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Open Waze, go to Settings > Navigation, and turn on the avoidance preferences that match your problem: toll roads, ferries, freeways/highways, HOV lanes, or unpaved roads. For unpaved roads, choose Don’t allow for the strictest available setting. These preferences guide route selection, but they are conditional: Waze can still include an avoided road type when alternatives are unavailable. Check the route preview and alternatives before you start, and disable personalized routing if past driving habits appear to be influencing the result.
Set the road types Waze should avoid
Waze stores most avoidance controls in one place. On the phone app, open Waze > menu > Settings > Navigation. Enable the categories you do not want on upcoming drives:
- Avoid toll roads
- Avoid ferries
- Avoid freeways (some screens or regions use highways or motorways)
- Avoid HOV lanes, where the option is available
These are separate preferences. Turning on Avoid freeways does not also avoid ferries, toll facilities, HOV lanes, or dirt roads. Enable each category that matters to you. A driver who wants to avoid both a toll bridge and an unpaved shortcut, for example, must set both the toll-road preference and the unpaved-road preference.
Waze says a preference change applies to future drives. The exact menu wording can vary by language, phone, and in-car platform, but the controls represent the same road categories. The official instructions are in Waze Help’s avoidance guide.
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Choose the correct unpaved-road setting
Unpaved roads have their own control rather than a simple on/off switch. Go to Settings > Navigation > Unpaved roads and select the option that fits your tolerance:
| Option | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Allow | Leaves unpaved roads available whenever routing considers them useful. | You are comfortable with dirt or gravel sections and want the widest choice of routes. |
| Avoid long ones | Discourages lengthy unpaved stretches but can still allow shorter sections. | You can manage a brief unpaved connection but do not want a long dirt-road route. |
| Don’t allow | The strictest unpaved-road preference listed by Waze. | You want Waze to reject unpaved roads whenever another viable route exists. |
Choose Don’t allow if a short gravel connector is unacceptable because of a low-clearance vehicle, weather, passengers, or road-surface concerns. Choose Avoid long ones when a short unpaved link is manageable but a route consisting of several miles of dirt is not. Neither option is an absolute road closure; Waze still evaluates what routes are available.
Waze documents this setting for the app and for Android Auto and Android Automotive in its unpaved-road help page. On CarPlay, disconnect the phone from the car, change the setting on the phone, then reconnect; the phone’s preference is used when Waze runs in the car.
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Waze on Android or iPhone
- Open Waze while the vehicle is parked.
- Open the main menu and tap Settings.
- Tap Navigation.
- Turn on the relevant avoidance controls. For dirt or gravel, open Unpaved roads and choose Don’t allow, Avoid long ones, or Allow.
- Start a new route after saving the change. Existing route calculations may need to be recalculated before the new preference is reflected.
For a single trip, you can also set preferences from the route screen. Enter a destination, open the route preview, tap Avoid, select the available avoidance choices, and use View all navigation settings if you need the freeway/highway control. This route-screen workflow is useful when you do not want to change your normal settings permanently. For example, you might normally accept freeways but avoid them for a scenic trip, or usually permit tolls but reject them when you have extra time.
Make changes before you begin moving. Route controls can be harder to reach while driving, and checking the route while parked gives you time to read the road labels and compare alternatives safely.
Android Auto and Android Automotive
Depending on the vehicle and software version, open Waze’s Navigation settings from the in-car interface, or open the current route’s alternate-route or settings controls. Select the same road-category preferences there. For unpaved roads, open the unpaved-road control and select the desired level. Some vehicles expose fewer controls while the car is moving, so make changes before departure.
If a setting changed on the phone does not appear immediately on the dashboard, stop safely, disconnect the phone when appropriate, confirm the setting in the phone app, and reconnect. Platform menus differ, so look for the route’s Avoid, alternate-route, or navigation-settings control rather than expecting every vehicle to show identical buttons.
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Apple CarPlay
When the route is displayed, Waze provides an Avoid control on the route screen. Use it to select available avoidance choices before starting navigation. To change the unpaved-road preference, disconnect the iPhone from CarPlay, change Settings > Navigation > Unpaved roads in the phone app, and then reconnect. Waze’s help instructions use “highways” in the CarPlay context even though the phone app may say “freeways.”
That wording difference does not indicate a different type of road. It is a platform or localization difference. Check the nearby description and use the control that corresponds to your intended category.
Why Waze can still use an avoided road
An avoidance preference is a routing preference, not a guaranteed road closure. Waze evaluates the roads available at the moment you drive. If excluding every toll road, freeway, ferry, HOV lane, or unpaved segment would leave no practical route, it can present a route containing that category.
Waze states this limitation explicitly: “Waze may sometimes suggest routes that include toll roads, freeways, and ferries when this feature is turned on, depending on the routes available at the time you’re driving.” The same conditional behavior applies to unpaved roads: “Waze may sometimes suggest routes that include unpaved roads when this feature is turned on, depending on the routes available at the time of your drive.” Read the category-specific details in Waze’s toll, ferry, and freeway guidance and unpaved-road guidance.
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Road conditions can also change between the first calculation and the start of a trip. A closure, traffic incident, or unavailable connection can cause Waze to recalculate. If the new route includes a category you selected to avoid, pull over safely and review the replacement route rather than trying to adjust settings while moving.
Check the route before you start
Do not rely only on the preference switches. After entering the destination, review the route preview and open the alternate-route view if Waze offers it. Compare the choices using the information that matters for this trip:
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| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Disfavored road category | Whether the route includes the freeway, toll facility, ferry, HOV lane, or unpaved segment you are trying to avoid. |
| Travel time | The estimated arrival time and whether the slower route is acceptable for your schedule. |
| Route costs | Any toll amount shown for the route, plus the possibility that a toll-free route is longer. |
| Driving comfort | Whether the route’s road surface, lane rules, ferry transfer, or unfamiliar streets are suitable for your vehicle and passengers. |
Tap the route you prefer before pressing Start. Look beyond the headline arrival time: a route that is only slightly slower may avoid a ferry transfer or an unsuitable road surface, while a nominally faster route may include a toll or a lane rule you cannot use. If no alternative avoids the category, decide whether the available road is safer and more practical than forcing a longer or less suitable detour. Avoidance settings cannot create a missing road.
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When a route includes toll roads, Waze may display an estimated toll price in the route comparison. The estimate can depend on the day, time, specific date, passes, vehicle type, route, your settings, and information added by the Waze community. It is not an official quote from the toll operator.
Congestion-priced roads are different. When the charge changes with traffic or usage, Waze does not calculate one fixed amount; it provides a variable-price notification instead. Use the estimate to compare routes, then rely on the operator’s posted prices or your pass account for the amount you will actually be charged. Waze explains the calculation and limitations at View & compare toll prices.
Turn off personalized routing when past choices are affecting the result
Waze can use your previous drives and route choices to tailor suggestions. Its examples include learning that you routinely detour around one street, favor a particular highway entrance or exit, or prefer main roads over back streets. This personalization can make a route look surprising even when the general avoidance controls are set correctly.
- Open Waze and go to Settings.
- Tap Navigation.
- Open Personalization and then Personalized navigation.
- Turn off Get personalized routes.
Waze says, “Personalized routing is turned on by default. You can turn it off at any time.” If one or more old drives are steering recommendations, deleting those drives from navigation history also removes them from route personalization. This is a diagnostic and preference control, not a promise that Waze will permanently block a particular street. The setting and history behavior are described in Waze’s personalized-navigation help.
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Use this test when the same entrance, exit, back street, or detour appears repeatedly despite your category settings. Turn personalization off, calculate the same destination again, and compare the result. If nothing changes, the route is more likely being determined by available roads and current conditions than by a stored preference.
Troubleshoot repeated rerouting onto an unwanted road
1. Confirm the preference is enabled in the active app
Settings can differ between a phone and an in-car display. Stop safely, open the Waze settings used by the active connection, and verify the relevant category. If you changed the setting on the phone while CarPlay or Android Auto was connected, disconnecting and reconnecting may be necessary before the car interface reflects it.
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2. Recalculate after changing a preference
Enter the destination again or reopen the route alternatives after changing an avoidance option. A route calculated before the change may not visibly update until Waze recalculates it. Check the route summary again rather than assuming the old preview has adopted the new setting.
3. Inspect every offered alternative
One route may contain the road you dislike while another avoids it at the cost of time, distance, or a toll. Select the alternative that fits your priorities rather than assuming the first route is the only choice. Compare the full route lines, not just the first turn, because a route that begins on local streets may merge onto a freeway or include a toll facility later.
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4. Check whether the road category is actually the issue
A paved local street, a short unpaved connector, a managed HOV lane, and a toll segment are treated as different categories. Enable the matching control; enabling “Avoid freeways” will not prevent a ferry or an unpaved road, for example. If the complaint is about congestion, noise, a difficult intersection, or a particular neighborhood, those concerns may not correspond to any available avoidance category.
5. Test with personalized navigation disabled
If the route consistently follows a former habit—such as a familiar entrance or a repeated detour—temporarily turn off Get personalized routes. If the behavior changes, review or delete the relevant navigation-history entries. Remember that personalization is separate from the road-category toggles, so disabling it does not itself turn on toll, freeway, ferry, HOV, or unpaved-road avoidance.
6. Decide whether the remaining route is unavoidable
When Waze offers no route that satisfies the preference, the app may include the avoided category. In that case, compare the road’s cost, time, surface, and driving conditions with the alternatives shown. The setting has not necessarily failed; the available-route constraint may be controlling the result.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What these settings can—and cannot—do
- They can guide route selection: Waze will try to avoid the categories you enable when a workable alternative exists.
- They can be adjusted per trip: the route-screen Avoid control lets you review choices for an upcoming drive.
- They can be stricter for unpaved roads: Don’t allow is more restrictive than Avoid long ones.
- They cannot guarantee an absolute exclusion: Waze may still use an avoided category when route availability requires it.
- They do not replace route review: check the preview and select an alternative before driving.
- They do not block a named street: the controls are category-based, not a custom permanent blacklist for one address.
A practical setup for drivers who want predictable routes
- Set your normal categories in Settings > Navigation.
- Choose Don’t allow for unpaved roads if even a short dirt or gravel section is unacceptable; choose Avoid long ones if a brief section is manageable.
- Before each unfamiliar trip, enter the destination early enough to review the route preview.
- Open Avoid or the alternate-route control and compare the available routes for road category, time, tolls, and comfort.
- If suggestions still reflect old habits, disable Get personalized routes and remove the relevant drives from navigation history.
- Start navigation only after selecting the route that best matches the conditions you can accept.
This workflow gives Waze clear preferences while acknowledging the app’s central limitation: it can recommend only routes that are available under current map, traffic, and road conditions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Waze permanently block one specific street?
No. Waze’s documented controls avoid categories such as toll roads, ferries, freeways, HOV lanes, and unpaved roads. They are not a permanent blacklist for an individual street. Use the route preview and select another offered route when possible.
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Why does Waze still show a toll road after I enabled Avoid toll roads?
Waze says it may still suggest toll roads when available routes are limited. Recalculate the trip, inspect alternatives, and compare the displayed toll estimate with the time and distance of other routes.
What is the strongest setting for dirt roads?
Under Settings > Navigation > Unpaved roads, choose Don’t allow. It is stricter than Avoid long ones, although Waze can still include an unpaved road when route availability requires it.
Does Avoid freeways also avoid highways or motorways?
Waze may use “freeways,” “highways,” or “motorways” depending on the platform and region. These labels refer to the same general road-category preference in the documented instructions.
How do I change unpaved-road settings while using CarPlay?
Disconnect the iPhone from CarPlay, change the preference in the Waze phone app at Settings > Navigation > Unpaved roads, then reconnect the phone.
Can personalized routing be causing the repeated route?
It can influence suggestions by using previous drives and route choices. Go to Settings > Navigation > Personalization > Personalized navigation and turn off Get personalized routes. Deleting relevant drives from navigation history also removes them from route personalization.
Are Waze toll amounts exact?
No. Waze displays estimates based on factors such as the day, time, date, passes, vehicle type, route, settings, and community information. For congestion-priced roads it may show a variable-price notification instead of one fixed amount. Check the toll operator for the official charge.
Why did the route change after I started driving?
Waze recalculates as road availability and conditions change. A closure, incident, or unavailable connection can leave no route that satisfies every avoidance preference. Pull over safely to review the new route and its alternatives.
The Bottom Line
Set the relevant controls in Settings > Navigation, use Don’t allow for the strictest unpaved-road preference, and review alternatives before starting. If old driving habits appear to steer the route, disable personalized navigation. Waze can prefer an avoidance category, but it cannot guarantee an absolute exclusion when no suitable alternative exists.
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