through town or double the milage on motorway?

No vehicle gets half the mileage on the highway vs city. So the city route is the more economical. HOWEVER, you may find it more pleasant to not be stop start traffic, and use a bit more gas.

SD

On the M25 orbital, there's a good chance of being in stop-start traffic anyway, isn't there?

A look on Google Maps suggests that "JWBH" will be looking at something near to 100km or so using the M25 vs about 50 km through London, and taking about an hour on the M25, assuming motorway speeds. However, if there's any sort of cockup on the M25 - and odds are good that there will be, even at the weekend - the speed and time advantage will be negated, and more petrol will be consumed for the journey.

Bit of a crapshoot, innit?

What time of the day will you be starting your journey, very early morning or not?

I used to live near Finchley Central and now live in the wilds of Kent.

All I can say from experience that both routes are shit. If you want to go through town, do it as early as possible in the morning and you should have a clear road.

In fact, I'd be tempted to take the North Circular -> Blackwall Tunnel

-> A20 -> M25 route myself as that's probably the best compromise regarding distance and time.

The OP mentioned the M25...

Chris

You cross-posted so many times, I'm surprised you didn't think to ask on alt.dickheads.

Blago

In news:0WOPh.454$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net, JWBH wittered on forthwith;

the most sensible thing to do is leave the blighted and inferior South and move up north where we don't have these problems.

The Underground route. (For those of you in the US, the underground is the name given to the subway).

If you insist on using a car, you'll use less petrol (gasoline to those of you on the west side of the Atlantic) if you take the shorter route, especially if you use proper driving practices like no jack-rabbit stops and starts and keeping your tires properly inflated.

You'll get even better mileage if you join a car-pool.

Jeff

Train would be favourite for me. Tube to Charing Cross and then the Uckfield train

You wont be going briskly through central London and dont run into the congestion charge zone.

On a weekend I'd head down the A1 to Archway, cut across to Hackney and take the Blackwall tunnel onto the A20 and then round the M-25 but getting lost would be easy, it'd probably be better

Keith

"Pete M" wrote in message news:euopoc$tcq$ snipped-for-privacy@registered.motzarella.org...

Right - all those cars on the M6 and M62 around Manchester move freely I suppose !

Keith

The OP said they were travelling mostly on weekends. As long as they're avoiding the charging zone during the cash cow hours, I don't see a problem.

Far more freely than the M25 IME. At least outside the times of 7.30-

10am and 4pm-6.30pm you can get a move on. Last time I went from the M1 to the M4 I was surprised to find the traffic still crawling along at Midday.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@bogoffwithzepressedmeatblueyonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

So how long would it take to get to his destination in Kent if he lived in, say, Wakefield...?

Keith Willshaw ( snipped-for-privacy@kwillshaw.nospamdemon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Which bit of "Weekends"...?

Thanks to all. interested in the suggestion via to go via blackwall tunnel. The RAC routefinder tells me if i want to go to blackwall tunnel to take the north-circular in the easterly direction all the way out to the A12 and then follow it back in on a south westerly direction. Which seems a bit convoluted to me.

When I ask it for the shortest route to edenbridge from finchley it says: finchley rd > park lane > vauxhall bridge > streatham > A23 > croydon > limpsfield > crockham hill.

Do you think someone with a lot of driving experience writes in these programs, or does the computer blindly just do as its told, when asked for the shortest route?

Since its solution doesn't quite tally up with my own experience??

JWBH ( snipped-for-privacy@REMOOOOVEvirgin.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Have you looked at a map?

What do *you* think...?

I had a similar journey to do for a time. consider the M11, A2 method off cutting off a big chunk and avoiding the toll taking the eastern side. The western side gets horribly congested and you have the pain of the variable speed limit.

not at weekends.

the underground goes nowhere remotely near Edenbridge.