Roundabouts

[BluePeace2]

Last week I was on a family holiday in the south of france. As I was away for a week I took my bike hoping to get to do some riding, we also took the old mountain bike my BF had fixed up for my sister to ride.
The first full day that we were there sister and I head off for a ride, we make it down the not so nice for visibility hill and on the roads and bike lanes for a good 14k ride. We are heading home and the bike lanes and paths stop at a roundabout that we have to go around to get to our road. Both of us are accustomed to roundabouts. We both stop and wait for our gap to come. We get near the first exit, I'm riding behind sister, she is crossing the exit opening when a car heads off the roundabout and almost hits her. Sister luckily swerves and misses being hit only to hear from the driver that she should of waited for him to exit the roundabout (where did that came from? Now I'd understand if we were crossing the road but HONESTLY we were riding on the road and had all the rights a car has)

[Duck on Wheels]

Roundabout rules are different in France. I forget which way it works there (long time since I've driven in France), whether it's the vehicle entering the roundabout or the vehicle in the roundabout or the vehicle exiting the roundabout, but one of them has the right-of-way and it's not the same one as here in Norway, nor is it the same one as in the US. So ... that may be what that was about. When on holidays, be sure to learn any differences about the rules of the road.

Which is not to say that your angry driver necessarily was in the right or that you necessarily were in the wrong. It could be just some nasty driver who doesn't like cyclists in his way. But still, it's best to know the local rules.

[SadieKate]

Priority to the right: the "Priorite a droite"
This strange rule only applies when driving in France, so it causes much confusion for forign drivers. This rule basically states that when driving along a road, anyone joining from your right hand side has priority over the main road on which you are driving, regardless of the size of the adjoining road. The joining car does not have to stop - you do! This law is thankfully not widely used any more, but in certain roundabouts (like some main roundabouts in Paris for example) you will still see cars stop as the traffic from the right joins. On the expressways this rule doesn't apply anymore.
http://www.driving-in.com/france/

In Oregon (as I think all of the US) merging traffic must match speed or yield. The vehicle in the roundabout has right of way.

[maillotpois]

Silly French people!! (I am one of them by ancestry, of course...)

[SadieKate]

Hey, who ya calling silly?

[maillotpois]

Wouldn't be the first time...

[PscyclePath]

Priority to the right: the "Priorite a droite"
This strange rule only applies when driving in France, so it causes much confusion for forign drivers. This rule basically states that when driving along a road, anyone joining from your right hand side has priority over the main road on which you are driving, regardless of the size of the adjoining road. The joining car does not have to stop - you do! This law is thankfully not widely used any more, but in certain roundabouts (like some main roundabouts in Paris for example) you will still see cars stop as the traffic from the right joins. On the expressways this rule doesn't apply anymore.
http://www.driving-in.com/france/

In Oregon (as I think all of the US) merging traffic must match speed or yield. The vehicle in the roundabout has right of way.

Germany has a similar rule... The driver farthest to the right has the right-of-way unless there is a traffic sign to the contrary. Here we have a "first-come, first-served" rule, and the on-the-right rule typically applies only when two drivers arrive at an uncontrolled intersection at the same time.

"First-come, first-served" also means that a driver already in a lane has the right-of-way in that lane over somebody who wants to merge into it. That's why you need to check behind you for overtaking traffic and yield to that traffic before shifting lanes or moving laterally on the roadway. In most places in Europe, if you get rear-ended in such a situation, you get ticketed for "failure to clear to the rear" under this same rule.

[SadieKate]

That sounds just like the US, just different words.

That weird French rule gives priority to the merging traffic so I guess if someone merges in front of you at a significantly slower speed, you have to slam on your brakes?

[crazycanuck]

The right hand rule applies to downunder as well kids.

I love roundabouts