This report arises from several activities associated with the management of access to properties adjacent to arterial roads. It includes the background to a review of access management in the state of Victoria and initial observations on current practice. Observations on practice in other Australian states and overseas are made, and several issues are discussed. Access management tries to provide for adequate interaction between a road and adjacent land, while protecting the utility and amenity of both. Traffic authorities have a primary interest in the use of access management to protect the traffic safety and level of service of the road.
Information is summarised in the report which confirms the validity of such policies.
But access management also is a tool which helps to minimise the impacts of arterial traffic on adjacent land uses. This gives rise to several conflicts between design objectives, centring on the nature of the arterial boundary, the treatment of the frontage, and environmental protection of adjacent buildings. The report argues that urban design considerations need not mean compromising either traffic or amenity objectives, as long as environmental design controls are imposed on adjacent development.