Get directions

Note:

If the Directions button is not present in the map viewer, your portal has not been configured to view directions. Contact your portal administrator if you need this functionality.

If the portal is configured to use the ArcGIS Online network utility service, credits are consumed when the initial route is generated, destinations are modified, or the order is optimized.

Once you get directions, you can do any of the following: zoom to the full route, see a specific segment of the route, make changes to the route, print the directions, save the route as a layer and as an item in My Content, share the route layer with others, and perform analysis on the route.

If you have privileges to perform network analysis, you can use the map viewer to get a set of turn-by-turn driving or walking directions. You can set the travel mode, create a round trip, factor in current traffic, and optimize your route. Beginning with 10.5.1, you can also add a restriction line barrier, which prohibits travel where the barrier intersects the route and dynamically changes the route and directions to avoid the barrier. For example, you might add a restriction line barrier if there is a parade or protest that blocks traffic on your route.

1. Sign in to the portal and open the map viewer.
2. Click Directions to display the Directions pane to the left of the map.
3. Specify an origin and one or more destinations as follows:

   Tip:

   If you see a drop-down arrow above the destination fields, you have multiple search resources for finding destinations. These resources can include custom geocoders configured by the organization and layers enabled by the map author to find features in the map. By default, you search all available resources. Alternatively select the resources you want to use to find destinations for your route.

   1. Enter the origin in the A field .
   2. Enter the destination in the B field .

      Once you add a destination, the route will draw on the map.

      Tip:

      If you want to use your current location as the origin or a destination, hover over the field and click the Find my location button .

   3. To add more destinations, click Add and enter an address in the new field.

      You can also add destinations from pop-ups with location information such as points from feature layers and addresses and places you find with the geocoder at the top of the map viewer. Your route can have up to 49 destinations (and an origin).

      Tip:

      For feature layers with 50 points or less, you can use Route to all Features in the layer menu to add the points as the origin and destinations for directions. Optimize order is enabled by default. If the layer includes a Sequence field, Optimize order is disabled and the points are ordered based on this field (the field isn't used if you enable Optimize order). Feature collections, GeoRSS point features, and ArcGIS Server and hosted feature layers with 50 points or less drawn on the map are supported.

4. Do any of the following to make changes to your destinations:
   • To reorder the origin and destination, click Reverse Directions . Reverse Directions only appears if you have an origin and one destination.
   • To reorder a route with an origin and two or more destinations, drag the letter buttons (for example, the ) in the order you prefer.
   • If you want the map viewer to determine the best sequence in which to visit four or more specified destinations, click Options, check Optimize order, and click Get Directions. The origin and final destination are fixed, and the intermediate destinations are optimized.
   • If you have three or more destinations and an origin and want to remove any of these, click the small x beside the one you want to remove.
5. Do any of the following to make changes to the route:
   • If there is a barrier that affects the route, such as a parade or protest restricting traffic, or if you want to avoid a specific area along the route, click the Barriers button and draw a line on the map to represent the barrier. Continue drawing new barriers as needed.

     The route and directions dynamically change to avoid the line barrier or barriers drawn. To remove a barrier, click it. When you are finished adding barriers, click the Barriers button to toggle it off.

   • To change travel modes, choose the option you want from the drop-down menu. The default mode is Driving Time, which optimizes travel time for cars and other small automobiles. Other options include the following:
     • Driving Distance—Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars.
     • Rural Driving Time—Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel time. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars but does not discourage travel on unpaved roads. Dynamic travel speeds based on traffic are used where it is available when you specify a start time.
     • Rural Driving Distance—Models the movement of cars and other similar small automobiles, such as pickup trucks, and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Travel obeys one-way roads, avoids illegal turns, and follows other rules that are specific to cars but does not discourage travel on unpaved roads.
     • Trucking Time—Models basic truck travel by preferring designated truck routes and finds solutions that optimize travel time. Routes must obey one-way roads, avoid illegal turns, and so on.
     • Trucking Distance—Models basic truck travel by preferring designated truck routes and finds solutions that optimize travel distance. Routes must obey one-way roads, avoid illegal turns, and so on.
     • Walking Time—Follows paths and roads that allow pedestrian traffic and finds solutions that optimize travel time. The walking speed is set to 5 kilometers per hour.
     • Walking Distance—Follows paths and roads that allow pedestrian traffic and finds solutions that optimize travel distance.
   • To create a round-trip route, click Options and check Return to start.
   • To see an image representing traffic on your map, click Options and check the Show traffic box.

     Note:

     Traffic data is only available if the following conditions are met:

     • The specified travel mode is time-based and supports traffic data, that is, Driving Time or Rural Driving Time.
     • You are signed in to the portal with an account that has privileges to perform network analysis.
     • Your portal is configured to use the ArcGIS Online routing service and your route is in a supported network coverage area. For information on network coverage area for the ArcGIS Online routing service, see Network analysis services in the ArcGIS Online help.

6. If the specified travel mode is time-based and supports live traffic data—for example, Driving Time—choose a departure option as follows:
   1. You can toggle between the option to Leave Now or Depart At by clicking the Leave Now or Depart At link and choosing the departure option you want.
   2. If you choose Depart At, select a departure time and date. The departure time is set in the time zone of the place of departure.
7. Click Get Directions.

   The route is shown on the map, and a route summary and turn-by-turn text directions are shown in the left pane of the map viewer.

The time zone of the destination is used for the arrival and departure times displayed in the turn-by-turn directions.

If you checked the Show traffic check box under Options, the traffic layer is updated to the start time of the route.

The information displayed in the route summary depends on several factors: the travel mode selected, the departure option chosen, and whether your route is in a supported network coverage area. If you selected a travel mode that supports traffic (Driving Time or Rural Driving Time) and your route is in a supported network coverage area, the route summary displays a time estimate followed by the word typically to indicate that traffic data was used to calculate the estimate. If you also chose the Leave Now option, current traffic is used to calculate the travel time shown. If you instead chose Depart At, predictive, observed, or historical traffic calculations are used (depending on the start time specified), and the route summary includes a label—Light Traffic or Heavy Traffic. If the route is not in a supported network coverage area, the label No Traffic Info is displayed. If you chose a time-based travel mode that does not support traffic—for example, Trucking Time—no traffic information is used to calculate the time estimate displayed.

Use your route

Once you get directions, use your route in any of the following ways:

• To see a specific segment of the route, click the segment in the Directions pane. The map recenters on that segment and displays a pop-up with directions and an option to zoom to the segment.
• To zoom the map back to the full extent of the route, click the route summary.
• To make changes to the route, hover over the part of the route on the map you want to change and drag the white circle to the desired location. The route on the map and the turn-by-turn directions in the Directions pane are updated dynamically.

  When editing a round-trip route in which at least part of the route is used twice (for example, to go from A to B and back to A), you might want to alter the route in one direction but not the other. For example, suppose you have an origin (A) and one destination (B) in your route and you only want to change the route in the A to B direction but not the B to A direction. To do so, click the appropriate A to B segment in the Directions pane, hover over that segment of the route on the map, and drag the white circle to change the route for the A to B portion. To verify that the route has been updated as desired, click any of the segments in the Directions pane for the A to B portion of the route; the white arrows on the updated route should point in the correct direction to reflect your changes.

• To create a printer-friendly version of the turn-by-turn text directions, click Print in the Directions pane. Once you close the Directions pane, you cannot print the text directions for the route. Use Print at the top of the map viewer to print the route map (your map won't include driving directions).
• If you have privileges to create content, you can save your route as a layer and as an item in My Content. Click the Save button , enter a title, choose a folder in which to save the route, and click Save. You can then close the Directions pane and return to Contents to see the layer and configure it as needed. If you added any barriers to the route, these are saved with the route in a PolylineBarriers sublayer.
• Once the route is saved, you can click Share the route to view and edit its item details and, optionally share the route item with others. Once shared, the route layer item can be accessed and used by others. Depending on their privileges and the way you shared the item, others can add the route layer to a new or existing map, configure it, edit it, and save the updated route as a new route.
• If you have privileges to create content, you can save a route layer as part of a map. If you do not have privileges to create content, you can still add an existing route to the map, but you cannot save the map.
• If you have privileges to create content and publish features, once you've saved the route layer, you can perform analysis on it.