{"schemaVersion":"1.0","id":"what-changed-on-the-roads","dataset":"traffic-history","title":"What changed on the roads","description":"Cars down a quarter. Bicycles up threefold. Same roads, same counters.","methodology":"Annual average daily flow at DfT count points in London, by vehicle type, over 25 years. This uses a BALANCED PANEL: only the 1,669 count points that reported in every single year, out of 3,652 in the region. That matters more than it sounds — summing all count points per year draws a chart of how many counters DfT operated, which moves for reasons unrelated to traffic. Fixing the panel compares the same stretches of road with themselves. The figure is flow at an average panel point, so it describes a road rather than the city, and the panel over-represents places worth counting for 25 years.","category":"transport","categoryLabel":"Transport","cadence":"annual","placeholder":false,"landingPage":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-changed-on-the-roads","markdown":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-changed-on-the-roads/index.html.md","source":{"name":"Department for Transport","url":"https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/","licence":"Open Government Licence v3.0","licenceUrl":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"},"updatedAt":"2026-07-31T17:23:46.538Z","release":{"label":null,"publishedAt":null,"resourceUrl":null,"methodologyUrl":null,"sha256":null},"observations":[{"series":"Bicycles","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[400,395,494,507,634,738,685,697,685,732,711,705,679,755,795,855,852,824,767,929,834,880,905,1050,1168],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Buses and coaches","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[623,676,744,776,772,835,820,817,823,810,809,815,803,778,772,806,783,755,749,616,637,656,667,677,686],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Cars and taxis","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[23715,23231,22732,22458,22305,22471,21872,21289,21455,21468,20659,19975,19934,19906,19825,19530,19677,19800,19687,15372,16496,17213,17327,17232,17209],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Lorries","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[1172,1104,1070,1080,1113,1100,1085,1091,1045,1070,1075,1135,1120,1100,1115,1090,1012,967,951,873,936,976,936,860,791],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Motorbikes","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[933,880,970,961,956,1068,1034,966,889,844,800,771,741,772,780,811,824,806,824,627,750,886,920,973,991],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]},{"series":"Vans","buckets":["2001","2002","2003","2004","2005","2006","2007","2008","2009","2010","2011","2012","2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022","2023","2024","2025"],"values":[3380,3250,3500,3403,3474,3942,4066,3767,3546,3413,3337,3308,3468,3645,3653,3893,4028,4207,4169,3746,3948,4130,4107,4140,4126],"unit":"vehicles per day at an average count point","metadata":[{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]}],"areaStatistics":null,"visualizations":[{"id":"overview","label":"Trend","description":"Cars down a quarter. Bicycles up threefold. Same roads, same counters.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-changed-on-the-roads","renderer":"primary","default":true,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null},{"id":"change","label":"Change","description":"Show the change from each preceding published period.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-changed-on-the-roads?view=change","renderer":"delta","default":false,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null},{"id":"indexed","label":"Indexed","description":"Set each series' first visible value to 100 so relative change is comparable.","url":"https://londongraph.com/g/what-changed-on-the-roads?view=indexed","renderer":"index","default":false,"timeControl":"inherit","datasets":[],"transform":null,"controls":null,"metrics":[],"caveat":null}],"availability":"observations","note":"The release is complete for the measures represented on the graph page."}