Pricing
Map Drive-Time Zone10-min drive time • PDF report

Mountain Brook Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Mountain Brook, 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
Is the commute in Mountain Brook longer than the national average?
Map AI 10/21/26, 7:45 PM

Commute Time Burden in Mountain Brook: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mountain Brook spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 144 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% less time on the road than the Alabama average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 4.8 minutes.

Mountain Brook holds about 0.5% of Alabama's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Mountain Brook would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,788 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)
Mountain Brook 17.3 min 34.6 min 144 hrs/yr $4,471 3,978
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.

Mountain Brook Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.3 minutes to get to work in Mountain Brook. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mountain Brook

  • Car: 82.9%
  • Worked at Home: 16.2%
  • Walked: 0.4%
  • Other: 0.4%
  • Bicycle: 0.1%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Mountain Brook, versus 0.1% in Alabama.

Public transit is unusually rare in Mountain Brook: 31.2 times less than the Alabama average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Mountain Brook: 10.2 times less than the Alabama average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Mountain Brook, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Mountain Brook 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 Walked Other Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 94.0% 4.3% 0.8% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2010 93.4% 4.7% 0.8% 0.7% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2011 93.7% 4.3% 0.8% 0.7% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2012 94.2% 4.2% 0.6% 0.3% 0.6% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 94.7% 4.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2014 94.4% 4.5% 0.4% 0.0% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0%
2015 94.4% 4.3% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3%
2016 94.3% 4.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.5% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3%
2017 93.8% 4.9% 0.3% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2% 0.4%
2018 92.3% 6.4% 0.5% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
2019 91.1% 7.7% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3%
2020 87.3% 11.4% 0.8% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 85.7% 13.2% 0.7% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 83.8% 15.1% 0.8% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 83.1% 15.8% 0.5% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 82.9% 16.2% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0% 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 2013 at 94.7%. Overall it fell from 94.0% in 2009 to 82.9% in 2024, down 11.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 9 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Mountain Brook: its share of workers rose from 4.3% in 2009 to 16.2% in 2024, up 11.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Mountain Brook

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mountain Brook?

The bars show when commuters in Mountain Brook 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
0.5%
5:00-5:29 AM
0.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
1.7%
6:00-6:29 AM
6.6%
6:30-6:59 AM
4.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
23.1%
8:00-8:29 AM
17.3%
8:30-8:59 AM
6.7%
9:00-9:59 AM
14.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.2%
12:00-3:59 PM
3.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
2.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Mountain Brook is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 23.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.8% across Alabama. Early starts are less common than in Alabama: 2.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Alabama: 60.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 48.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.7%) 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 Mountain Brook, 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 Mountain Brook 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 Mountain Brook 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 Mountain Brook Alabama United States
2009 7:48 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:47 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:46 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:45 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:44 AM 7:21 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:46 AM 7:21 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:47 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:47 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:50 AM 7:21 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:53 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:52 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2020 8:00 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:59 AM 7:21 AM 7:37 AM
2022 8:00 AM 7:20 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:59 AM 7:20 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:57 AM 7:19 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mountain Brook were on the road by 7:57 AM, 9 minutes later than in 2009 (7:48 AM). Across Alabama, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Mountain Brook now leave 19 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Mountain Brook has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Mountain Brook's commute time compare?

Metric Mountain Brook Alabama US Average
Avg. Commute Time 17.3 min 22.1 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 16.2% 8.8% 15.0%
Walked 0.4% 1.1% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.3% 3.2%

The average commute time in Mountain Brook is 17.3 minutes, shorter than the 22.1 minutes in Alabama.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Alabama. 0.4% commute by walking, lower than the 1.1% in Alabama.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Mountain Brook, AL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Mountain Brook, AL is the smallest of the 4 cities compared here, 23,287 residents against a local median of 32,245. Where Mountain Brook, AL breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 19% above the local median of 13.7% at 16.2%.

The cities themselves spread 6.6% on work from home, so Mountain Brook, AL sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Mountain Brook, AL has the 2nd highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Mountain Brook, AL 23,287 17.3 min #2/4 16.2% #2/4 7:57 AM #3/4
Vestavia Hills, AL 32,245 18.4 min 17.1% 7:51 AM
Birmingham, AL 207,255 20.6 min 10.4% 7:42 AM
Homewood, AL 27,106 16.5 min 13.7% 7:58 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Mountain Brook, Alabama.

Is commuting expensive in Mountain Brook, Alabama?

Commuters here spend an estimated 144 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,471 at a typical national wage. That's 22% less than the typical Alabama commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Mountain Brook, Alabama?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Mountain Brook, 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 Mountain Brook, Alabama a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 16.2% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Mountain Brook would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,788 at the same national wage assumption used above.