Urban clearway explained

An urban clearway is a stretch of road in a built-up area where stopping is banned during the hours shown on its sign. It is not a 24-hour ban, and it is not a parking restriction: it is a peak-time rule designed to keep a busy urban road clear when traffic is heaviest, and it relaxes outside those hours. If you have ever seen a rectangular sign reading "Urban Clearway" with times underneath and wondered what it forbids, this page explains the sign, what it means during its hours of operation, and how it differs from a general clearway.

The sign

The urban clearway sign is a rectangular sign carrying the words "Urban Clearway" together with the hours it applies and the no-waiting symbol, as illustrated in the Department for Transport's Know Your Traffic Signs. Unlike most waiting restrictions, an urban clearway has no special road markings: there are no yellow lines to look for, and no kerb marks. Instead, the signs are usually repeated throughout the length of the clearway, mainly after each road junction, so that a driver joining the road meets the sign soon after turning in. An "End of urban clearway" sign marks where the restriction stops. Because there are no lines on the road, the upright sign is the whole restriction: if you miss the sign, you miss the rule, so it is worth reading the sign, including its hours, every time you join a road that carries one.

What it means during its hours

During the times the urban clearway is in operation, stopping is not allowed on the carriageway or verges, except to pick up or set down passengers. That single exception is the key to the whole sign. You may stop briefly to let someone in or out, but you may not wait, and you may not stop to load or unload, because loading is a form of stopping and the only stopping the sign permits is for passengers. The restriction applies to the carriageway and the verges, so pulling onto the verge to wait does not get around it. The hours on the sign are the hours that matter: they are set for that particular road, they cover its busy periods, and they can differ from one clearway to another, so there is no universal urban clearway timetable to memorise. Read the sign on the road you are on.

What happens outside its hours

Outside the hours shown on the sign, the urban clearway restriction does not apply, and the road returns to whatever other rules govern it. That is the point of the design: a road that needs to be kept clear at rush hour can still be used for parking and waiting at quieter times, when a stopped car does not hold anyone up. So a car parked on an urban clearway at midday, where the sign shows morning and evening hours only, is not breaking the clearway rule, although it must still comply with any other restriction that applies there, such as a waiting restriction shown by lines and plates. Do not assume the hours, though: check the sign, because the hours are part of the restriction, and a clearway whose hours you have guessed is a clearway you may get wrong.

How it differs from a general clearway

A general, 24-hour clearway is stricter in two ways. First, its sign is different: a blue circle with a red border and a red cross, meaning no stopping, and it applies at any time, not just during signed hours. Second, its passenger exception does not exist: on a 24-hour clearway the red cross means no stopping, not even to pick up or set down passengers, and the prohibition covers the main running carriageway, slip roads and acceleration and deceleration areas, although you may stop in a lay-by unless signs say otherwise. The urban clearway is therefore the gentler of the two: time-limited rather than all-day, and with a passenger exception the general clearway does not allow. For the general clearway in full, including its sign and its lay-by rule, see our what is a clearway page.

Not the same as yellow lines or red routes

Two other restrictions are easy to confuse with an urban clearway. Yellow lines along the edge of the carriageway indicate waiting restrictions, which are a different system: they are shown by lines and plates, and they govern waiting rather than stopping. Red routes are stricter again: red lines mean no stopping for any purpose, not even to pick up or set down passengers, other than by a licensed taxi. The urban clearway sits between the two in strictness during its hours: stricter than a waiting restriction, because stopping itself is banned, but less strict than a red route, because stopping for passengers is allowed. The way to tell them apart is the sign and the lines: yellow lines mean a waiting restriction, red lines mean a red route, and a rectangular "Urban Clearway" sign with hours, and no lines at all, means an urban clearway.