The arterioles have a relatively small cross sectional area and therefore offer a relatively high resistance to flow. They are densely innervated by sympathetic fibres and are the premary site at which total peripheral resistance, and thereby arterial blood pressure, is controlled.
Resistances on the venous side of the circulation are relatively low: resistance to venous return is correspondingly low. Note that resistance to venous return is a theoretical concept, rather than a resistance with a particular anatomical location.
See A Thinking Approach to Physiology, pages 107 - 114.
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