October 28, 2009 - 9:55am

Green driving: Reducing gas emissions with a GPS?

It’s always good when a couple of universal themes come together at once. Everybody hates commutes, especially traffic jams. And everybody wants to do the right thing environmentally. Well now, at least one study suggests you can do both with one little move – by buying a GPS navigation system for your car that has real-time traffic updates.

The study – conducted by Austin, Texas-based NuStats – followed three groups of drivers in Dusseldorf and Munich, Germany. One had no GPS, one had GPS without real-time traffic updates and one had GPS with real-time traffic updates.

Overall, results linked driving with a GPS that includes real-time traffic updates to a reduction in gas emissions by that driver.

Drivers with a GPS but no real-time traffic updates had marginally quicker and more efficient commutes than those with no system. They did, however, show better numbers on other, less familiar trips, because they didn’t get lost nearly as often. And getting lost eats up a lot of time and fuel, as well as driving you nuts.

But the real difference came with drivers who had real-time traffic updates. Their ability to avoid traffic jams, construction and other delays showed a significant and consistent improvement in their efficiency.

Putting their data through the old cruncher allowed NuStats to determine that the average driver in the U.S. could save up to four whole days per year and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 21 per cent (that’s about 790 kilograms or 1,750 pounds).