According to NAVTEQ, drivers using traffic-enabled navigation devices can cut driving time per trip by around 18%.  

The results are from a study conducted in two metropolitan areas of Germany - Dusseldorf and Munich - which evaluated drivers without a navigation system, drivers with a navigation system, and drivers with a navigation system that included real-time traffic.

Previous studies in this field focused more on ‘getting lost' scenarios versus the benefits of navigation system use during the course of normal driving habits.

The study revealed that the drivers using traffic-enabled navigation devices can spend 18% less time on the road than drivers without navigation, which translates to around four days if applied over the course of a year.

Additionally, the findings show that a driver with a real-time traffic-enabled nav system can not only shave even more time off his journeys, but he will also be responsible for around 21% less in CO₂ emissions than a driver without a navigation system.

Regionally, UK drivers with traffic enabled navigation would save 2.5 days per year and cut their CO₂ emissions by 20%, and US drivers would save 4 days per year and cut their CO₂ emissions by 21%.

The participants, none of whom had previously owned navigation devices, had their vehicles fitted with logging devices which were used to track the routes they drove and their driving speed.  The study results reflect more than 2,100 individual trips over 20,000 km and almost 500 hours on the road.