Driving in Europe smartphone app launched

The GoingAbroad app makes driving across Europe safer and easier.

There are many slightly different rules and regulations to the roads of Europe, but probably only one universal, overriding law – do not use your mobile phone while driving.

So the very notion that a new app designed specifically for smartphones and intended to make the roads of Europe safer seems, at first glance, rather contradictory…

But the European Commission’s new GoingAbroad app is not intended for using while behind the wheel, but is in fact a handy at-a-glance tool for drivers to swot up on before heading across the continent.

The app provides up-to-date information on the motoring laws and road regulations of Europe, and is available in 22 different languages. It is free to download and appears extremely simple to use – simply select from a map the country you are driving in or heading towards, and you are then presented with a user-friendly interface of information.

The various info tabs include: speed limits, seat belts, traffic lights, alcohol limits, safety helmets and other specific rules, with slight differences for each country.

The app has been launched to coincide with the summer rush, when millions of Europeans take to their cars and head overland to other countries in the EU. As a result, road deaths are 50 per cent higher at this time of year than they are in February.

“It is so easy to take your car abroad, but many people don’t realise that rules and road signs differ across the EU,” said Slim Kallas, European Commission Vice President. Another feature of the app is safety-themed memory games that test users’ (or rather, passengers’) knowledge of the road laws in the country of their choice.

The app (which is available for download on the European Commission’s website) is a great idea, and one that has been well executed to appeal to today’s modern driver.

Driving in Spain, especially for a Brit, is more than a case of remembering to drive on the right and look left at roundabouts. There are a host of different rules and regulations to remember, and speed limits can rise and fall quickly over just a short distance.

The app sticks firmly in ‘laws and rules’ territory, and – perhaps sensibly – does not give any information on driving culture in certain countries. Spanish roads, for example, can be far less forgiving than British ones, and many drivers may exhibit driving behaviours many Brits might be unused to.

For more information on the driving culture of Spain, read our overview of transport and travel in Spain.