Fort Collins Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/21/26, 7:55 PM

Is the commute in Fort Collins longer than the national average?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:55 PM

Commute Time Burden in Fort Collins: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Fort Collins spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 140 hours, about 5.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% less time on the road than the Colorado average of 22.0 minutes each way, a difference of 5.2 minutes.

Fort Collins holds about 2.7% of Colorado's population but accounts for roughly 2.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Fort Collins would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,742 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 Collins	16.9 min	33.7 min	140 hrs/yr	$4,354	2,771
Colorado	22.0 min	44.1 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,694	1,277
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 Collins Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.9 minutes to get to work in Fort Collins. That's 25% 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 20.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Fort Collins

Biking is unusually common in Fort Collins: 4.6 times more than the Colorado average (4.2% vs 0.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in Fort Collins, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Fort Collins 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	81.4%	5.8%	3.4%	6.8%	1.3%	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%
2010	82.0%	5.8%	3.2%	6.7%	1.1%	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%
2011	81.4%	6.1%	3.6%	6.6%	1.3%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%
2012	80.4%	6.3%	3.7%	7.0%	1.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%
2013	80.9%	6.4%	3.6%	6.9%	1.3%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	81.1%	6.1%	3.5%	6.8%	1.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2015	80.3%	6.0%	3.9%	7.0%	1.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	80.2%	6.3%	3.9%	6.9%	2.1%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	79.9%	6.8%	3.7%	6.6%	2.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	79.7%	6.8%	4.2%	6.1%	2.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	78.8%	7.8%	4.5%	5.6%	2.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	76.4%	11.0%	4.5%	5.0%	2.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	73.0%	14.9%	4.5%	4.5%	1.9%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	71.1%	16.6%	4.8%	4.6%	1.7%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	69.6%	19.1%	4.4%	4.4%	1.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	68.6%	20.7%	4.3%	4.2%	1.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 82.0%. Overall it fell from 81.4% in 2009 to 68.6% in 2024, down 12.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Fort Collins: its share of workers rose from 5.8% in 2009 to 20.7% in 2024, up 14.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 6.8% to 4.2% of workers (down 2.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook biking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 2.4% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 1.3%.

Commute Start Times in Fort Collins

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fort Collins?

The bars show when commuters in Fort Collins 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 Colorado for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.7%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.7%

Fort Collins Colorado Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Fort Collins is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across Colorado. Early starts are less common than in Colorado: 9.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Colorado: 47.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.3%) 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 Collins, 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 Collins 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 Collins next to Colorado 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	Fort Collins	Colorado	United States
2009	7:56 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:57 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:59 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:58 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:57 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:57 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:57 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:55 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:54 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:53 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:54 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:55 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:58 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:00 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Fort Collins were on the road by 8:01 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:56 AM). Across Colorado, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Fort Collins now leave 23 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 Collins has moved 7 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Fort Collins in the whole series.

How does Fort Collins's commute time compare?

Metric	Fort Collins	Colorado	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.9 min	22.0 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	20.7%	21.0%	15.0%
Walked	4.3%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	1.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Fort Collins is 16.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.0 minutes in Colorado.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.6% in Colorado. 4.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Colorado.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Fort Collins, CO Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Fort Collins, CO compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Fort Collins, CO	155,858	16.9 min #1/3	20.7% #1/3	8:01 AM #3/3
Loveland, CO	66,361	22.6 min	19.1%	7:37 AM
Windsor, CO	24,053	22.6 min	19.7%	7:34 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Is living in Fort Collins, Colorado good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 140 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,354 at a typical national wage. That's 24% less than the typical Colorado commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Fort Collins, Colorado?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Fort Collins, Colorado. 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.