Every driveway on a busy street is a small intersection. Traffic engineers count the places where vehicle paths cross, merge or split apart, and they call each one a conflict point. The count is geometry, and it grows quickly: a single full-access driveway adds nine.
Build one block of a street. Every place two vehicle paths cross, merge or split apart is a conflict point.
On a two-lane, two-way street the counts are the Federal Highway Administration figures: 32 at a four-way intersection and 9 at a T intersection or full-access driveway. For wider streets the tool extends the same method lane by lane, assuming drivers turn from and into the nearest lane and do not change lanes within the block, so treat those totals as a floor. Driveways alternate sides, and cross streets are two lanes. People walking and cycling add conflicts of their own, which are not counted here. A conflict point is a place where a crash can happen, not a forecast that one will. Planning aid, not an engineering study.
Where parking comes in
Most driveways on a commercial corridor lead to a parking lot. When each business must supply its own parking, each lot gets its own curb cut. Shared parking behind the buildings, reached from a side street or one consolidated driveway, removes conflict points without removing a single space. For what happens when the intersection at the end of the block becomes a circle, see What a Roundabout Removes. See also stroad, shared parking and parking minimums.