"Priority to the Right" rule
 

I have been looking at road signs for France so that I will be aware them. I see this "Priority to the Right" sign...my question is, will I see this sign very often? It seems, if I am reading the description correctly, that one gives way to cars coming from the right. I also read that even if there is no sign, you are expected to give way if it is a priority intersection/area.

Is it similar to our merge?
Any info will be appreciated.

It is the same as "yield." And it is priority to the left at every traffic roundabout except the ones in Paris (Place Charles de Gaulle and Place de la Nation).

Generally you give way to cars from the right in towns and villages, where the speed limit is lower, but it can happen on country roads too.
In the Netherlands the town name board is also the speed limit board (50kmph), though parts will be 30kmph, or even slower, but those are posted. I seem to remember it is the same in France.
A priority road has a white lozenge with a yellow lozenge inside.

Priority to the Right is an archaic and dangerous concept that the French have held on to. They should have kept their yellow headlights and dropped this monster which works well for local drivers, who know in advance all of the blind spots and from where car are likely to suddenly appear, but if it´s your first time driving through town - beware!

When you see a car approach from the right, the next thing you must note is whether or not he has a stop sign. Apparently the French have no problem identifying stop signs at a 90˚ angle when they appear no wider than a shepherd´s staff. But for the rest of us, a bit of practice is essential. Clairvoyants will have a real edge in determining exactly what the car on the right is going to do.

The sign that becomes your friend is the yellow diamond which is really a yellow square rotated until one of the corners points straight up (or straight down depending upon your point of view). This sign indicates a temporary cancellation of the <i>priorité à droite</i> rule and you can continue, knowing that the rules are now just as they are anywhere else in the world - cars on a straight ahead thoroughfare need not come to a sudden stop to allow someone from the right enter the roadway.

However, when you see one of these signs with a red line drawn diagonally across its face, <i>priorité à droite</i> is back in force. Proceed with great caution.

Actually, French drivers are not trying to read other people's stop signs sideways. All they have to do in most cases is look at the pavement to see if there is a solid white line 'stopping' the cars on the right.

There are several significant differences between the French and the California traffic rules.

Priority to right is one of them. Try this quiz. Even though this one is meant for Germany, the rule is similar.
http://www.gettingaroundgermany.info/quiz.shtml

Of course, you can't turn right on red light.

If the functional signal and signs are posted at the same time (quiz section 2 #27, #28) you follow the signal. If the signal is blinking yellow, you interpret that to mean the signal is kaput and you follow the signs. Blinking yellow does not always mean proceed with caution as in the US.

Many people will tell you the left lane on multi-lane highway is for passing. What should really be said is it is forbidden to pass on the right unless it is congested and there is no way not to pass on the right. This is clearly different from California where passing on the right is not restricted on multi-lane highways.

Speed cameras are ubiquitous. Following the prevailing speed, as in CA, will not always do. It is illegal to use a radar detector. It is also illegal to have it in your car even if not in use. Tom Tom had to release a GPS patch for use in France to replace ability to pin point the exact speed camera locations by general warnings. The fine is very stiff.

You are supposed to have a breathalyzer kit in your car. However, failure to have it results in a trivial fine. The BAC in France is lower than the U.S. at 0.05%.

There is no fine for not having the <i>required</i> breathalyzers.

The left lane, on multi-lane highways, is indeed only for passing. True, one is forbidden from passing on the right but a driver should always stay in the far most right lane. Cruising in an open lane which is not the far most right lane, is also forbidden.

IME, priorite a droite has more or less died out - except when it hasn't! the main dangers are in country districts with tractors and old farm vehicles, and, dare I say, farmers.

Kerouac - you are right of course, in theory. However the foreign driver has a lot to think about, including, in our case, driving on the "wrong" side of the road in a RHD car. [though that does put us closer to those "helpful" marks" you mention].

frankly, i would say that priorite a droite has been the least of our worries. making sure we're driving on the right side of the road is much higher up the list!

I've only encountered priorite a droite in three instances -- once in a remote corner of Brittany (no collision -- horn honking and angry fist waving), Cote d'Ivoire (horns and swerving) and Saarland, where I nearly had a heart attack when my BiL jumped out, from the right, in front of some monstrous agricultural machine bristling with scythes and tread. He was in the right.

A bizarre rule in need of repeal.

I think the only "foreign drivers" who have to worry about this are from the UK, Japan, Australia, and NZ, where you drive on the left.

In most US states (all now?), one yields to the car on the right naturally since you can usually see him more easily than he can see you.

The two exceptions are merging on an expressway, where the driver on the right should come up to speed before merging but must yield to traffic already on the highway if he can't and roundabouts-rotaries-traffic circles where traffic entering the intersection yields to traffic already in the rotary.

This has changed in some states, e.g., Massachusetts, only with the last twenty years or so, and those who have not had to take a written exam in that time may not have internalized the rules. Fortunately, rotaries are much less common in the US than in the UK or Italy.

It is always better to yield the right of way than to die.

Akislander, half of the world drives on the left -- you left out South Africa, India, Thailand, the Commonwealth countries except for Canada...

This may help people shaking their heads in incredulity:

http://www.vendee-guide.co.uk/priority-a-droite.htm

As a Canadian who has driven in France for over 20 years, and passed the French driving test, I don't see this as a very big issue. Admittedly, in the country, you may get a narrow road joining you, where he has the right of way. But usually there is an indication of who has right of way - a bold arrow with a narrow line intersecting (bold arrow direction has right of way,) a broad white line on the road, indicating that there is a stop sign, or the famous lozenge, which says that, until you see another one, you have priority. Sounds more complicated than it is in actuality.


'You are supposed to have a breathalyzer kit in your car. However, failure to have it results in a trivial fine.' The BAC in France is lower than the U.S. at 0.05%.'

Although, you are indeed supposed to have a breathalyer kit, 'Le non respect de cette obligation n'est pas sanctionné.' - the lack of one is not an issue.

Regarding blood alcohol level,' Il est interdit de conduire avec un taux d'alcool pur dans le sang égal ou supérieur à 0,5 g par litre de sang, soit 0,25 mg d'alcool par litre d'air expiré, that is,.5 grams per litre in the blood, .25mg in exhaled breath - the kind of breathalyser you will be offered when stopped. I know, having been stopped at the entrance to the autoroute on Friday!

I just worry on back roads where the old rules still apply. Never make any assumptions about French driving out in the sticks, read also for New Zealand (and their now defunct right turn), Ireland, UK retirement towns (where the indicator stalks are removed)etc etc name any country you like.

What if it's a bike coming from the right? Frankly I'm one more terrifying answer away from cancelling my bike trip to France.

[[ In the Netherlands the town name board is also the speed limit board (50kmph) ]]

This is also true in Italy; when you see the sign (town name in black letters on a white ground) announcing the town limits, you're supposed to slow to 50 kmph. Just be sure there's no local driver behind you, because the rule is mostly honored in the breach, and you might get rear-ended.

The "precedenza a destra" rule also applies in Italy, although very few intersections are now governed by that rule. Almost always now, they either have a stop sign or there's a roundabout.

The "4-way-stops" in some states in the US just drive me crazy, and I think they probably cause more accidents than they prevent.

The link given by Fra_Diavolo is correct. It's actually very easy:

1) In towns and villages, always yield to traffic coming from the right unless they have a yield or stop sign. Easy to locate by the marking on the road: stop is a thick solid white line and yield is a thick dotted white line.

2) On main roads, outside urban areas it is usually not an issue. The yellow lozenge will tell you if you are on a priority road. You sometimes still find the old triangle sign showing your road thicker than the upcoming intersecting road: once again: it speaks for itself: you're on the big road so you have priority.

Any other circumstance (highway merging, roundabout, etc) is clearly indicated. There are ALWAYS signs for entering traffic that show they must yield (rotaries, autoroutes), if there are no yield signs then they have priority (old-style roundabouts, Parisian périphérique).

It's really easier than it seems: look at the white marking on the road. In the absence of any marking or vertical sign, yield to anyone coming from the right.

My town is the worst: it has zero yield or stop. It's 100% priority to the right (if you are driving on a main road you must slow down at every intersection, every 20 meters, to let drivers coming from tiny streets go first) so if you want to practice, come to Saint-Maur, Val de Marne! :)

Better not come to Germany, where "priority to the right" is very common, especially in cities, towns and villages. It applies to bicycles, too (although many car drivers seem to think that bikes never have any rights, so as a cyclist it is better not to insist without looking).

Thanks for all the replies! We will be driving in Alsace and Luberon areas. Hopefully we won't encounter any of these issues but will be aware. Many thanks!

One thing to watch out for is the signs pointing to the right or left. Often they are well before the spot where you actually need to turn.

Actually, priority to the right is the rule in ALL on continental Europe. I was a bit surprised by Sarastro's comment that France is applying archaic and dangerous rules, since Europeans agree with them.

Amend to read "All continental Europe is applying archaic and dangerous rules" then.

I guess there must be some other reason that the traffic death rate in Western Europe is half the rate of the United States then.

Well my friend, if it is such a godsend, this old rule, why do the French invest all that time and money erecting signs and painting the majority of their intersections to show that the rule doesn't apply there, rather than simply abandoning it?

I think the French are good drivers, by the way, and even picked up a trick from them last time I was there (flashing hazard lights when approaching stopped traffic to warn the driver behind you).

Actually the hazard lights start flashing automatically on French cars when you hit the brakes hard.

That is something I would like to see here.

Or the gas hard.

It is not so much about archaism as about road and intersection density. In the US, the priority to the right rule exists too, it just hardly ever applies simply because nearly all interserctions are controlled by either a sign or a traffic light. In old Europe the road and street network is a lot denser than in the US, with a lot more small streets, so it would cost a fortune and look ugly to have signs everywhere. Even old-established Manhattan has 5 times fewer streets and avenues than Paris intra-muros for the same surface area.

More and more intersections are getting controlled in France by yield and stop signs but it will never be everywhere so a general priority rule makes sense in this context. There are areas, as in my town where it makes no sense with tiny side streets having priority over major arteries, and they should put signs there but I suppose with our huge municipal debt it is not a priority.

France also has one of the densest road networks in the world. If we had as few intersections as the US I am sure all intersections would be controlled too and the priority to the right rule would be as insignificant as in the US.

I'm pleased to say that the UK has never had any truck with this sort of nonsense - as a general rule, the minor road gives way to the major one.

There can of course be the odd occasion when it's difficult to work out who gives way to whom, but on the whole, we all know where we are.

Kerouac, apart from the fact that it's what the french do and therefore better than anything british could possibly be, why does it make any sense at all for vehicles on the major road to have to slow down for vehicles emerging from a minor road? which they may not even know is there?

<i>In the US, the priority to the right rule exists too, it just hardly ever applies simply because nearly all interserctions are controlled by either a sign or a traffic light.</i>

There is a similar rule in the US at well defined intersections. The danger, however, is not at intersections where everyone is aware of one another and where traffic slows, the danger is either on open stretches of roadway or in towns where cars can suddenly appear from alleyways, driveways, or other nondescript entrance points.

Otherwise, the US is just like the UK in this regard, the minor road gives way to the major one.

I have never encountered the situation you describe in France, Sarastro. Outside urban areas main roads always have priority over minor roads here too (those lozenge signs only confirm that). And in towns (or anywhere else), people coming out of driveways or any private alleyway NEVER have priority over a public way, even if they come from the right.

But yes, as is the case in my town, some tiny streets may have priority over a larger one, and that is a pain indeed. And I use the word "intersection" for those as in any situation where a street meets another.

I confirm what FrenchMystique says -- there is absolutely no priority for driveways or alleyways. This of course does not mean that certain drivers don't behave as though it were the case.

Still: check the accident statistics and please inform me what is wrong with French driving methods compared to dying.

I absolutely did not criticise British driving rules. Great Britain does a bit better than France in traffic fatalities, but of course it is also true that driving speeds are a bit lower.

I absolutely did not criticise British driving rules. Great Britain does a bit better than France in traffic fatalities, but of course it is also true that driving speeds are a bit lower.>>

point taken, kerouac.

the curiosity about fatality rates is that in general, US speed limits are much lower than european ones - I got a speeding ticket doing 60 mph on a "freeway", when the limit was 50 mph. yet, as you say above, they manage to kill twice as many people on the roads as we do.

<i> they manage to kill twice as many people on the roads as we do</i>

Aggregate numbers are themselves meaningless. Numbers based upon number of cars on the road or number of drivers vs total accidents or deaths are far more meaningful.

The 55 mph limit in the USA is long gone. Top speeds now approach 80 mph, just about the same as in Europe.

Just look at the wiki with the statistics, sarastro. It clearly shows fatalities everywhere in the world per capita and also other criteria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate

the UK's figures are roughly 100% better than France's and 2-3x better than the US figures - wonder why that is?

The best figures to use for comparison are traffic deaths per 100 000 vehicles. On that basis, the UK is at 6.2, France is at 8.5, and the USA is at 13.6.

The differences are best explained by three factors: Minimum driving age, alcohol, and public transit. As a general rule, traffic deaths increase as age decreases. In the US, you can drive at 16 years old. It is 18 in France, and 17 in the UK, I believe. Not surprisingly, The second factor, alcohol, seems to be a question of culture, and is likely also directly related to the prevalence of public transit systems (i.e., alternatives to driving when drunk). In the USA, 39% of traffic deaths are alcohol related; in France it is 29%, and in the UK 17%. Clearly, the US has a drunk driving problem, and France, too, for that matter. Curiously, the UK has a *much* higher prevalence of binge drinking than either the US or France. It must be that the British simply don't drive when drunk -- or they get so drunk that they can't drive! :)

Looking further into the public transit question, it seems clear that it must play an important role in the drunk driving rates. In the UK, 51% of people use public transit at least once a month; in France, it is 33%, and in the USA only 11%. Speaking as an American, I can attest to the fact that drunks usually have no option but to drive to get home. Moreover, everyone else has no choice but cars to get home, too, so more passengers are also victims of drunk drivers.

So, the fact that the US has the worst overall number (13.6) is then probably due to the compounding of the lower age limit, the alcohol problem, and the far less developed public transit systems. The fact that the UK has the lowest number is probably best explained by a cultural acceptance of, and dependence on, public transit.

ALL THAT SAID, back to the main topic: As an American living in France for many years, I can tell you that dependence on the priority-to-the-right rule is ridiculous! It *is* a problem here, and varying opinions on the matter relates to the fact that it is more prevalent in some regions and cities than in others. How much it contributes to accidents is hard to know because other factors (such as alcohol) swamp the statistics. Yet, I am quite sure it DOES contribute, because I have seen it happen! And let's not forget the question of expecting foreigners to just "get it" -- in this, the most visited country in the world.

IMO, having driven many years in a country where it is never the primary determinant of priority (the USA), it is an old, bad idea that should be phased out through the use of explicit "Yield" signs. The implicit system -- asking the driver to pay attention to signs for drivers on other roads (!) such as the line on the pavement -- is untenable. For one thing, the white line on the road wears out over time!! I disagree that priority-right is necessary because road density is higher. Come on, a yield sign is always possible. Moreover, they could also simply add the rule for "T" intersections that through traffic has priority.

quokka,

If you come to our town in California you will quickly learn that it's the cyclists who feel car drivers have no rights!

Ruecharlot, as I said up post the Netherlands has priority to the right in built up areas and occasionally outside, but then always clearly indicated. Cyclists from the right also have priority over cars in 30km zones.
Annoying as it is to those who are new to the concept it does not contribute to the number of road deaths or accidents in any significant way. Accidents involving the rule are generally caused by drivers from elsewhere who haven't taken the time to familiarise themselves with the law of the land in which they are driving.

I rarely spend any time in France without what I would describe as some lunatic driving straight at me from a side-street. I know all about "when in Rome" but I would have thought that a sense of self-preservation would deter drivers from doing this - how are they to know that the vehicle over which they are claiming priority isn't some huge lorry that simply can't stop.

Anyway, thanks for the stats, ruecharlot. I would tend to think that the difference in deaths due to drunk driving is that there has arisen a culture here in the UK that finds driving whilst under the influence of alcohol socially unacceptable. Especially among the young there is a "designated driver" who simply doesn't drink.

This is a case where the law has definitely influenced public opinion.