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West towards Reading, Swindon, (The South-West), Bristol, Devon, Cornwall South Wales {{Mgb|4}}
<map lat='51.491738177580345' lng='-0.28118133544921875' zoom='16' view='0' float='right' />
[[User:siinvincible|Simon]] strongly recommends, when When hitching West out of London and onto the M4, to try to avoid accepting a ride to anywhere before Reading Central. A few of the earlier junctions are hitchhiking nightmare spots - junction 8,9 for Maidenhead and 10 for Reading East are two of the worst junctions for hitchhiking in this area of the country because of the m4 M4 then turning into another motorway for a few miles, thus taking you well off your route. Reading Services is great though, and well worth encouraging your driver to take you the extra few miles to. [[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] didn't follow this advice and took a lift from the busy Chiswick roundabout to the very quiet Heston services, and regretted it.
==== Option 1: M4 Motorway Junction 1 (Chiswick Roundabout) ====
 
1. Take the District Line Underground to ''Gunnersbury'' (zone 3) or train to ''Kew Bridge''. (Alternatively, the Overground at ''South Acton'' doesn't have barriers, but is a kilometer further away.) Both stations are on the Chiswick High Road (A315 - one west and one east of the roundabout) along which you walk 500m to Junction 1 of the M4 where you will see the Esso petrol station that is on the corner of the slip road onto the motorway heading west. There is a bus lay-by nearby with a sign saying M4 west.
2. Take bus H91 from ''Hammersmith Bus station'' in the direction of Hounslow West and get off at ''Chiswick Roundabout/Gunnersbury'', and you are already at the bus lay-by hitching point.
'''Last verified''': July 2017 - [[User:siinvincible|Simon]] hitched from this spot and got a lift within 5 minutes to Reading Services. Have hitched it a number of times before and always had a lift within half an hour, so would highly recommend.<br/ > [[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] waited for 20 minutes before getting a poorly-advised lift to Heston services. A good busy spot though.
'''Cost of public transport''': £2.80 (off peak) from Zone 1. (Bus fare £1.50)
==== Option 2: A4 leading to M4 (or M3) ====
 Heading for [[South West England|Cornwall]], it is much easier hitching the M4 and changing to the M5 in [[Bristol]] than trying to hitch the M3 through [[South West England|Dorset]]. Take District Line Underground to ''West Kensington'' (zone 2). Turn right out of the station, there are traffic lights 10m away. Turn right and there is a lay-by where you can stand. The advantage of this spot is that all the traffic must stop here frequently for the lights and much of it is going to either of the motorways. (It's also cheaper to get to). I never normally wait more than 30 mins here.
'''Cost of public transport''': £2.40 (off peak) from Zone 1.
==== Option 3: Motorway service station Heston ====
 
Take Piccadilly Line Underground westbound and get off at ''Hounslow West'' (zone 5). Turn right from the station exit and walk 800m west along Bath Road to just past Henleys roundabout where there is a BP petrol station. Right at the exit of the petrol station is a footpath heading north. Walk ≈650m and where it splits, turn right 20 metres until you reach Armytage Rd. Turn left onto this road and continue north for another ≈200m, cross over Cranford Lane and then continue north again for another ≈350m along Phoenix Way until it bends to the left. Just past the bend, you will see a short path on the right through the bushes/trees onto Heston service station.
It's not an overly busy services but enough traffic to justify getting out here and cutting out all the local traffic in the centre. Use a sign as there is a lot of local traffic and also traffic heading onto the M25 both south and north.<br/ >
The public transport cost to get here is a few pence more expensive than the other option, but definitely worth the investment.
'''Last verified''': [[User:UltrasonicNXT|Adam]] waited for 2 hours 45 before finding a lift to Bristol in Jan 2018.
'''Cost of public transport''': £3.10 (off peak) from Zone 1
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