That's the claim being made by a recent Navteq-sponsored study in which the company analyzed the driving data from drivers without any GPS, drivers with non-traffic enabled GPS, and drivers with real-time traffic information.

The results? Drivers with real-time traffic equipped GPS spent an average of 18% less time getting to their destination (which works out to roughly 4 days per year of saved driving time).

The study also concluded that drivers with traffic-enabled GPS devices drove shorter distances, decreasing CO2 emissions an average of .79 metric tons (21% less CO2 than drivers without a GPS).