A-road

A5203 traffic and collisions

The A5203 is an A-road of 2.4 miles, in Islington. This page covers its traffic at 5 DfT count points since 2000 and the collisions police recorded on it.

Last updated
Records analysed
5 count points in 2025
Methodology
View methodology
  • Traffic in 2025 7.9m vehicle miles
  • Average daily traffic 8,977 vehicles a day, both directions
  • Busiest section 10,523 Wharfdale Rd to Hillmarton Rd
  • HGV share 3.4% of vehicle miles
  • Traffic since 2019 −31.3% same count points
  • Collisions, 2021 to 2025 130 303.7 per 100m vehicle miles

How busy is the A5203?

On an average day in 2025, 8,977 vehicles passed each point on the A5203, counting both directions.

Route

In Islington · 2.4 miles

Islington
Schematic route: each line joins the junctions at the ends of a DfT count point link.

A5203 traffic and collisions by section

3 sections between junctions, in route order. Each is the average of its DfT count points, weighted by length. 2 short link roads and spurs (0.6 miles) count in the road’s totals but are not listed.

Sections Tap a column heading to sort
Sections of the A5203 in route order, 2025 traffic
#
1Pentonville Rd to Wharfdale RdIslington0.27,7703.6%−11.9%12
2Wharfdale Rd to Hillmarton RdIslington1.210,5233.9%−41.6%93344.4
3Hillmarton Rd to A1 Holloway rdIslington0.48,4592.2%−1.2%12

Vehicles a day is the average daily flow in 2025. “Since 2019” compares the same count points. Collisions are those with the A5203 as the first road, placed on the nearest section by their recorded position; rates (per 100 million vehicle miles) are shown for sections of half a mile or more with 10 or more.

A5203 traffic by vehicle type

Cars and taxis make up 63.6% of the vehicle miles on the A5203. HGVs account for 3.4%.

Vehicle mix, 2025

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

HGV share of traffic

HGVs as a share of vehicle miles on the A5203, by year
Year HGV share
2000 3.4%
2001 3.2%
2002 3.5%
2003 3.3%
2004 3.3%
2005 3.4%
2006 3.1%
2007 3.0%
2008 3.1%
2009 3.2%
2010 3.6%
2011 3.9%
2012 6.6%
2013 6.9%
2014 6.2%
2015 6.0%
2016 5.9%
2017 5.8%
2018 5.6%
2019 5.2%
2020 3.6%
2021 3.6%
2022 3.6%
2023 3.6%
2024 3.5%
2025 3.4%

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

A5203 traffic trend

Traffic on the A5203 came to 7.9 million vehicle miles in 2025. At the count points present in both years, it is down 31.3% on 2019, before the pandemic, and down 35.0% on 2015.

Vehicle miles a year

Like for like, traffic is down 39.5% on 2000.

Vehicle miles on the A5203 each year, the whole road as it was that year
Year Vehicle miles
2000 13m
2001 13m
2002 13m
2003 13m
2004 12m
2005 12m
2006 12m
2007 12m
2008 12m
2009 12m
2010 11m
2011 11m
2012 12m
2013 12m
2014 12m
2015 12m
2016 12m
2017 12m
2018 12m
2019 12m
2020 8.3m
2021 8.9m
2022 9.3m
2023 8.4m
2024 8.3m
2025 7.9m

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

Average daily flow

Average daily flow along the A5203, weighted by link length, by year
Year Vehicles a day
2000 14,850
2001 14,592
2002 15,018
2003 14,971
2004 13,822
2005 13,606
2006 14,174
2007 14,180
2008 13,902
2009 13,564
2010 13,069
2011 12,595
2012 13,627
2013 13,644
2014 13,706
2015 13,801
2016 13,514
2017 13,451
2018 13,158
2019 13,072
2020 9,462
2021 10,157
2022 10,612
2023 9,611
2024 9,506
2025 8,977

Source:DfT,UK Motoring analysis 2000 to 2025 Updated

The chart counts the whole road as it was each year, so new or renumbered stretches move it. The percentage changes compare only count points present in both years. In 2025, 1 of the 5 count points were counted; DfT estimated the rest from earlier counts and local trends.

A5203 collisions

Police recorded 130 collisions with the A5203 as the first road from 2021 to 2025, fewer than 3 of them fatal or serious. That is 303.7 per 100 million vehicle miles, higher than the 31.5 for all A-roads in Great Britain. On average there were 10.8 a year for each mile of road.

Reported collisions by year

Down 21.2% from 2021 to 2025.

Police-reported collisions on the A5203 by year
Year Collisions
2021 33
2022 20
2023 30
2024 21
2025 26

Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated

Sections with the highest collision rates

Per 100 million vehicle miles, 2021 to 2025. Sections of half a mile or more with 10 or more collisions.

Collisions per 100 million vehicle miles by section of the A5203, 2021 to 2025
Section Per 100m vehicle miles
Wharfdale Rd to Hillmarton Rd Islington · 93 collisions 344.4

Source:DfT STATS19,UK Motoring analysis 2021 to 2025 Updated

A further 27 collisions were recorded at junctions where the A5203 was the second road; they are not in the figures above. Fatal or serious uses DfT’s adjusted serious figures. 90.0% of the collisions could be placed on a section. How we count collisions

Council areas on the A5203

In route order. Each is the highway authority DfT files the count points under.

  • Islington

Data sources and methodology

Datasets used on this page
Figures Source Period Records Updated
Traffic counts and vehicle mix Road traffic statistics (AADF by count point) Department for Transport
Derived statistics UK Motoring
2000 to 2025 5 count points in 2025 15 September 2026
Reported collisions Road safety open data (STATS19) Department for Transport
Derived statistics UK Motoring
2021 to 2025 130 reported collisions 15 September 2026
  • Annual average daily flow (AADF) is the average number of vehicles passing a point on a typical day of the year, both directions combined.
  • Vehicle miles are AADF multiplied by link length and 365, summed over every count point link on the road.
  • Sections join count point links between junctions, using the link lines in DfT’s major road database.
  • STATS19 covers personal injury collisions reported to the police. Damage-only collisions are not included, and not every injury collision is reported.
  • Serious and slight figures are DfT’s adjusted estimates, which allow for police forces moving to injury-based reporting.
  • Counts of one or two collisions below Great Britain level are shown as “fewer than 3”.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.