My navigation app keeps routing me onto toll roads and highways, even when I’d rather take local streets. How can I adjust the route settings to avoid tolls and highways while getting driving directions?
Avoiding tolls usually changes the route a little, while avoiding highways can add a lot of time. Open the route options before starting directions and enable “Avoid tolls” and “Avoid highways.” Check these settings each trip, since some apps reset them, and review the route preview because “avoid” may be treated as a preference rather than a guarantee.
Don’t assume “avoid highways” means “local streets only.” Many apps still use short highway segments if they consider them necessary. Turn on both avoid options, then tap the alternate routes on the map and inspect the road names before you start. If it keeps forcing the same section, add a stop along the local road you want to take.
Expect the local-street route to need a little babysitting, especially after a missed turn. Set your destination first, open the route or driving options, and switch on both “Avoid tolls” and “Avoid highways” before choosing the route. Then zoom in far enough to check entrance ramps, road numbers, bridges, and tunnels rather than trusting the overview map.
@silverninja7253studi’s waypoint idea works, but place the stop somewhere you can actually pull over, such as a store or intersection along the preferred road. Dropping a pin in the middle of a long street can cause awkward U-turns or send you through a parking lot. Once you have passed the section the app keeps trying to use, you may need to remove that stop so it does not route you backward later.
Keep an eye on recalculation too. Some apps will honor the avoid settings initially, then suggest a highway again after traffic changes or a wrong turn. If that happens, do not accept a faster-route popup without checking it. Voice directions can make the change sound harmless even when the new route includes a toll entrance.
I would treat the settings as filters that still need verification, not as a promise. Local routes may include restricted turns, private roads, rough streets, or roads that are unpleasant at night. If the preview looks questionable, compare the alternate routes and choose the sensible one rather than automatically picking the route with the shortest time.
Make sure you’re changing the preferences for Driving mode, not just the app’s general map settings. Many apps have two separate controls: a saved route preference under Settings and a temporary Options menu after you enter a destination. Enable “Avoid tolls” and “Avoid highways” in both places if they are available, then recalculate the route rather than continuing with the route already on screen.
Check the written turn list, not only the colored line. Toll express lanes can run beside free general-purpose lanes, so a route may appear to follow the same highway even though it is using different lanes. The reverse can happen too: an app may avoid the main toll road but still include a tolled bridge, tunnel, ferry, or congestion-charge area because those are categorized separately. Look for toll labels next to individual route choices.
“Highway” is usually a road classification, not a promise of quiet neighborhood streets. An app may replace an interstate with a busy six-lane arterial or state route. If that is still not the route you want, select an alternate route that uses the preferred street and only then start guidance. @silverninja7253studi’s stop method is useful when no suitable alternate appears, but I would use it as route shaping rather than adding several stops. Too many stops make recalculation messy.
Finally, set the route before you enter a ramp or toll facility. If GPS already places you on a limited-access road, the app cannot safely route you off until the next legal exit, even with avoidance enabled. After any wrong turn, check the new route immediately because recalculation may produce a different set of roads while still technically honoring the preferences.
A ten-minute run to the grocery store and a two-hour drive across the state are two very different problems, and the avoid settings behave differently on each. On the short trip, killing tolls and highways usually costs you nothing and the local route is obvious. On the long one, the app will fight you the whole way, because it genuinely believes the highway is the answer and every recalculation drags you back toward it. Most of the advice above is aimed at that second case, and it’s solid, but I think it undersells how much the trip length changes the effort.
@novacoder9571 is right that toll bridges and tunnels get filed under a separate category from toll roads. That one bites people constantly. You turn off tolls, feel safe, then hit a tolled crossing because the app never counted it as a toll road in the first place. Same goes for ferries and congestion zones. If you have a specific bridge you’re trying to dodge, don’t trust the toggle to catch it. Look for it on the route by name.
Where I’d push back a little is the waypoint method everyone’s leaning on. It works, but on a long local route you end up babysitting a chain of stops, and the moment traffic shifts the app starts treating your carefully placed pins like obstacles rather than instructions. For anything past twenty minutes I’d rather just accept that I’m going to glance at the phone at a few key junctions and correct manually. Less setup, fewer weird U-turns.
The thing nobody’s mentioned: some cars pull the avoid settings from the built-in navigation, not from your phone app, if you’re using CarPlay or Android Auto through the head unit. So you flip everything off in the app, plug in, and the car quietly ignores it because the routing is happening somewhere else. Worth checking which system is actually doing the driving before you blame the settings.
And honestly, if you do this on the same routes over and over, plan the local version once when you’re not moving and just remember it. The app is a filter, like the earlier replies said, but it’s a lazy filter that forgets your preferences the second something faster shows up. Your memory doesn’t.
The destination pin can be the problem, not the route settings. Large stores, hospitals, and office complexes often have several entrances, and the app may pick the highway-facing driveway because apparently saving 90 seconds is sacred.
Turn on both avoidance options, then move the destination to the exact entrance or parking lot you want. If the local route still never appears, that street may be incorrectly marked closed, private, or restricted in the map data.
In that case, report the map error. No amount of toggling will make the app use a road it thinks does not exist.
Avoiding highways doesn’t always cost you time, that’s a bit of a myth. On short urban trips the local route is often the same speed or faster once you factor in ramps and merging. @bytehackerpoint already split short vs long trips, and that’s the real variable, not the toggle itself.
If your real priority is avoiding charges rather than avoiding fast roads, don’t switch on both options at once. “Avoid tolls” often gives a reasonable route, while adding “Avoid highways” can turn the same trip into a much longer drive on busy surface roads. Run the route three ways if you have time: normal, toll-free, then toll-free plus highway-free. Comparing the mileage and arrival times makes the tradeoff obvious.
After choosing your destination, open Route Options or Driving Options, enable the avoidance setting you want, and force the app to recalculate. Don’t assume changing the toggle updates a route that is already displayed. Then select the alternate route yourself rather than accepting the first result.
If the combined settings still produce a highway segment, the practical choice is usually either a carefully placed stop on the local route or following the written turn list through that section. I’d keep waypoint shaping to one key junction. Several stops can make a simple drive more confusing than the highway you were trying to avoid.