It comes amid a raging debate across South West London \u2013 and beyond \u2013 over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) which has pitted some local councils against motorists.<\/p>\n
While Hounslow featured first, it was not the only local authority in South West London to make the list of Britain\u2019s busiest boroughs.<\/p>\n
National RankLondon RankLocal AuthorityLondon RegionVehicles Per Hour Per KMDaily Vehicles Per KM11HounslowSouth West232.25,572.6074Kingston upon ThamesSouth West197.84,747.20259Kensington and ChelseaSouth West163.603,925.803510Hammersmith and FulhamSouth West155.403,730.20<\/p>\n
The other high scorers were: Kingston upon Thames; Kensington and Chelsea; Hammersmith and Fulham.<\/p>\n
Hounslow\u2019s vehicles per hour per KM was a 17% increase from second-place Kingston which recorded 197.8.<\/p>\n
![\"chart](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784207109_312_thumbnail.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Conservative councillor Ron Mushisho, who has represented Chiswick Gunnersbury ward in Hounslow since 2018, said the statistics do not surprise him.<\/p>\n
Mushisho said: \u201cHounslow sits alongside one of the world\u2019s busiest airports. That inevitably brings traffic, whether from residents, workers, visitors, freight operators or airport-related journeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does surprise me is the persistent belief in some quarters that simply building more cycle lanes or restricting more roads will somehow make cars disappear\u201d<\/p>\n
LTNs have been a contentious issue in Hounslow for half a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In October 2021, a watchdog found that the council had \u201cignored older residents\u2019 needs\u201d when they closed roads in order to promote cycling to young people.<\/p>\n
Just over a year later in November 2022, Mushisho chaired a \u2018particularly heated\u2019 Chiswick Area Forum where residents were given the opportunity to express their views on the LTN.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overwhelming message from residents was that they did not support the scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the council administration at the time dismissed those concerns, arguing that its own data told a different story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people most affected were often school-run parents, elderly residents trying to access local services, workers commuting to their jobs, taxi and private hire drivers, and visitors unfamiliar with the restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPoor signage only compounded the problem, resulting in many motorists receiving fines without fully understanding the changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the outcry over the LTNs, the Conservative councillor argued that transport policy should not become a culture war.<\/p>\n
Mushisho said: \u201cMost people are not ideological about transport; they simply use whatever mode of travel best suits their circumstances on a particular day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI own a car and I own a bike \u2013 get over it!\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Mushisho believes LTNs must be judged upon their own merit, while the system for challenging fines needs to be \u201cfairer\u201d and \u201cmore accessible\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system should not feel like a revenue making exercise\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding the watchdog\u2019s conclusion in October 2021, council leader Cllr Steve Curran said: \u201cThe LGO made clear that any concerns were with record keeping, not the decision to close roads to through traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe report finds \u2018the council\u2019s Streetscape policy provided a sensible framework at short notice for how it would identify and implement schemes designed to achieve the Government\u2019s objectives\u2019 and that as \u2018Government expected councils to actively look for opportunities to make changes to roads that might influence a change in road use habits\u2019 there was, \u2018no fault therefore in the use of a tool\u2026 actively seeking out such schemes\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, the LGO makes clear that injustice to the complainant was limited to any distress arising from uncertainty. The council has accepted that and will issue an apology to the complainant which we are happy to repeat in public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Featured image credit: Kieran Everson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hounslow has the busiest roads in Britain, recording 232.2 vehicles per hour for each kilometre of road, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[3088,37068,13,37069,9180,165,2993,285],"class_list":["post-84212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-hounslow","tag-anti-ltns","tag-britain","tag-chiswick","tag-ltns","tag-roads","tag-traffic","tag-transport"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116929804726679785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}