The system is stipulated in Article 18.4.a of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic for countries where traffic keeps to the right and applies to all situations where it is not overridden by priority signs (including uncontrolled intersections), including side roads and roundabouts (but not paths or earth-tracks).
In some countries, the right of way at virtually all but the most minor road junctions is controlled by the display of priority vs. stop / yield signs or by traffic lights, while in others (such as France) priority-to-the-right is sometimes applied even at heavily trafficked intersections such as the Place de l'Étoile (around the Arc de Triomphe) and on the Boulevard Périphérique (Paris ring road).
Increasingly, municipalities across the US have introduced all way stops, traffic signals and other designations such as multiple lane right-of-way or paved vs. unpaved roads as a means of controlling the intersections to decrease the likelihood of a collision and to make it easier to determine liability in the event of an accident.
They claim it is an outdated rule that too often causes accidents, because people assume that they will receive priority, and therefore that it is safe to cross.
Across the country in 2017, more than 15,000 collisions took place at intersections with priority to the right (on average 42 times a day); this amounted to almost 5% of all damage claims, according to insurance companies federation Assuralia.