France, world champion of roundabouts

Despite the absence of official statistics, France is the country with the most in the world.

Originally, these circular spaces were intended to strengthen road safety by limiting crossings between motorists. Their number has exploded with the development of commercial and industrial zones, which form these peri-urban landscapes which are now criticized.

A record number

Twenty thousand were recorded in 2005, according to the work of professor and doctor of architecture Eric Alonzo, author of the work "From the roundabout to the roundabout". A number that is constantly increasing, with 500 to 1.000 new roundabouts being created each year in France.

The Latvian car rental company DiscoverCars.com established its own ranking in September using OpenStreetMap data.

France occupies by far the first place in the world with 42.986 roundabouts distributed throughout the country, or 65% more than the United Kingdom, second in the list with 25.976 roundabouts. Next come Italy (18.172), Spain (15.053) and Brazil (11.854).

Road safety

The first roundabout in France was created at Place de l'Etoile in Paris in 1907, around the famous Arc de Triomphe, under the leadership of the town planner Eugène Hénard.

Then "they developed in the 1960s and 1970s, before multiplying in the 1980s to support the growth of the road network of peripheral commercial areas", according to Philippe Genestier, architect-urban planner, professor at the National School of State public works (ENTPE).

An urban planning choice initially justified by "initial accident studies in the 1960s, which showed that 'classic' intersections, with priority on the right, were dangerous", specifies the specialist.

Cost debate

Philippe Genestier believes that "roundabouts remain costly works, in terms of earthworks, roads and landscaping".

According to him, a controversy would have arisen from a widespread practice until the 1980s of "engineers who were members of the Departmental Equipment Directorates (DDE) who received bonuses based on the amount of work they were required to carry out." realize".

Jean-Baptiste Léon, director of the Contribuables Associés association, which defends control of public spending, estimates the average cost of a roundabout in France between “100.000 and one million euros”.

He assures AFP that he has estimated the amount of public spending on roundabouts at "30 billion over forty years", based on official data.

Roundabouts are often decorated with decoration, under the "artistic 1%" which imposes on the State, its public establishments and local authorities an "obligation to decorate public buildings".

Some have specialized in “roundabout art”, like Jean-Luc Plé, a sixty-year-old from Charente-Maritime (West) who has been tirelessly creating for roundabouts for around twenty years.

He estimates the price of his works between 35.000 and 50.000 euros each, like this giant lemon standing on a roundabout near Menton (South).

“Yellow vests”

The social movement of “yellow vests” born in 2018 from the refusal of an increase in a fuel tax, has raised the roundabout to the rank of political symbol of the protest.

The protesters, from so-called “peripheral” car-dependent France, took over by establishing camps there and organizing discussion forums, sometimes confrontational, with motorists.