Driving in France traffic lights · Traffic lights in Driving in France
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Traffic lights in Driving in France
Traffic lights in Driving in France
Traffic lights go directly from red to green: there is NO red-and-amber phase to warn you they are about to change. If you are slow in reacting, you may get a gentle horn reminder from the car behind. The lights are often mounted high and cannot be seen if you are the first car in the queue, often there is a small repeater light at head height on the post for this purpose.
Lights do have a amber phase and switch from green-to amber-to red. You may pass through on an amber light only if you are not able to stop safely. However, take care in big cities during rush hours if the traffic seems nervous and congested. Many drivers may become impatient and will attempt to pass through an intersection on an amber light phase and may assume you will do as well.
Some aggressive French drivers will pass through an intersection even though the light has just turned red. This is not only dangerous but also illegal. Increasingly, red-light cameras (radars aux feux rouges) are being installed to photograph the registration plates of vehicles passing through red lights. Fines levied by red-light cameras are sent automatically by post.
In case of traffic jam, you are NOT allowed to pass through a green light controlled intersection if you are not certain of being able to clear the intersection before the light switches back to red. Do not enter any intersection when it is blocked by any vehicular, pedestrian or other traffic at any time regardless of the colour of the light.
You are NOT permitted to turn right on a red light, unless there is an amber right-arrow flashing, and after yielding to any vehicle or other road user on the other road.
If the lights are off, or amber-flashing, you must follow the sign that is present on the light pole or nearby its fixing point. If there is no sign, the priorité à droite (priority to the right) principle applies: yield to any vehicle coming from your right. Take extra care and reduce speed in such cases as disabled lights are quite uncommon and may lead to confusing and potentially dangerous situations arising during any service outage.
The right of way exercised by any emergency vehicle is always paramount regardless of traffic light colour.
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Driving in France Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.