West Memphis Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/21/26, 7:46 PM

How much time do drivers in West Memphis spend on the road daily?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:46 PM

Commute Time Burden in West Memphis: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in West Memphis spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 139 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.9 minutes.

West Memphis holds about 0.7% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in West Memphis would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,725 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)
West Memphis	16.7 min	33.4 min	139 hrs/yr	$4,313	1,703
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.

West Memphis Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.7 minutes to get to work in West Memphis. That's 26% 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 6.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in West Memphis

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in West Memphis, versus 0.1% in Arkansas.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in West Memphis, versus 0.1% in Arkansas.

Commute Mode Trends in West Memphis, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in West Memphis 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	93.9%	1.6%	0.7%	2.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	94.2%	1.9%	0.7%	1.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	93.8%	1.6%	1.0%	1.8%	1.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	92.6%	2.7%	1.2%	2.1%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	92.4%	2.0%	1.8%	2.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	92.1%	2.0%	2.0%	2.4%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	91.9%	0.9%	2.7%	3.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2016	91.3%	1.9%	2.5%	3.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2017	92.2%	1.6%	2.0%	3.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%
2018	92.9%	1.6%	1.7%	2.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%
2019	93.5%	2.5%	1.8%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2020	93.2%	3.8%	1.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	94.0%	3.2%	1.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	92.4%	5.2%	1.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	91.9%	5.8%	1.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.9%	6.0%	1.2%	0.6%	0.2%	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 was highest in 2010 at 94.2% and lowest in 2016 at 91.3%. Overall it fell from 93.9% in 2009 to 91.9% in 2024, down 2.0 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in West Memphis: its share of workers rose from 1.6% in 2009 to 6.0% in 2024, up 4.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.8% to 0.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2013 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 2.7% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 1.2%.

Commute Start Times in West Memphis

What Time Do People Leave for Work in West Memphis?

The bars show when commuters in West Memphis 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		3.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		8.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		5.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.0%

West Memphis Arkansas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in West Memphis is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across Arkansas. Early starts are more common than in Arkansas: 15.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Arkansas: 48.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.0%) 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 West Memphis, 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 West Memphis 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 West Memphis 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	West Memphis	Arkansas	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:35 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:26 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:37 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:43 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:34 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in West Memphis were on the road by 7:34 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:41 AM). The shift is sharper than across Arkansas, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in West Memphis now leave 4 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in West Memphis has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does West Memphis's commute time compare?

Metric	West Memphis	Arkansas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.7 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	6.0%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in West Memphis is 16.7 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.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in West Memphis, Arkansas.

What is the financial impact of commuting in West Memphis, Arkansas?

Commuters here spend an estimated 139 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,313 at a typical national wage. That's 10% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in West Memphis, Arkansas?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in West Memphis, 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.