Instead of redirecting my route to save (for example) two minutes, I'd like waze to know what routes I prefer and only divert me if an alternate route saves me a time amount of my choosing.

For example, only reroute me if the alternate route saves me 10 minutes. In other words, only take me through the sticks if its really worth my while...and I'll tell you what's worth my while.

I have the client set to choose the shortest route. Sometimes when I look at the routes there a re a number of alternatives with by similar ETAs. While I'm usually keen to get to get to my destination as a soon as possible I don't want to go on a long detour to save one or two minutes.

Can the routing server identify such a situation and make a sensible choice. I guess similar issues may be in play for toll roads.

Perhaps you could consider travelling 5 miles to save 1 minute excessive but anything less than this ratio is acceptable.

There are already many options which affect a Wazer's routing, and many many more suggested on these forums. But sometimes a user will deactivate features without realizing their worth. For example, I never want to take a toll road, so I have those disabled -- but if I was stuck in traffic, and a toll road could save me some ridiculous amount of time, I might consider it, despite my usual preference.

So I would propose that any preferences which affect navigation can sort of "self-activate." Perhaps the user could set a time or distance delta threshold before the option flips on. Or perhaps when Waze determines that it really really is in the driver's best interest, it can suggest using that feature (rather than just rerouting).

There should be more that 3 suggesting routes that include and don't include highway and tolls!

I'd love to see Waze show alternate routes as I'm driving. In the ideal world, this would be live and dynamic, but that might be way to hard of a problem. An alternate would be to allow me to specify alternate routes for my saved locations (i.e. my normal commutes).

For example (distances, driving times from google): I work in downtown Seattle and live near the University. Waze often wants me to take I5N -> to NE 45th St [2.7mi, 8min]; I don't like the bridge segment of I5, and I hate driving through the University neighborhood (both are subject to unexpected delays). So I usually opt to ignore Waze and go I5N -> 520W -> Montlake Blvd (which then merges into the same place) [2.4mi, 7min]. Almost always after I make the turn, Waze updates the route and my arrival times stays the same (or +/- 1-2 minutes). However, occasionally there will be a problem on 520 that backs up traffic and my alternate route will take me 5-10-30 minutes longer! Because I ignore Waze's suggestion I don't see the problem until it's to late.

My suggestions in that alternate turns are shown in a lighter color under the next turn suggestion.

Current:
[White on Black] Rt 1.2 miles: NE 45th St

My proposal is to leave this the same and add a new line underneath:

[White on Black] Rt 1.2 miles: Exit 169 for NE 45th St
[black on gray?] Rt 0.1 miles: Exit 168B to merge onto WA-520 E toward Bellevue/Kirkland / Alternate route: +2 minutes

Implementation (In order of preference)

1 - Waze suggests any "viable" alternative. Viable means that it doesn't suggest you get off the freeway and get right back on at a cost of 2 minutes; and maybe that the alternate route won't add more than X minutes

2 - Waze only suggests alternate routes that were available at the beginning - I'd guess this is doable, but not very helpful for long routes...

3 - Waze only shows my previously defined alternate routes. I initially tell Waze my preferred routes, and it always shows those as alternates. This would work great for commuting where my start and end points are almost always the same, but not so great when I'm out and about and using Waze as a traditional GPS.