Traffic conflict

A traffic conflict is "an observable event which would end in an accident unless one of the involved parties slows down, changes lanes, or accelerates to avoid collision".

Traffic conflicts have typically been used for transportation safety studies, whereby observing and monitoring individual collisions may be impractical, unfeasible, or unsafe.

Microsimulation has its greatest strength in modelling congested road networks due to its ability to simulate queueing conditions.

Microsimulation models will continue to provide results at high degrees of saturation, up to the point of absolute gridlock.

Microsimulation also reflects even relatively small changes in the physical environment such as the narrowing of lanes or the relocation of junction stop lines.