You’ll often hear the words highway and freeway used interchangeably.
While both highways and freeways are generally multi-lane roads with higher speed limits than urban routes, they do have distinct characteristics that warrant the different terminology.
Simply put, a highway is a controlled-access route that often has crossroads, traffic lights, and even pedestrian crossings. They are mostly used for quicker travelling between two points that are within the same city or municipal limits.
A freeway, on the other hand, can only be accessed via onramps and offramps at dedicated points and not by pedestrians or cross-traffic.
According to Way, a freeway usually connects destinations that are hours from one another, such as major cities, and does not have obstructions like stoplights so as to improve travel time.
What you can and can not do on a freeway
The National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) stipulates many rules for what a motorist is and is not allowed to do on a freeway.
For example, the Automobile Association says that regulation 323 of the NRTA bars a person from using several modes of transport on these routes, including a vehicle pulled by an animal, a pedal cycle, a 50cc motorcycle, a tricycle or quadricycle, a wheelchair, or a tractor.
Furthermore, the legislation prohibits reckless, negligent, and inconsiderate driving, which is described as a manner that is detrimental and hazardous to the safety of other road users.
A motorist is also not allowed to stop their car on the freeway unless it is done within the confines of the NRTA, and they may not unleash their animal on the freeway except in an area that is designated as a stopping/parking area, and neither must the animal be left in a place where it could stray onto the tarmac.
When it comes to cellphones, a driver in South Africa is strictly prohibited from operating a vehicle while holding such a device with either one or both hands, or any other part of their body.
There is an exception to this rule, though, which allows a motorist to make use of their phone when it is affixed to the motor vehicle or an appropriate form of headgear such as a Bluetooth earpiece.
Another equally important prohibition relates to the consumption of alcohol, as the NRTA expressly forbids a driver from consuming alcohol beyond the allowed legal limit.
The limit is different for everybody but as a general rule of thumb, 350ml of beer or one tot of hard liquor will put you very close, if not over the restrictive amount.
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