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<map lat='51.491738177580345' lng='-0.28118133544921875' zoom='16' view='0' float='right' />
[[User:siinvincible|Simon]] strongly recommends, 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 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) ====
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 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''': January 2017[[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
