There are a few different types of blood vessels;
A conduit vessel is essentially a tube that crosses an area to bring blood from one place to another. Examples would include the brachial artery and the superfical femoral artery.
A cpacitance vessel is one that adapts its diameter to allow for differences of volume in the system. Examples would include the large veins in the abdomen and thorax.
Resistance vessels are used to divert blood flow from one place to another. For instance if the resistance of the vessel supplying a certain area of skeletal muscle is increased then flow will be divereted away from this area to others. Alot of the resistance in the arterial system comes from the muscular arterioles.