Frontage road

This article is about minor roads in an urban setting. For longer distance inter-urban parallel roads, see Local–express lanes.

Illustration of a Frontage Road Interchange. Traffic is permitted to move only in the direction indicated by the arrows.

A frontage road for I-49/US 71 (a freeway) near Carthage, Missouri. The frontage road (called an "outer road" in Missouri) is former U.S. Route 71 Alternate.

A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. Where parallel high-speed roads are provided as part of a major highway, these are also known as local lanes. Sometimes a similar arrangement is used for city roads; for example, the collector portion of Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, U.S., is known as a carriage road.

A frontage road is often used to provide access to private driveways, shops, houses, industries or farms that would otherwise be cut off by a limited-access road. This can prevent the commercial disruption of an urban area that the freeway traverses or allow commercial development of bordering property.