There is some confusion among motorists when it comes to roundabouts and roundabouts.
In France, it seems that roundabouts grow as quickly as weeds. Surprising because there are fewer and fewer roundabouts on our roads. This misinterpretation actually comes from the fact that many people get the very definition of the word roundabout wrong. Do you know how to precisely define what a roundabout is? Its meaning is very often confused with that of the roundabout. However, on the road, their use is very different!
The roundabout is a circular intersection most often without signals where priority is given to entering vehicles. In France, in roundabouts, motorists arriving from the right therefore have priority over those already traveling. The most famous roundabout in our region is Place de l’Étoile, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. This concept is used less and less in urban areas, in particular because it generates traffic jams caused by the frequent stopping of vehicles already on the ring. The circular intersections that we commonly call “roundabouts” today are in reality most of the time roundabouts.
Unlike roundabouts, roundabouts do not give priority to vehicles arriving at the intersection. They must most often respect a “Give way” sign materialized by a white triangular sign bordered in red and a marking on the ground representing a discontinuous white line. It is these, the roundabouts, which are fashionable in cities, sometimes too much, to the point that their primary function of making traffic flow more fluidly can sometimes generate the opposite effect.
The completely different way of approaching them should encourage all motorists to know how to distinguish a roundabout and a roundabout. These two road developments, however, meet on one point: it is in France that they are, both, the most numerous, in Europe but also in the world.