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Do not cut, merge or disconnect any segment of a toll road, whether it is flagged or not, without consulting a state manager in your state, preferably someone with access to the [tolls.waze.com toll tool]. Doing so may break a toll price file. See the prices section for further details. |
Waze has the ability to mark toll facilities, in order to provide better routing, pricing and other information to users. In addition to traditional toll roads, facilities that may be marked as toll include HOT lanes, toll ferries and roads through parks that require an entrance fee. Depending on the facility, this can be done by simply marking a whole segment as a toll road, or by creating a toll-free partial restriction. For either method used, the effects are identical when a user's route traverses a qualifying toll road segment. Routes that traverse a toll segment will show a toll icon on the route preview and route comparison screens in the app. An estimated price will be displayed in the toll icon, if this information has been added to Waze's toll price tool. Toll roads also affect routing in unique ways.
Routing
Toll roads have two different routing effects, dependent upon what a user selects in the navigation settings in the client app:
- When the client option to "avoid toll roads" is disabled, a small routing penalty is added to every transition from a toll segment to a non-toll segment.
- This means that the routing server may choose a free route, even if it takes a little longer than a toll route.
- This also means that the routing server may choose a route with one toll segment, even if it takes a little longer than a route with multiple discontinuous toll segments.
- When the client option to "avoid toll roads" is enabled, a large routing penalty is added to the route for every single toll segment, even in sequence.
- This means that any toll segment will be avoided if at all reasonably possible.
- This also means that given two route options the routing server will choose the one with the fewest number of toll segments, regardless of if they are consecutive or not.
Note: The penalty for "avoid toll roads" is very high, and the definition here of reasonable may seem extreme. The routing server will prefer a significant detour to avoid a toll, but not one it considers to be insane or impossible. The exact amounts of both penalties are proprietary information and are not published by Waze.
Editing
For most toll roads, all traffic must pay a toll at all times. We will call this a fully tolled road. If a road can be used for free by a subset of vehicles or at certain times, we will call it a partially tolled road.
Fully tolled
To represent a fully tolled road in the editor, click the Add restrictions button and check the Toll road attribute.
The choice of which segments to mark as toll can be made according to one of two methods. Note that within a certain area, these methods should not be mixed, because improper routing may result.
Only collection points
Under this method, only a segment (entrance/exit/highway) that actually traverses through a toll booth, collection point, or ticket dispenser is marked as toll. This means that all paths traverse a single toll segment per toll location, and they are only assessed with a single toll penalty, whether avoid toll roads is on or off. This may mean that only a single segment is tolled, or if there are parallel segments going through the toll location (e.g. multiple entrance or exit ramps, cash and pass lanes), a single segment of each path is tolled. This method works well when a driver wants to or must use a toll road, and the avoid toll roads option is enabled. This is the preferred method for most of the US.
There are a few benefits to this method, as opposed to marking every segment of a toll road.
- It allows the routing server to pick a route with lowest number of tolls along the route.
- It will apply an identical penalty to two different toll roads (assuming they both have one toll collection point) regardless of how many segments the toll road is made of. This allows two toll bridges and/or tunnels to the same destination to be treated equally; the routing server will pick the most appropriate one regardless of their individual segment count, and the .
- It reduces the likelihood of detours through rest areas, whose roads would not otherwise be tolled.
All segments
In some regions editors may choose to mark all segments of a toll road as toll. This works well for users who do not have the avoid toll roads option enabled, and multiple options exist with toll collection points spaced closely together. The routing server assesses the same penalty for traveling on any toll road in the area, because one transition off of a toll road exists for any option, and the user can decide on whichever price they are willing to pay. If this method is used, it's best to mark ramps between toll facilities as toll roads also, so that an extra transition penalty isn't applied for users who aren't looking to avoid tolls.
Partially tolled
Partially tolled roads are represented in the editor with toll free restrictions. For example, if a road collects a toll from all vehicles except for electric vehicles, a toll-free restriction may be added to specify that electric vehicles are toll-free. If the electric vehicle type is selected in the client, this road will treated like any other free road. If any other vehicle type is selected in the app, this road will be treated like any other toll road. The partial restrictions page explains in great detail how to add these restrictions.
Time-based
If a road only charges a toll for part of the day, or on certain days of the week or months of the year, the best way to represent this is with a toll free restriction. Note that all partial restrictions only have effects during their times of validity. The toll free restriction means that during the time that the restriction is active, the road will behave like a toll road for any vehicle that does not fit the criteria listed in the restriction. So if a road charges a toll to everyone except for electric vehicles during the weekday morning rush from 6 to 9 AM, but it's free at all other times, this can be represented in the editor simply by making a toll free restriction for electric vehicles Mon-Fri from 06:00-8:59. It will be a toll road on weekday mornings for personal vehicles, taxis and motorcycles, but not at other times. It will never be a toll road for electric vehicles.
What if a road charges tolls to everyone, but only at certain times? Say that a road only charges a toll from 6 AM to midnight. It might intuitively make sense to add a toll-free restriction from 00:00-05:59 (when the road is free) for all selectable vehicle types, but the routing server will simply see this as a free road 24/7 for everyone. Instead, a toll-free restriction is necessary during the times that the road is tolled, and it must be impossible to satisfy. Unfortunately, WME requires the selection of at least one criterion (vehicle type, pass or passenger number) when making a toll free restriction, so we must use a vehicle type that is not selectable in the app and not likely to be supported in the future, such as truck or public transportation. So with this example, making a toll free restriction from 06:00-23:59 for public transportation will make this a toll road for everyone from 6AM to midnight and a free road for everyone from midnight to 6 AM.