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Are there any journey planner with a "I have a zone 1-2 travelcard" option?
It'd be nice to have an app that can suggest a zone 2 station (such as Stratford) where I can get off the tube and take a single bus journey to the destination.
tfl's own app lets you set a maximum zone in the fare options but it's not super obvious. go to settings, then "fares & payments", and you can pick "zone 1-2 only" under travelcard type. it'll then try to keep tube journeys within that zone, though it might still suggest a bus from outside if the algorithm thinks it's faster. i've had it work for me going from ealing broadway to canary wharf where it routed me through paddington instead of going out to zone 3
another trick is to use the overground from acton central to stratford - that's a single change at willesden junction and stays in zone 2 the whole time. from stratford you can grab the 25 or 86 bus to barking, both go direct along the a13 and take about 25 minutes. way less hassle than the central line crush
Citymapper usually gets it right. You might need to specify your exact travelcard type though.
The TfL Go app has a "zone filter" tucked away in settings that might work for this. You can tell it to prefer routes staying within certain zones, though it won't let you set a hard cap at zone 2 like you're describing. I've found it useful for similar trips, but it still sometimes suggests going out of zone if it thinks the time saving is worth it.
For your North Acton to Barking example, another trick is to use the Overground instead of the tube. Take the Central line to Shepherd's Bush, hop on the Overground to Willesden Junction, then change for the Goblin line to Barking. That whole route stays in zones 2 and 3, and it's about 75 minutes. Not as fast as the tube, but way better than four buses.
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What are some innovative ways to anonymously compare rental prices in a city?
SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.
Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.
Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.
the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking