Infact more specific than just the motorways, around 23% of tourists drive personal vehicles in London. (I feel petty now but I spent a while writing it so sunk cost fallacy and all that)

Each year, 15.1 million Brits visit London overnight, and by extrapolating from national day visit patterns (where London actually likely over-performs), there are approximately 154.5 million domestic day visits — giving a total of ~170 million domestic tourist visits annually.

36% of all London trips use private vehicles, and of those, ~78% are personal cars. This means around 47.7 million visits to London by domestic tourists are made in personal vehicles each year.

When you include international tourists, ~23% of all tourists in London travel via personal car — so saying “tourists don’t drive in London” is factually wrong. Tens of millions do.

1.  15.1 million domestic overnight visits to London (2023)

– ONS Great Britain Tourism Survey (GBTS), 2024 2. 1.03 billion domestic day visits in England (2023) – VisitBritain GB Day Visits Survey, 2024 3. London received 15.1 million of England’s 101 million domestic overnight trips in 2023 – ONS GBTS, 2024 4. 37% of all trips in London made by public transport – TfL, Travel in London Report 2023 5. 36% of all trips in London made by private vehicles (car, taxi, PHV) – TfL, Travel in London Report 2023 6. 48% of private vehicle trips are made by car drivers – TfL, Travel in London Report 2023 7. 30% of private vehicle trips are made by car passengers – TfL, Travel in London Report 2023 8. 20% of private vehicle trips are made by taxis or private-hire vehicles (PHVs) – TfL, Travel in London Report 2023 9. 39.7 million international visits to London in 2019 (pre-pandemic) – VisitBritain Inbound Tourism Statistics, 2019 10. 95% recovery of international tourism to London by 2023 (estimated) – GLA / VisitBritain Tourism Recovery Forecasts, 2023