A navigation system provides lane guidance for a navigation route. The navigation route specifies actions for a user to navigate a route from an originating point to a destination along a set of road segments. The lane guidance at a position along the navigation route scores the lanes and provides the lane scoring for the user. To score the lanes, the navigation system determines a lane distance for each lane indicating how far along the navigation route a user may continue to use this lane, without shifting to another lane. The lane distance may be measured up to a look-ahead distance. The lane distance includes distance along subsequent road segments of the route, such that when a lane turns onto a lane on another road segment according to the navigation route, the distance along the other road may be included in the lane distance.