Are Traffic Conflicts a Useful Road Safety Indicator

The paper assesses and compares the suitability of two safety indicators – traffic conflicts and road traffic accidents. The suitability is measured in terms of spatial and temporal variations. The spatial variations were evaluated on the basis of the study of a set of comparable sites, the temporal variations were evaluated with the use of long-term observations. Results show that conflicts may be a suitable supplement of accident data as well as their alternative in some cases. Furthermore, recommendations for selections of conflict study period and duration are also provided.