 almost all trains in London will take it) and some river-boat services (the river boats are not cheap but can be a great way to see the sights along the river). You have to pay a £3 deposit plus whatever credit you'll want to start with, but you can get that back plus any unused credit by surrending the card at a tube station when you leave.

* If you're flying into Heathrow and you don't have too much luggage, then the tube to central London is by far the cheapest option. There are also two "overground" rail services, the non-stop Heathrow Express (15 mins to central London) and the stops-at-local-stations Heathrow Connect (25 mins to central London). Both are rather more expensive than the tube, the Express especially so, and neither take Oyster. There used to be an Airbus services from Heathrow to central London but that stopped a few years ago. National Express run some coach (long distance bus) services to/from central London that call at Heathrow but they will be the slowest option and you may need to book your tickets in advance.

* If flying in to Gatwick, then your best choice is rail to London. There are two services: Gatwick Express is a bit more expensive but faster and has more luggage space. Southern is likely to be a bit cheaper and not quite as fast. Be aware that although the two services are run by the same company, tickets on one may not be valid on the other. Neither will take Oyster as Gatwick is well outside the city boundary of Greater London. In the unlikey event you fly into Stansted (which doesn't have many flights to/from North America) then the same applies to the Stansted Express rail link. There are cheapish coach links from Gatwick and Stansted but they will be a lot slower.

* Wherever you fly into, DON'T take a taxi into London unless you really need to and have LOTS of money! Having said that, if you're not sure how to get to a particular place, London cabbies have to spend several years learning "The Knowledge" and will always be able to get you to where you want to go, for a price.

* I second the motion to go to Bletchley Park. This is outside of London but only about 45 minutes from Euston railway terminus by train. It is an absolute must see for any geek: not only does it have working replicas of the Turing "Bombe" and Colossus machines, but it has subsidiary museums on site of computing and other technology.

* Amberley Chalk Pits museum in Sussex might be of interest to you too, with displays of agricultural and industrial technology, transport and communications (TV and radio museums). It's about an hour and a half from Victoria railway terminus.

* If you're interested in transport, then the London Transport museum at Covent Garden in the centre of London is a must see.

* If you do travel outside of London by train, then unless you're going long distance (more than a couple of hours from London) you won't need t

* Get yourself an Oyster Card - you can get one from the tube stations at Heathrow Airport and are valid on most public transport in London including all Underground (tube) trains, all local (red) buses in London, some "overground" (i.e. not tube) trains (from 2nd Jan 2010 almost all trains in London will take it) and some river-boat services (the river boats are not cheap but can be a great way to see the sights along the river). You have to pay a £3 deposit plus whatever credit you'll want to start with, but you can get that back plus any unused credit by surrending the card at a tube station when you leave.

* If you're flying into Heathrow and you don't have too much luggage, then the tube to central London is by far the cheapest option. There are also two "overground" rail services, the non-stop Heathrow Express (15 mins to central London) and the stops-at-local-stations Heathrow Connect (25 mins to central London). Both are rather more expensive than the tube, the Express especially so, and neither take Oyster. There used to be an Airbus services from Heathrow to central London but that stopped a few years ago. National Express run some coach (long distance bus) services to/from central London that call at Heathrow but they will be the slowest option and you may need to book your tickets in advance.

* If flying in to Gatwick, then your best choice is rail to London. There are two services: Gatwick Express is a bit more expensive but faster and has more luggage space. Southern is likely to be a bit cheaper and not quite as fast. Be aware that although the two services are run by the same company, tickets on one may not be valid on the other. Neither will take Oyster as Gatwick is well outside the city boundary of Greater London. In the unlikey event you fly into Stansted (which doesn't have many flights to/from North America) then the same applies to the Stansted Express rail link. There are cheapish coach links from Gatwick and Stansted but they will be a lot slower.

* Wherever you fly into, DON'T take a taxi into London unless you really need to and have LOTS of money! Having said that, if you're not sure how to get to a particular place, London cabbies have to spend several years learning "The Knowledge" and will always be able to get you to where you want to go, for a price.

* I second the motion to go to Bletchley Park. This is outside of London but only about 45 minutes from Euston railway terminus by train. It is an absolute must see for any geek: not only does it have working replicas of the Turing "Bombe" and Colossus machines, but it has subsidiary museums on site of computing and other technology.

* Amberley Chalk Pits museum in Sussex might be of interest to you too, with displays of agricultural and industrial technology, transport and communications (TV and radio museums). It's about an hour and a half from Victoria railway terminus.

* If you're interested in transport, then the London Transport museum at Covent Garden in the centre of London is a must see.

* If you do travel outside of London by train, then unless you're going long distance (more than a couple of hours from London) you won't need t

* Get yourself an Oyster Card - you can get one from the tube stations at Heathrow Airport and are valid on most public transport in London including all Underground (tube) trains, all local (red) buses in London, some "overground" (i.e. not tube) trains (from 2nd Jan 2010 almost all trains in London will take it) and some river-boat services (the river boats are not cheap but can be a great way to see the sights along the river). You have to pay a £3 deposit plus whatever credit you'll want to start with, but you can get that back plus any unused credit by surrending the card at a tube station when you leave.

* If you're flying into Heathrow and you don't have too much luggage, then the tube to central London is by far the cheapest option. There are also two "overground" rail services, the non-stop Heathrow Express (15 mins to central London) and the stops-at-local-stations Heathrow Connect (25 mins to central London). Both are rather more expensive than the tube, the Express especially so, and neither take Oyster. There used to be an Airbus services from Heathrow to central London but that stopped a few years ago. National Express run some coach (long distance bus) services to/from central London that call at Heathrow but they will be the slowest option and you may need to book your tickets in advance.

* If flying in to Gatwick, then your best choice is rail to London. There are two services: Gatwick Express is a bit more expensive but faster and has more luggage space. Southern is likely to be a bit cheaper and not quite as fast. Be aware that although the two services are run by the same company, tickets on one may not be valid on the other. Neither will take Oyster as Gatwick is well outside the city boundary of Greater London. In the unlikey event you fly into Stansted (which doesn't have many flights to/from North America) then the same applies to the Stansted Express rail link. There are cheapish coach links from Gatwick and Stansted but they will be a lot slower.

* Wherever you fly into, DON'T take a taxi into London unless you really need to and have LOTS of money! Having said that, if you're not sure how to get to a particular place, London cabbies have to spend several years learning "The Knowledge" and will always be able to get you to where you want to go, for a price.

* I second the motion to go to Bletchley Park. This is outside of London but only about 45 minutes from Euston railway terminus by train. It is an absolute must see for any geek: not only does it have working replicas of the Turing "Bombe" and Colossus machines, but it has subsidiary museums on site of computing and other technology.

* Amberley Chalk Pits museum in Sussex might be of interest to you too, with displays of agricultural and industrial technology, transport and communications (TV and radio museums). It's about an hour and a half from Victoria railway terminus.

* If you're interested in transport, then the London Transport museum at Covent Garden in the centre of London is a must see.

* If you do travel outside of London by train, then unless you're going long distance (more than a couple of hours from London) you won't need t

tfl website,is the best way to plan an A to B journey.
Night buses (signified by an N infront of the name) run 0100-0500 and don't always run the same route as the day version
Many bus stops have maps in them that make finding the bus you want easy
An oyster card with a week pass, is going to cost a bit upfront but will save money if you use the tube 3/4 times a day

Go to the underground, get an Oyster card with (say) £20 of credit on it (you'll have to ask at the manned ticket office for this)

Or order it online and have it sent to you in advance:

http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/english.htm

Diamond Geezer is a blogger who is a London enthusiast and he has covered lots of the smaller museums and other off-the-beaten track attractions of London. He also has plenty of geeky London Transport facts.

tfl (Transport for London) is the website for travel information for London, and Traveline will give you public transport routes from anywhere to anywhere outside London. You certainly don't need to hire a car in London -- as well as the famous Tube, buses are widely used by everybody and have great coverage. You don't really need one out London either unless you want to visit really remote rural sites such as lonely beaches.

> tube to greenwich

The DLR (Docklands Light railway is a driverless train system that leaves from Bank (in The City - which is the bit of london where all the financial firms are) and Tower Gateway (next to the tower of london) - take a train headed towards Lewisham and get off at "Cutty Sark" station - the station before Greenwich. It's a nice walk through Greenwich up past the old naval collegde and up the hill to GMT and the museums. Your oyster card will work on it.

Get a GIF tube map and stick it in your phone.

> tube to greenwich

The DLR (Docklands Light railway is a driverless train system that leaves from Bank (in The City - which is the bit of london where all the financial firms are) and Tower Gateway (next to the tower of london) - take a train headed towards Lewisham and get off at "Cutty Sark" station - the station before Greenwich. It's a nice walk through Greenwich up past the old naval collegde and up the hill to GMT and the museums. Your oyster card will work on it.

Get a GIF tube map and stick it in your phone.

Bring some really good walking shoes. Public transport in london is expensive and crowded. You'll get a lot more out of walking. But, you'll walk a lot.

No it's not (expensive that is). Well not overly so. You need to get an Oyster card with an X day pass geared for the length of your stay and the area you plan on travelling into (the public transport network is zoned).
The oyster system isn't very simple but it's the only sensible way to get around. Works in buses and the tube.
Details : What is Oyster?

Small but incredibly useful tip if you plan on travelling around London to see the sights and intend on using the tube (It's easier and in most cases faster than anything else):

Get an Oyster Card instead of buying individual or daily tickets. Cheaper fares, easier getting through the gates, and it works on busses as well.

The oyster card is a means of prepaying for public transport, use it to purchase tickets after 9:30 as these are much cheaper as being considered off peak travel and are valid on bus, train and subway travel http://www.tfl.gov.uk/. Also remember to pack all your encryption keys as you never know when border guards way wish to view what is on your laptop and to not surrender such keys when requested by the authorities may well ruin your vacation http://security.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/encryption/

You have:

London Tate Gallery
British Museum
British Library
British Science Museum
British Natural History Museum
London Dungeons
London Eye
London Aquarium
Madame Tussauds
SOHO (just roaming around late at night)
Wembley Stadium for a match or gig if one is on.
River Thames Boat trip.
The Tower of London
Visit the Houses of Parliament
Shakespear Globe tour
Royal Opera House
National Gallery
National Maritime Museum

The list goes on: http://www.visitlondon.com/

Just a word of advice, if you are going for 2 weeks and are relying on the underground, look into getting an Oyster card. This will save you money on using the tube: https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do

Road pricing is horseshit because if having to drive on a congested road isn't sufficient deterrent to stop you doing it, then taxation isn't going to achieve it.

I agree that mass vehicle tracking raises very serious privacy concerns, but road pricing does reduce traffic. You might be interested in the Transport For London annual report, which indicates that traffic in the city is about 20% lower than it otherwise would be.

The trouble with your proposal to just track "key" roads is that it encourages traffic to do rat-runs along secondary roads. I experienced this personally when tolling was brought in on a freeway near my house; the alternative routes were suddenly jam-packed with traffic, particularly at off-peak times when they were previously quiet.

Don't give me any guff about "people should walk more". A large portion of the population is sick/elderly/frail/disabled, and from among those the ones who can drive derive great advantage from the automobile.

In London, almost 40% of 85+ people's main transport is walking. 20% use the bus. (Citation, with lots of other interesting data in the 2007 PDF. Travel mode by age is chart 2.5.1.).

People should walk more, it's about the most basic thing you can do to prevent yourself getting sick, frail or disabled.

A better example (in London) is Clapham Junction, which has 18 platforms

What a gigantic waste of space, and all to serve what - 1% of the commuter traffic? Waste, waste, waste.

You've clearly never been there, "the station is one of the busiest in Europe by number of trains using it, more than one hundred an hour outside peak time"

Roughly 200 million people pass through every year. Ignoring that there's less people at the weekend, that's 500,000 people per day. London has a population of 8 million, the whole of South East England ~16 million, and obviously not everyone travels to central London every day.

Yes roads take-up a lot of room too but they serve 99% of the commuters.

Figures pulled out of your arse?
" In 2006, on an average day in London there were just under 28 million journey stages; 39% of these were made by car, 19% by bus or tram, 10% by Underground, 8% by rail, 2% by cycle and 20% were on foot."
" Of these journey stages, 37% were by public transport, slightly more than in 2005. The public transport share has steadily increased from 32% in 2000, while the share of journey stages by private transport has continued to decline."
" On an average weekday in Autumn 2006, 1.1 million people entered central London during the morning peak (7am to 10am). This was a 5% increase on the previous year and also higher than the previous peak in 2000. All the public transport modes saw increases, especially rail, Underground and DLR, while the number of people entering by car continued to decrease."
These are for all of Greater London (the area 30 miles across). Only 7% of peak time journeys into *Central* London are made by car, with average vehicle occupancy of 1.38.
(Compare with the whole of Great Britain, where 76% of journeys to work are by car.)

Also interesting "On average London households spend nearly 15% of their total expenditure on transport, a lower share than the United Kingdom average, almost 17%."

Also note, 231 people died on the roads in London that year, 3715 were seriously injured, and 25864 slightly injured.
9 people died on railways, 150 injured. Almost all of this is people falling off platforms and down escalators etc (and if the "Take care!" posters are to be believed, most of them were drunk.)

(All this from the 2007 London Travel Report.)

Also I don't know how the UK funds its trains, but in the Virginia/Maryland region they make the drivers pay the bill.

Not in London (not sure about the rest of the country).

In london the tube is the most expensive

that article's title is sensationalist. As it says in the article, cash fares are inflated to promote adoption of the oyster card. These days pretty much everyone uses them. Very convenient and removes the need for cash & credit card transactions for travel.. the small shops all over london deal with the cash transactions instead

buses are £2 cash, £1 with oyster I'm not sure about tube fares but I guess its a similar ratio

Most people here seems to regard parking meters as normal and acceptable devices. Fact is that the SOIL is public. That means that the SOIL is YOURS. Now would you like to be charged for living into your house? I doubt it. So why can you accept that someone is renting your land? Here now you are debating which form of stealing is better for you. Like debating whatever is better to be eaten by a lion or a tiger.

*LONDON CASE* - Just in case my points need proof. London is the best example that the government is not able to get public transport done in a decent way. Those who had the pleasure to visit London had the pleasure to witness the outcome of this resignation policy, where citizen don't question for a long time the actions of their governors.

Tube: In london the tube is the most expensive public transport of the world. To eradicate privacy concerns you are told that you've got no privacy: the tube is covered with cameras. They are there just to easen your feelings of unsecurity and keeping souvenir videos of dead kamikaze bombers for later inspection.
Congestion Charge: You can't use your car if you don't pay. Basically 16$ flat rate to get into the city. Cameras with number plate recognition software will note every car entering the charging zone. At the end of the day number plates will be cross referenced against a database of payments made -and don't forget to fuck privacy.
Parking: Public parking in central london is practically non existant. Where it is available the rates are so high that made possible for a private parking industry to florish (usually 36$ per day, 3,60$ per hour). With the advent of decriminalised parking the practice is becoming much more widespread and as evidenced by the TV docu-soap 'Clampers', can be very arbitary: "clampers using threatening behaviour". Insane measures to clamp even bikes: Inside the Greater London area all footway parking is prohibited unless it is specifically exempted and signs indicate that you may park partially or wholly on the footway. -

Conclusions: In london there is no other options but to be raped insane charges by local authorities. You take a bike, you can't park and risk clamps - You take a car you pay for using (congestion charge) and parking (if and when you find a spot) - You take the tube you are going to pay the most expensive transport system of the world AND you are still uncertain if you can reach your destination in time or whatever (It's like lotto, if you're lucky you get in time, if youre not lucky you're screwed since anything can happen, from detours to surface lines, delays or anything else - Also take for granted that when it happens you will find yourself dumped in parts of the city you never knew they existed before).

Another London cyclist here!

I regularly cycle from zone 3 into central London, and would agree with everything xaxa has said. My two top tips are to try the TfL cycle journey planner (it uses the same information as the maps, and gives the distance and timings for the route) and, if you're going to commute by bike, ride the route at a weekend first to get a feel for it.

The traffic around Holborn definitely is rather crazy, but there are a lot of side streets that avoid most of it, and in rush hour most of it isn't moving anyway :-)

I don't drive, but I do cycle most journeys of under an hour.

I live in London. If you follow the road signs (the ones for cars) on a bicycle you'll travel a lot further than you need to in most cases, and be using the busy main roads and junctions, which are the least pleasant to cycle on (except at 4am on a Sunday). It's better following the cycle route signs, but they try and avoid large roads, so the route still isn't as direct as it could be.

If I have time I have a look at a map (one with the cycle routes marked, as they're free), and plan a route like "follow the cycle route signs towards Westminster, until I get to King's Road since it goes too far out of the way then, but rejoin it after the park".

Every time I go somewhere new (or somewhere I've not been often) I pick up some extra local knowledge, like noticing I'm going across a street I recognise the name of, or seeing that going the wrong way down a one-way street (ahem) would have saved a large detour.

Any individual or film production company wanting to film or take photographs on the Tube must seek prior permission from the London Underground (LU) Film Office.

There are three types of permit:

* Student or non-professional
* Two-hour
* Location

All permit requests must be made in writing, preferably via one of our application forms. You can start an online application now.

It looks like it's about £300 to take pictures.

Do you know it's actually forbidden to take pictures on the London Underground unless you have a permit (which you have to buy)? I was shocked to hear that, so I looked it up, and it's true.

I don't know where you looked it up, but the official policy is
"If you are just passing through, you shouldn't have a problem taking personal snaps, souvenir shots etc, although you must NOT use flash or lights on any of our platforms."

Of course, forget about it in the US, except maybe in Oregon.

Considering I live in Oregon, maybe I can comment on this. :-)

Yes, it certainly is a total piece of crap because it doesn't suit your lifestyle.

It seems like you are attacking MichaelSmith. He did not say the car was a total piece of crap. He merely said it would not fit his lifestyle. Where I live in Oregon, it does not make a whole lot of sense for me to use public transportation. It's inconvenient, and would actually cost more.

However, in Dublin, New York City, or London (I've visited all three), public transportation could make a lot more sense, particularly if I didn't want to deal with congestion problems. London, for example, charges some outrageous fee each time one wants to drive into the city center. (How they do this is a technological marvel in-and-of-itself. Read more.) A car like this could also make sense in rural Ireland, where sometimes their ideas of highways are Americans' ideas of impassable.

While the people of Portland, Eugene, and Ashland (and I suppose Salem as well) like to promote the "greenness" of Oregon, there are still gazillions of SUVs and trucks, even in the suburbs of Portland.

If you cycle in London, order the free cycle guides, they're excellent -- full-size maps with excellent detail, with the signed cycle routes marked in blue and nice quiet roads marked in yellow. Other routes -- like canal towpaths or routes through parks -- are in green.

Surrey make similar maps that also mark off-road trails by difficulty.

Most other places I've visited at least have an A4-size map of cycle routes, which is better than nothing.

You can get GPS systems for bikes, but I don't know what they support.

I think the maintenance is meant to be a one-off, but it will probably be ages before things are where they could have been if the railways hadn't been neglected.

My favourite way to get round London is my bicycle, I wish I'd bought one four years ago.

It's often quicker than the train, especially since I live about 15 minutes walk from my nearest station (which saves me about £150/month in rent just for my room, compared with living within 1 minute of the station). For instance, here is a journey right across central London I do on many weekends.

The only time it's really worth getting the train is if I'm going somewhere like this (a fast train to a relatively distant destination, no changes, regular trains). In the morning the train would be really crowded though.

The time it takes to get from the edge of London to the centre depends where you are. In some places, the only option is the London Underground all the way, so the journey might take over an hour. In other places, a train might stop nearby that then hardly stops until it gets to the middle of London.
(London has ten times the population of Helsinki.)

Tickets are unified across buses, trams, the underground and some trains in the Greater London area. The rest of the London trains will be using the system by the end of the year. The ferries are expensive, but they're more of a tourist attraction than a serious way to get around (there are lots of road and rail bridges/tunnels).

I think the maintenance is meant to be a one-off, but it will probably be ages before things are where they could have been if the railways hadn't been neglected.

My favourite way to get round London is my bicycle, I wish I'd bought one four years ago.

It's often quicker than the train, especially since I live about 15 minutes walk from my nearest station (which saves me about £150/month in rent just for my room, compared with living within 1 minute of the station). For instance, here is a journey right across central London I do on many weekends.

The only time it's really worth getting the train is if I'm going somewhere like this (a fast train to a relatively distant destination, no changes, regular trains). In the morning the train would be really crowded though.

The time it takes to get from the edge of London to the centre depends where you are. In some places, the only option is the London Underground all the way, so the journey might take over an hour. In other places, a train might stop nearby that then hardly stops until it gets to the middle of London.
(London has ten times the population of Helsinki.)

Tickets are unified across buses, trams, the underground and some trains in the Greater London area. The rest of the London trains will be using the system by the end of the year. The ferries are expensive, but they're more of a tourist attraction than a serious way to get around (there are lots of road and rail bridges/tunnels).

You might be interested in Valuing the Benefits of Cycling, a study by the UK National Health Service ("The study concludes that the value for each additional cyclist varies to a maximum of £382 a year", from improved health and fitness, reduced pollution and less congestion.)

I found that cited in Cycling in London [PDF], produced for Transport for London (the public organisation that oversees most transport in London).

TFL have many more reports on cycling, but I don't have time to re-read them.

(I cycle at least 100km a week, and feel much better for it.)

You might be interested in Valuing the Benefits of Cycling, a study by the UK National Health Service ("The study concludes that the value for each additional cyclist varies to a maximum of £382 a year", from improved health and fitness, reduced pollution and less congestion.)

I found that cited in Cycling in London [PDF], produced for Transport for London (the public organisation that oversees most transport in London).

TFL have many more reports on cycling, but I don't have time to re-read them.

(I cycle at least 100km a week, and feel much better for it.)

I'm fairly certain the hotel *could* have me arrested for stealing their soap...

I doubt it. Not when the packaging calls it "complimentary soap". I think it's fair enough to consider the soap to be a gift from the hotel to you, much like the little chocolates on the pillow.

It's a flawed metaphor anyway. If you take the soap, it's gone, whereas when you download an MP3, it's still there. A better comparison would be dodging your fare on the Underground - and Transport for London levies a £50 fine for that, which is less than a parking ticket will cost you.

"I and others who use an Oyster card (prepay travel card) get London Underground travel far cheaper than those who pay with cash."

Howeer, there is a down side to this. It provides yet another way for the govt. to track your movements. I just don't want to give them any information on this, or keep them from getting as much as possible.

Most people will take paying £1.60 and being tracked instead of paying £4 and remaining anonymous.

I've only ever had to once live for awhile that had a toll bridge I had to take. Rather than get a discount, and get one of those RFID speed pass things....I'd just pay cash to go across. I like to live as untraceable an existance as possible within reason.

Maybe you should swap that car (with its attached license plate) for a bike. As a bonus, the bridge is probably free by bicycle.

(Are there CCTV cameras by the toll booths?)

There really are some great locations on the Underground to make your filming project a success. Stations such as Charing Cross can be used exclusively with your own train, making the whole process more film-friendly.

For the general public, the rule is quite straightforward: don't use flash photography - the exception proves the rule that normal photography is acceptable.

There really are some great locations on the Underground to make your filming project a success. Stations such as Charing Cross can be used exclusively with your own train, making the whole process more film-friendly.

For the general public, the rule is quite straightforward: don't use flash photography - the exception proves the rule that normal photography is acceptable.

Just as a comparison with the London Underground, taking any photos on the Underground requires a permit which costs £300 for a two-hour permit (less for students), details are here. I wonder what the penalty for taking photographs with out a permit is...

Boris (don't look at the hands, look at the eyes) Johnson, has scrapped the western extension to the London Congestion charge. He asked a survey of 28000 what they wanted and apparently between 67 % and 86% of businesses wanted it scrapped. Sounds democratic, but I think that mob rule better fits the bill. Since the extension was introduced, roughly 30,000 fewer vehicles a day have passed through that zone. That's a line of cars over 55 miles (90km) long that haven't been clogging the streets on their way somewhere else. If you take into account the reduction caused by the original zone (70,000 vehicles), and you can add 131 miles (210km) to that figure. 186 miles of traffic NOT entering an area roughly 10 miles in diameter every day. I would have thought that was a good thing, but apparently not. What about the other 250,000 vehicles who still enter the area daily ?

Still, as long as he's popular ...

I worked the distances out using 1 car = 3 metres long. If some of those were trucks, then the line gets longer, and most cars are longer than 3m anyway.
Yes this is relevant to the Olympics. Efficient transportation is kind of essential at large events.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations:

* 1,037,000,000 passenger trips a year.
* Ticket price varies roughly in a range of 2-4 GBP per trip.
* That comes to maybe 3,000 million GBP annual revenue.

Not quite as simple as that, because of things like travelcards (1 ticket good for unlimited travel for a day/week/month) and season tickets, but yes, I'm sure it pays for itself.

Having said that, I don't believe London would continue to exist as a reasonably successful city for more than a week or so if the system were to completely collapse.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations:

* 1,037,000,000 passenger trips a year.
* Ticket price varies roughly in a range of 2-4 GBP per trip.
* That comes to maybe 3,000 million GBP annual revenue.

Yes, that's 3 billion pounds (American billion) give or take a bit, which is more than the GDP for most of the smaller African nations. Apparently this is all used to cover operating costs, although annual operating cost is actually in the region of 1.2 billion pounds (PDF warning, see section 3).

Sounds to me like they're actually turning a hefty profit.