MEASUREMENT OF TRAFFIC CONFLICTS

Traditionally road accident statistics are used to assess the level of road safety and evaluate road safety programs. In some cases, the lac k of good and reliable accident records have hampered proper analyses. A promising approach that overcomes this problem is the traffic confl ict technique which relies on observations of critical traffic situati ons for safety analysis. However, despite the extent of work undertake n in traffic conflict research, there are still a number of issues on conflict measurement and application that have nor been well understoo d by many safety analysts. This has resulted in a general lack of supp ort for the wider application of the technique in safety analysis. Thi s paper shows that one way of using the traffic conflict technique eff ectively is to ensure that conflicts are quantitatively defined, objec tively measured and suitably applied. Before establishing the proposed framework for conflict analysis, the paper first discusses the proble ms and weaknesses often associated with conflict studies. Consideratio ns for a conflict study based on the proposed approach are then presen ted and the case of an expressway merging is used to illustrate the me thod adopted. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.