Driveway Regulation Practices

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 304: Driveway Regulation Practices provides an overview of current transportation agency practices, recent literature findings, and research in driveway regulation.

This synthesis reports how various agencies have acted on the various components of an access management program, what have been barriers to action, and how new efforts might improve implementation of access management strategies. Primary focus areas considered are legal and legislative bases, contents of policies and programs, implementation aspects, reported effectiveness of program implementation, and profiles of contemporary practice. This synthesis reports on the state of the practice with respect to planning, highway design, development review and permitting, and other focus areas where access management is typically incorporated. The emphasis is placed on states, but counties, municipalities, and metropolitan planning organizations are also considered.

This guidebook is for transportation agency managers, engineers, and planners who want their agencies to use the planning process to implement a systematic and consistent approach to access management. For employees who are dealing with the consequences of poor access management at the project and operational levels, the guidance provides a resource that outlines the specific steps their agencies can take to establish a policy and planning basis for implementing access management best practices. This guidance focuses on how to use the planning process to establish the implementing mechanisms that will result in the application of access management principles.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 351 examines issues involved in acquiring access rights along roadways other than freeways. The report documents the state of the practice with the intent to limit the amount of access to the roadway for the purpose of managing highway safety and mobility. The report documents successful practices and current policies, legal and real estate literature, and other publications that address this subject.

TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 659: Guide for the Geometric Design of Driveways explores guidelines related to the geometric design of driveways. The report includes driveway-related terms and definitions, an examination of basic geometric controls, a summary of access spacing principles, and detailed discussions of various geometric design elements. Material related to and supporting the contents of NCHRP Report 659, including an extensive review of literature, has been published as NCHRP Web-Only Document 151: Geometric Design of Driveways.