Discover everything on this page about the effect of routing on planning your route: how to make the right choice, how to adjust routing, and how to combine multiple routing options in one route.
Making a choice
While planning a route, you can select your preferred routing option.
- In the app via the 'More' button.
- On the website via the 'Routing' section in the planning module on the left.
The selected routing determines what type of roads will be followed when planning your route. For more info:
RouteYou routing options explained
The list of routing options is long but gets shortened based on:
- your choice in the "Route type" section.
Overview of RouteYou routing options - the region on the map where you want to plan a route.
Availability of RouteYou routing options
DID YOU KNOW?
Choosing a specific routing option may cause the planner to deliberately avoid certain roads or paths. If you still want to follow a specific road or path, it's best to choose the "shortest" routing.
The actual planning
To plan a route, you provide one or more destinations to the system. You can do this by entering one or more addresses, or by clicking on the map. Between two consecutive via points, RouteYou calculates the most suitable road based on your selected routing option.
If you move a via point, you'll see the effect immediately. The route will be (re)calculated according to the selected routing option.
Changing the routing while planning
If you change the routing while planning a route in the app, the entire route will be adjusted to match the conditions of the new routing.
If you change the routing on the website during or after planning a route, you’ll be asked whether you want to apply the new routing to:
- the entire route
- the next changes
In this case, the entire route will be recalculated based on the new routing.
Suppose you already mapped out a route from A to B to C to D and you choose to apply the new routing to the entire route, then each segment (A-B, B-C, C-D) will be recalculated using the newly selected routing.
DID YOU KNOW?
If you change the routing option for a loop route, the entire route will be recalculated immediately.
Only the part of the route you still plan or modify will be (re)calculated using the new routing.
Suppose you already mapped out a route from A to B to C to D and you choose to apply the new routing only to the next changes, then depending on your actions, the effect may vary:
Possible scenarios:
- Adding a new point at the end of your route: If you add a point E to your route, only the segment D-E will be calculated using the new routing. The segments A-B, B-C, and C-D remain unchanged.
- Adding a point between two existing points: If you click between B and C and drag a new point to a specific location (let’s call it P), then the segments B-P and P-C will be calculated using the new routing. The segments A-B and C-D remain unchanged.
- Moving an existing point: If you move point C to a new location, the segments B-C and C-D will be recalculated using the new routing. The segment A-B remains unchanged.
Frequently Asked Questions
Choosing a specific routing option may cause the planner to deliberately avoid certain roads or paths. If you still want to follow a specific road or path, it's best to choose the "shortest" routing.
If you want to use small (unpaved) paths, it's best to choose "shortest - OSM". Note: in that case, restrictions like one-way streets or limited access paths are not taken into account. The system follows the available network regardless of the mode you're planning for.
If you want full control over your route and also want to use paths that are (not yet) part of the network, you can switch to "manual" routing.
More info at: Overview of RouteYou routing options
Some routing options take more time to calculate the most scenic path. That’s why we limit the distance between two via points to avoid long waiting times. You can solve this by adding an extra via point and keeping the distance between points under 300 km.
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Option 1 – 'manual/shortest missing'
You probably selected the "Loop" option when planning.
For loops, we don’t offer the 'manual' option because the route is always calculated over the network. 'Manual' is meant for planning off-network, which would contradict a loop.
The 'shortest' option is also not available here because a loop implies a return to the start. The shortest route would be staying at the start point.
SOLUTION: If you choose "From A to B" in the planner, you’ll see the 'manual' (or 'shortest') options appear.
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Option 2 – 'I don’t see walking routes'
The routing options depend on the selected route type. For example, if you choose "cycling", we won’t show walking options like 'Walking - Node Network'.
SOLUTION: Choose the correct route type to see the relevant options.
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Option 3 – 'a specific option is missing'
Not all regions in the world support the same routing options. Some options aren’t relevant in certain areas because the infrastructure doesn’t exist. For example, 'Walking - Node Network' is only available in regions where such networks exist. In remote areas, we might not yet have the data to offer that routing.
More info at: Availability of RouteYou routing options