Crossing the Road in Uzbekistan: Pedestrian Rules and Fines
What Uzbek law expects of pedestrians: where you may cross, the phone ban on crossings, Article 138 fines in so'm, and why a zebra alone won't stop a car.
In July 2025 Tashkent switched on AI cameras on ten road sections to catch drivers who don't give way at zebra crossings, and in the first three days they logged 1,719 such violations (UzDaily, 12 July 2025). That number tells you most of what you need to know about walking in Uzbek cities. The law is clearly on the pedestrian's side. Many drivers still behave as if it isn't.
Below: what the Traffic Rules and the Administrative Code require of you on foot, the fines in so'm, and the habits that keep you safe when a driver ignores his own obligations. It's for visitors who walk a lot in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, not for drivers.
What the Traffic Rules ask of you on foot
Uzbekistan's Traffic Rules were approved by Cabinet of Ministers resolution No. 172 of 12 April 2022, and chapter 4 (points 15 to 22) sets out the duties of pedestrians. We read the current Uzbek text on lex.uz (last amended 1 April 2026).
Where you're allowed to cross
Point 17 says you cross at pedestrian crossings, including underground passages and footbridges, and where there are none, at intersections along the line of the pavement. Only if no crossing or intersection is within sight may you cross elsewhere, and then only on a road with no central dividing strip and no barrier, at a spot with a clear view both ways, and at a right angle to the kerb. So crossing away from a zebra isn't automatically illegal. Doing it on a divided avenue, or diagonally, is.
Where there's no pavement and you walk on the edge of the carriageway, point 15 tells you to walk facing oncoming traffic. Point 19 adds two rules that catch foreigners out: you must not step out from behind a parked vehicle or other obstruction until you're sure nothing is coming, and when a bus or trolleybus has stopped, you cross behind it, not in front.
Signals and unsignalled zebras
At controlled crossings you follow the pedestrian light, or the main traffic light if there's no pedestrian head (point 18). At an unregulated zebra, point 19 lets you step onto the road only after judging the distance and speed of approaching vehicles and deciding it's safe. Drivers must yield to you, but your own rules say a zebra isn't a guarantee. If you're caught halfway, point 20 tells you to wait on a refuge island or on the centre line between the two flows.
Phones, earbuds and reading
Point 19 also bans using a phone, watching video, listening to radio or audio, reading books or periodicals, and using any other distracting electronic device while you're on the carriageway, including on a pedestrian crossing. The ban isn't new. The same list already sat in Article 138 of the Administrative Code in the wording in force in December 2019, which dates from a 2016 amendment. On a plain reading, music in your earbuds while you cross falls within it; checking a map on the pavement before you step off does not.
Article 138: the fines in so'm
Penalties sit in Article 138 of the Code of Administrative Responsibility (lex.uz, current Uzbek text). Part one covers pedestrians who disobey traffic signals, cross the carriageway at places not designated for it, or use a phone or other distracting device on the road or a crossing. Its wording was last changed by law ZRU-985 of 28 October 2024, in force from 29 November 2024; that revision mainly widened the list of other road users (scooters, personal mobility devices) covered by the same part.
The sanction for part one was re-worded by law ZRU-1116 of 4 February 2026, in force from 5 February 2026. It now reads: an administrative warning, or a fine of one third of the base calculation value (BCV). Part three raises the fine to one full BCV if the pedestrian's violation creates an emergency situation on the road. The BCV has been 440,000 so'm since 1 September 2026, under presidential decree PF-115 (Kun.uz, 26 August 2026; last checked: October 2026).
| Offence (Art. 138) | Sanction in the Code | In so'm (BCV 440,000) | Roughly in US$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part 1: ignoring signals, crossing at an undesignated place, phone or other device on the carriageway | Warning, or fine of 1/3 BCV | about 146,700 | about $12 |
| Part 3: the same, creating an emergency situation | Fine of 1 BCV | 440,000 | about $37 |
Dollar figures use roughly 11,800 so'm to the dollar. Fines tied to the BCV move whenever it does; before 1 September 2026 it was 412,000, so the part-one fine was about 137,300 so'm.
The warning option is narrower than it looks. The same 2026 law added Article 24-1, which allows a written (or electronic) warning only when the offender sincerely regrets the act and there are no signs of other violations, and it can't be applied to the same person more than once a year. Under Article 248, part-one cases can be handled by traffic patrol officers and, for pedestrians, by officers of the public-order patrol service, so it isn't only the traffic police who can stop you. For how the wider legal system treats visitors, our page on Uzbek laws and customs covers the basics.
What drivers owe you, and how it's enforced
Chapters 14 to 17 of the Traffic Rules are the driver's side of the bargain. At an unregulated crossing a driver must slow down or stop to let a pedestrian cross (point 109). If one car stops at a zebra, drivers in the neighbouring lanes may only continue once they're sure nobody is walking in front of it (point 110). At signalised crossings, drivers must let you finish crossing even after their light turns green (point 111), and the same goes at signalised junctions (point 103). Drivers turning left or right must give way to pedestrians crossing the road they're turning into (point 96). A blind pedestrian signalling with a white cane must be let across anywhere, crossing or not (point 113).
Point 110 describes the most dangerous moment on a wide Tashkent street: the near-lane car stops, the next-lane car, unable to see you, doesn't, and you step straight into its path.
Enforcement has picked up. According to the traffic safety service quoted by UzDaily, the camera roll-out followed a Cabinet of Ministers resolution, with phased installation of photo and video monitoring from June 2025; Telecom Soft LLC equipped ten road sections in Tashkent to detect drivers failing to yield at crossings, and the plan was to cover thirty more unsignalled crossings in various regions by the end of 2025. We found no published count of how many were installed.
The raised hand and the new beacons
In October 2024 the traffic safety department of Tashkent's Main Department of Internal Affairs released a video advising pedestrians to raise a hand when using an unregulated crossing, so drivers notice them and stop in time, and to make sure a driver is actually yielding before carrying on (UzDaily, 8 October 2024). It's the police's own advice, and it costs nothing.
The newer experiment is technical. At the end of June 2026 Tashkent's Traffic Management Center announced a test installation of RRFB (rectangular rapid-flashing beacon) equipment at an unregulated crossing on Osiyo Street in Mirzo-Ulugbek district (UzDaily, 29 June 2026). Poles on both sides carry call buttons; press one and bright yellow strobes light up at the roadside, in the middle of the road and on an overhead bar, next to an illuminated "Pedestrian Crossing" sign. The centre says it's meant for streets with low to medium traffic and is a pilot to assess whether it works.
You'll see an "18% to 98%" figure attached to this project. It comes from the US Federal Highway Administration's research, which found drivers giving way at ordinary uncontrolled crossings just 18 to 30% of the time in American studies, rising to as much as 98% with beacons. It is not a measurement of Tashkent drivers. No Uzbek yield rate has been published that we could find. Press the button, then still wait for cars to stop.
The risk in numbers
Uzbekistan recorded 9,226 road traffic accidents in 2025, with 2,188 deaths and 8,901 injuries, against 2,199 deaths in 2024, according to the Road Traffic Safety Service (Gazeta.uz, 15 January 2026). The service puts the death rate at 5.7 per 100,000 people, down from 6.9 in 2021.
Independent estimates run higher. The WHO's 2023 road safety country profile lists 2,197 reported deaths for 2021 but its own modelled estimate for that year is 3,155 (95% range 2,678 to 3,633), or 9.3 per 100,000. The national service's own series puts 2021 deaths at 2,426, so even the official figures for that year don't match. The WHO profile shows no breakdown of deaths by road-user type for Uzbekistan, and we haven't found a reliable published share for pedestrians, so we won't guess one. What the totals do say is that roads are a bigger everyday risk for a visitor than crime, a point our safety overview for Uzbekistan makes too.
Our rules for crossing safely
- Use underpasses, footbridges and signalised crossings whenever one is in sight, even if it adds a few minutes. For longer distances across Tashkent, the metro often beats walking the avenues at all; our Tashkent metro guide covers the lines and fares.
- Never assume a car will stop at an unsignalled zebra. Raise your hand, make eye contact, and cross one lane at a time once each lane has actually stopped.
- Don't step past a stopped car into the next lane without looking.
- Phone away and earbuds out while you're on the road surface. It's the law, and it's also how you hear a scooter.
- On a green man, still check for turning cars; the rule says they yield, and many will.
- At night, assume drivers can't see you.
Families should take the most care; children are harder for drivers to see, and our notes on travelling in Uzbekistan with children cover the rest of the practical side. If you plan to rent a car yourself, read the other half of this story in our piece on driving in Uzbekistan, because the yielding rules above apply to you then.
Our take: the law is reasonable, the fines are modest, and the real penalty for a careless crossing isn't 146,700 so'm. Walk as if every driver hasn't seen you, and you'll rarely be wrong. If something does go wrong on a trip, our guide to complaint lines lists who to call. This is a practical summary, not legal advice; check the current text of the Code before relying on a specific clause.