Road traffic law and priority rules
Road traffic law and priority rules is the domain the Swiss Category A theory exam uses to test whether you can derive who goes first from the statutes - mainly the Strassenverkehrsgesetz (SVG) and the Verkehrsregelverordnung (VRV) - instead of from habit. Items are usually short scenarios: two vehicles, a tram, a pedestrian and one decisive rule.
The default: right-hand priority
Where two roads meet and no sign or signal says otherwise, Rechtsvortritt applies: you must let every vehicle approaching from your right pass, and you may only enter when the junction is clear. This also applies at unmarked roundabouts, a Swiss peculiarity worth remembering. Priority is never a licence to endanger anyone - you must still be able to stop.
Cases that override the default
- Rail vehicles go before road vehicles.
- A yellow diamond (Hauptstrasse) gives priority over side roads until cancelled by the same sign with a grey bar.
- At a roundabout marked Kein Vortritt, circulating traffic has priority; you do not indicate on entry, only on exit.
- Leaving a car park, petrol station, yard or field path, you yield to everyone.
- In built-up areas, buses signalling to leave a stop must be allowed out.
- Blue lights plus siren: clear the way without braking abruptly.
- Turning left, you yield to oncoming traffic and to pedestrians crossing the road you enter.
- At a pedestrian crossing you stop for anyone waiting or already crossing, and overtaking there is prohibited.
Blood alcohol and probation
The general limit is 0.5 per mille. During the three-year probation period and for professional drivers it is 0.1 per mille - effectively zero. Category A is staged: A beschränkt (35 kW) from 18, unrestricted A after two years plus a practical test, or direct access at 24.
Worked example
You ride on a main road (yellow diamond) towards an unsigned T-junction. A car waits on the side road to your right; a tram approaches from your left as you intend to turn left. Reasoning: the diamond cancels right-hand priority, so the car waits for you. The tram is a rail vehicle and has priority over you, and turning left also obliges you to let oncoming traffic and crossing pedestrians pass - so you signal, position, and wait for the tram before turning.
Traps
Rolling through a STOP instead of stopping at the line; assuming priority in an unmarked roundabout; forgetting that priority protects nobody if you cannot stop; treating a bus pulling out or a pedestrian at a yellow crossing as optional.