Towards sustainable mobility in South Africa : the role of lane change studies

Abstract

South Africa’s highways face challenges related to road safety, congestion, and the integration of diverse transit modes. Unsafe and inefficient lane-changing manoeuvres (especially in high-traffic corridors and weaving sections) are major contributors to traffic crashes and reduced mobility. While lane changing has been extensively studied internationally, its research and application in South Africa is still limited. There is need for localized, high-quality data acquisition and analyses, and adaptation of global best practices to South Africa’s traffic mix. Lane change observations inform design of safer road infrastructure, optimize traffic management strategies, and support evidence-based safety policy interventions. This essay briefly reviews lane change research and presents driver behaviour data sources and some of the effective solutions that could be derived from comprehensive empirical studies of driver lane-changing behaviour on South African roads.