An access road is a road or street that should only be used by motor traffic that is accessing properties, businesses or dwellings on it.
They are the 'end' (and 'start') points of journeys - places where people live, shop, work, relax, and so on. While through roads are about facilitating the flow of traffic, access roads are about daily life. They are, or should be, 'rooms'.
The Dutch system of 'Sustainable Safety' means that all Dutch roads and streets have to be classified as either an access road, through road, or distributor road, under the principle of monofunctionality. Access roads should not involve the movement of motor traffic elsewhere; that is the function of distributor or through roads.