alt Hacker NewsIn France, in absence of contrary indications (ie: absence of signs, traffic signals, or line markings), it's "Priority to the Right".
So if it's an actual roundabout (aka, "rond-point"), then normal traffic rules apply for intersections: Priority to the Right. Vehicles already on the roundabout must yield to cars entering it.
Often, you have what is referred as "Carrefours à sens giratoire", which can very much look like "rond-points", but priority is to the vehicles already on the roundabout. For this reason, there will be a yield sign at the entrance of the roundabout to make it clear there's a special rule that applies to it. Sometimes you have traffic lights as well.
Replies
Most of the world doesn't have 6x6 lane uncontrolled intersections where people need to yield to the right. In fact your average 2 lane intersection with traffic lights, here in North America, once those traffic lights don't work for some reason it becomes almost impossible to navigate the intersection despite the "priority rules" being more or less known. It just becomes total chaos because there is usually enough traffic to just keep one direction going forever given that everyone slows down.
Even with one lane intersections North America usually uses "all stop" if there's any amount of traffic to regulate the flow.
I just hate multi-lane roundabouts in general but the French ones I dislike even more. There's a lot more that you need to keep track of, the traffic in the roundabout and the traffic that wants to enter.
> Vehicles already on the roundabout must yield to cars entering it.
Yeah but that's theory and theory only.
I would say that 99.9% of anything that look like a roundabout is a "normal roundabout" where the priority is for people in the center, not for the ones entering. This is currently the same than the rest of Europe.
Place de l'étoile is an exception, not a rule and the total number of roundabout like that in the country can probably be counted on one hand.