Fort Smith Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Fort Smith, Arkansas: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in Fort Smith: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Fort Smith spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 130 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.
Fort Smith holds about 2.8% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 2.3% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Fort Smith would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,606 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Smith | 15.5 min | 31.1 min | 130 hrs/yr | $4,016 | 2,370 |
| Arkansas | 18.6 min | 37.2 min | 155 hrs/yr | $4,807 | 912 |
| 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.
Fort Smith Commute Map
On average, it takes 15.5 minutes to get to work in Fort Smith. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Fort Smith
- Car: 89.3%
- Worked at Home: 7.4%
- Walked: 1.2%
- Other: 1.1%
- Taxi: 0.4% unusually high
- Motorcycle: 0.2%
- Bicycle: 0.2%
- Public Transportation: 0.2%
Taking a taxi is unusually common in Fort Smith: 4.5 times more than the Arkansas average (0.4% vs 0.1%).
Commute Mode Trends in Fort Smith, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Fort Smith 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Walked | Other | Taxi | Public Transportation | Motorcycle | Bicycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 95.6% | 1.6% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| 2010 | 94.9% | 1.8% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.3% |
| 2011 | 94.7% | 2.1% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2012 | 95.0% | 1.8% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 2013 | 94.3% | 2.1% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 2014 | 94.1% | 2.1% | 1.7% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
| 2015 | 94.5% | 1.9% | 1.6% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 0.2% |
| 2016 | 93.8% | 1.6% | 2.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.1% |
| 2017 | 93.1% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.2% |
| 2018 | 92.8% | 2.4% | 2.1% | 1.1% | 0.1% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.3% |
| 2019 | 92.3% | 3.0% | 2.3% | 1.3% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2020 | 90.9% | 4.4% | 2.1% | 1.7% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2021 | 90.6% | 4.9% | 1.6% | 2.0% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| 2022 | 90.2% | 5.8% | 1.6% | 1.6% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2023 | 89.0% | 7.1% | 1.6% | 1.5% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% |
| 2024 | 89.3% | 7.4% | 1.2% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2023 at 89.0%. Overall it fell from 95.6% in 2009 to 89.3% in 2024, down 6.3 percentage points.
Working from home gained the most ground in Fort Smith: its share of workers rose from 1.6% in 2009 to 7.4% in 2024, up 5.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking peaked at 2.3% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 1.2%.
Commute Start Times in Fort Smith
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fort Smith?
The bars show when commuters in Fort Smith 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 Arkansas for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
| 12:00-4:59 AM |
12:00-4:59 AM
Fort Smith4.9%
Arkansas5.6%
|
4.9% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Fort Smith2.9%
Arkansas4.1%
|
2.9% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Fort Smith5.1%
Arkansas5.2%
|
5.1% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Fort Smith7.1%
Arkansas9.3%
|
7.1% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Fort Smith9.9%
Arkansas11.2%
|
9.9% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Fort Smith13.1%
Arkansas17.5%
|
13.1% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Fort Smith16.9%
Arkansas13.9%
|
16.9% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Fort Smith9.5%
Arkansas9.2%
|
9.5% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Fort Smith4.7%
Arkansas3.6%
|
4.7% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Fort Smith5.9%
Arkansas4.5%
|
5.9% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Fort Smith2.9%
Arkansas2.2%
|
2.9% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Fort Smith1.4%
Arkansas1.1%
|
1.4% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Fort Smith8.3%
Arkansas6.2%
|
8.3% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Fort Smith7.5%
Arkansas6.4%
|
7.5% |
Fort Smith Arkansas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Fort Smith is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across Arkansas. Early starts are less common than in Arkansas: 12.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Arkansas: 49.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.0%) 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 Fort Smith, 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 Fort Smith 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 Fort Smith next to Arkansas 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Fort Smith | Arkansas | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:46 AM | 7:28 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:50 AM | 7:28 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 7:48 AM | 7:28 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 7:48 AM | 7:27 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:49 AM | 7:27 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:48 AM | 7:27 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:45 AM | 7:27 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:47 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:49 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:48 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:48 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:49 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:48 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:47 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:45 AM | 7:26 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:43 AM | 7:25 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Fort Smith were on the road by 7:43 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:46 AM). Arkansas followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Fort Smith now leave 5 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 Fort Smith has moved 5 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Fort Smith in the whole series.
How does Fort Smith's commute time compare?
| Metric | Fort Smith | Arkansas | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 15.5 min | 18.6 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 | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 7.4% | 8.8% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 1.2% | 1.4% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 0.2% | 0.3% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Fort Smith is 15.5 minutes, shorter than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.
0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 1.4% in Arkansas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Fort Smith, Arkansas?
Commuters here spend an estimated 130 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,016 at a typical national wage. That's 16% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Fort Smith, Arkansas?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.