Equity Impacts and Challenges of Highway Access Management in an Emerging Economy

Abstract

As a middle-income country, South Africa realizes that it cannot build its way out of every transportation challenge that it faces. Alternative interventions have a role to play in optimizing the efficiency of the present transportation network while ensuring that the benefits from this optimization are distributed equitably. The implementation of the proposed Guidelines on Road Access Management in South Africa is one such intervention that may equitably improve the transportation environment. This paper describes the evolution and status quo of access management in South Africa, assesses the concept and purpose of access management from an equity perspective, considers the efficacy of implementing national access management guidelines while honoring the equity principles contained in the South African constitution and other civil laws and regulations, and assesses a selection of access management techniques with respect to their potential equity impacts. The paper identifies a selection of obstacles that have frustrated the adoption and implementation of access management principles on a national scale. Inconsistency in the implementation of access management principles, which is inevitable when there is no mandated national guideline, compounds the level of inequity manifested by ad hoc highway access permitting and management. Thus, it is concluded that the adoption and implementation of a national access management guideline will measurably enhance the potential of equitably improving the transportation environment in South Africa.