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Alabaster Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Alabaster, Alabama: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 10/21/26, 7:45 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Alabaster?
Map AI 10/21/26, 7:45 PM

Commute Time Burden in Alabaster: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Alabaster spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 258 hours, about 10.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 40% more time on the road than the Alabama average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 8.8 minutes.

Alabaster holds about 0.5% of Alabama's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Alabaster would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,197 at the same national wage assumption used above.

Area One-Way Commute Daily Round-Trip Yearly Time Spent Estimated Yearly Cost Local Road Traffic (VPD)
Alabaster 30.9 min 61.9 min 258 hrs/yr $7,992 3,748
Alabama 22.1 min 44.3 min 184 hrs/yr $5,717 1,193
United States 22.4 min 44.8 min 187 hrs/yr $5,790 1,355

The estimated yearly cost applies a single national rule of thumb (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics average hourly earnings), not a measurement of wages in this area - treat it as a rough estimate, not a paycheck figure. Local road traffic counts, vehicles per day on non-highway roads, come from proprietary Ticon and TrafficZoom data.

Alabaster Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.9 minutes to get to work in Alabaster. That's 38% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Alabaster

  • Car: 82.2%
  • Worked at Home: 16.6%
  • Other: 0.7%
  • Walked: 0.3% unusually low
  • Bicycle: 0.1%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Walking is unusually rare in Alabaster: 3.6 times less than the Alabama average (0.3% vs 1.1%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Alabaster, versus 0.3% in Alabama.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Alabaster, versus 0.1% in Alabama.

Commute Mode Trends in Alabaster, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Alabaster get to work, as a share of all workers aged 16 and over, across 16 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) releases from 2009 to 2024. Each release is a 5-year estimate: the 2024 figures cover surveys taken from 2020 to 2024. Because neighboring releases share most of their survey years, the lines move gradually, and a sudden change such as the rise of remote work in 2020 spreads across several releases. Hover over or tap a line to highlight it, and use the legend to show or hide a mode. Driving starts hidden so the smaller modes stay readable.

Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show commute mode data by year
Year Car Worked at Home Other Walked Motorcycle Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi
2009 95.1% 3.9% 0.3% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2010 94.7% 4.0% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2011 95.2% 3.6% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0%
2012 96.4% 2.5% 0.4% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0%
2013 96.1% 2.6% 0.7% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
2014 96.1% 2.8% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
2015 95.5% 3.3% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2016 95.2% 3.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2017 95.1% 3.7% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
2018 94.5% 4.8% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
2019 94.2% 4.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
2020 91.1% 8.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 88.3% 11.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 86.1% 13.1% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 84.7% 14.3% 0.5% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 82.2% 16.6% 0.7% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2012 at 96.4%. Overall it fell from 95.1% in 2009 to 82.2% in 2024, down 12.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Alabaster: its share of workers rose from 3.9% in 2009 to 16.6% in 2024, up 12.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Alabaster

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Alabaster?

The bars show when commuters in Alabaster leave home for work, as a share of everyone who commutes (people who work from home are not counted), from the 2024 ACS 5-year estimates. The thin violet marks show Alabama for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM
6.1%
5:00-5:29 AM
3.5%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
11.2%
6:30-6:59 AM
14.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
19.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
9.6%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM
4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
4.3%
4:00-11:59 PM
6.8%

Alabaster Alabama Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Alabaster is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.8% across Alabama. Early starts are less common than in Alabama: 15.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Alabama: 52.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 48.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.4%) leave at 9 AM or later, which usually points to shift work, flexible hours or part-time jobs.

When people leave matters as much as how far they go. Rush-hour traffic shrinks how much ground a 20-minute trip covers, so a trade area drawn as a simple circle often takes in neighborhoods that customers or staff would never drive from and misses others that are an easy trip. A drive-time zone, also called an isochrone, outlines every place within a set number of minutes of an address, which makes it the more honest way to size a store's catchment, a hiring area or the commute from a new home.

See it for yourself on the interactive map: click any spot in Alabaster, pick a 5, 10, 15 or 30-minute drive and see the local demographics of the people who live within that exact drive time.

Is Alabaster Waking Up Earlier? Typical Departure Time, 2009-2024

Each line follows the typical (median) departure time: the moment by which half of commuters have already left home. Higher on the chart means a later start. Setting Alabaster next to Alabama and the U.S. shows whether local mornings are drifting earlier or later than everyone else's. The figures span 16 ACS 5-year releases, so changes build up gradually rather than jumping from one year to the next.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show typical departure times by year
Year Alabaster Alabama United States
2009 7:10 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:08 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:10 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:12 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:14 AM 7:21 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:15 AM 7:21 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:14 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:13 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:11 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:12 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:13 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:16 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:17 AM 7:21 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:10 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:14 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:13 AM 7:19 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Alabaster were on the road by 7:13 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:10 AM). Across Alabama, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Alabaster now leave 25 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Alabaster's commute time compare?

Metric Alabaster Alabama US Average
Avg. Commute Time 30.9 min 22.1 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 16.6% 8.8% 15.0%
Walked 0.3% 1.1% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.3% 3.2%

The average commute time in Alabaster is 30.9 minutes, longer than the 22.1 minutes in Alabama.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Alabama. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.1% in Alabama.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Alabaster, AL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Alabaster, AL compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Alabaster, AL 27,859 30.9 min #1/2 16.6% #2/2 7:13 AM #1/2
Helena, AL 25,213 31.1 min 20.1% 7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Alabaster, Alabama.

Is living in Alabaster, Alabama good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 258 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,992 at a typical national wage. That's 40% more than the typical Alabama commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Alabaster, Alabama?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Alabaster, Alabama. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Alabaster, Alabama?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in Alabama, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Is Alabaster, Alabama a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 16.6% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Alabaster would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,197 at the same national wage assumption used above.