Conflict counts are a surrogate measure of safety. They should be prioritized as part of a Safe Speed Study when changes to street design or activity levels mean that simpler measures, such as crash history, will not sufficiently approximate risks on the street.

Conflict counts are completed by observing the number of times per day or per hour that two people or vehicles are on a collision course and must take evasive action to prevent a crash. Common conflict classification methods for urban streets include time-to-collision (if no evasive action is taken) or post-encroachment time (how soon after one participant passes a specific point does the other participant go through it).

Conflicts per entry (conflict counts divided by the vehicle and person-entries) into an intersection provide the likelihood that each person using the street at a particular location for a particular movement will be involved in a conflict.