Priority to the right in Belgium, explained simply.

The basic rule

Belgian priority to the right is a default rule for drivers at junctions. If another driver approaches from your right, you normally give way.

Imagine two cars reaching an unsigned crossroads. One is coming towards you from the road on your right. Neither road has a priority sign and no traffic light or police officer is directing traffic. You let the other car go first.

The rule is nationwide. It is not a Flemish, Brussels or Walloon variation.

Start with the driver on your right. Then look for the detail that might replace the default.

A controlled junction changes the question

Priority to the right is not the first thing to apply when the junction is controlled.

A police officer's instructions take precedence. Traffic lights take precedence over road signs that regulate priority. Road signs take precedence over the general road rule.

So if you have a green light, you do not ignore it because a car happens to be on your right. If you face a STOP or Give Way sign, you must give way even when the other driver approaches from your left.

This is why memorising one junction picture is unreliable. Add one sign and the order can change completely.

When priority to the right does not apply

The Belgian Highway Code names several situations where the simple right-hand rule does not decide who goes first.

• You are already on a roundabout. A driver on the roundabout does not give way under the priority-to-the-right rule to a driver entering from the right.
• The driver from the right comes from a prohibited direction. That driver does not gain priority by approaching from the right.
• The driver from the right comes from a dirt road or path. They must give way to traffic on the public road with a carriageway.
• The driver from the right is performing a manoeuvre. Changing lane, reversing, making a U-turn, entering or leaving a parking space, and leaving a property are examples of manoeuvres. The person performing one must give way.
• A rail vehicle is involved. Road users must give way to rail vehicles. A tram can therefore change an answer that looked like an ordinary right-priority situation.

These are not arbitrary exam traps. Each is a different rule with its own reason for taking priority.

Stopping does not make priority disappear

An old misunderstanding still appears in conversations about Belgian priority: if the driver on the right stops, they lose their priority.

That is not the current rule. A driver who has priority can stop and then move again without automatically losing that priority.

This does not make priority “absolute”. Every driver approaching a junction must remain careful and avoid creating an accident. Having priority is not permission to enter a junction blindly.

How to read a priority question

Do not begin by following each vehicle around the picture. Read the system in order.

1. Look for an officer. Their instructions come first.
2. Check the traffic lights. Decide which road users they control.
3. Read the signs and markings. STOP, Give Way and priority-road signs can replace the default.
4. Notice special road users. A tram is not just another car in the diagram.
5. Check for a manoeuvre. A vehicle leaving a parking space or property must give way.
6. Only then use priority to the right. It resolves the junction when no higher or special rule has already done so.

Practise the change, not the picture

Priority becomes easier when you compare similar situations. Keep the junction, then change one detail: add a STOP sign, introduce a tram, make one driver leave a property or place one car on a roundabout.

Theory B teaches the priority rule first and then lets you apply it in the Right of Way game. The aim is not to remember a diagram. It is to notice the detail that decides the order.

That same habit helps across the exam. A familiar picture should make you look more carefully, not answer more quickly.

Belgian sources

The rule and examples were checked against the current Belgian Highway Code and Belgian police guidance on 30 August 2026.

• Belgian Highway Code: Articles 6 and 12
• Federal Police: Is priority to the right absolute?
• Federal Police: Priority rule exceptions