Red Routes and Loading Bays: Where a Car Cannot Stop

The two systems that operate side by side

London has two parallel regimes for kerbside control. The boroughs manage most streets with yellow lines, permit bays and pay bays. Transport for London manages a network of main roads as red routes, marked with red lines rather than yellow. The two look similar from a passenger seat and are not remotely equivalent, and confusing them is the most common cause of a penalty on an otherwise straightforward journey.

What a red line actually prohibits

On a double red line, stopping is prohibited at any time, and that includes stopping to let a passenger out. On a single red line the prohibition applies during the hours shown on the signs. This is stricter than the yellow line equivalent, where a vehicle may usually stop briefly to board or alight even on a double yellow, provided no separate loading restriction applies. It is why an arrival at a building fronting a main road so often happens on a side street instead.

Red routes do include marked bays, and those bays permit specific activities such as loading or parking within stated hours. A vehicle in a red route bay is doing something legal; a vehicle on the red line beside it is not.

• Double red line: no stopping at any time, including to set down
• Single red line: no stopping during the hours on the sign
• Red route bays: permitted use as stated on the bay marking and sign
• Enforcement on red routes is largely by camera rather than by a warden

Loading bays and the kerb blips

A loading bay is intended for goods being loaded or unloaded, not for waiting with a passenger. Separately, short marks on the kerb beside a yellow line indicate a loading restriction, with a nearby plate stating the hours. Where those marks are present, even loading is prohibited during the stated times. Neither of these features prevents a passenger stepping out where the underlying line allows it, but both are frequently misread as a general invitation to stop.

Bus lanes, stops and zig-zags

Bus lanes operate during stated hours and are camera enforced, and stopping in one during those hours is not available. Bus stop clearways, marked by a wide yellow line along the kerb, exclude other vehicles entirely for the hours shown. Zig-zag markings at a pedestrian crossing prohibit stopping at any time, and the equivalent markings outside a school prohibit it during the stated period. These are the four features that most often remove what looks like an obvious space.

What this means for planning an arrival

The practical consequence is straightforward. On a main road, assume the car cannot stop outside the door and plan the set-down on a side street. On a borough street, a brief pause at the address is usually possible but a wait is not. For anything longer than stepping in or out, the vehicle moves to a legal holding place and returns on a message. Almost every piece of London arrival advice reduces to that pattern.

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