Thornton Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

Updated 22 September 2026

You 11/2/26, 6:23 PM

Is the commute in Thornton longer than the national average?

Map AI 11/2/26, 6:23 PM

Commute Time Burden in Thornton: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Thornton spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 239 hours, about 9.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 30% more time on the road than the Colorado average of 22.0 minutes each way, a difference of 6.6 minutes.

Thornton holds about 2.3% of Colorado's population but accounts for roughly 3.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Thornton would save about 95 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,958 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)
Thornton	28.6 min	57.2 min	239 hrs/yr	$7,394	3,091
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.

Thornton Commute Map

On average, it takes 28.6 minutes to get to work in Thornton. That's 28% 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 14.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Thornton

Walking is unusually rare in Thornton: 3.6 times less than the Colorado average (0.7% vs 2.5%).

Biking is unusually rare in Thornton: 4.4 times less than the Colorado average (0.2% vs 0.9%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Thornton: just 0.9%, 3.7 times below the Colorado average of 3.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in Thornton, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Thornton 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	90.3%	3.1%	4.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	90.1%	3.6%	4.0%	1.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	90.4%	3.7%	3.5%	1.1%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	91.0%	3.6%	3.2%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	91.0%	4.1%	3.0%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	91.2%	4.0%	2.8%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	91.2%	4.4%	2.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	90.4%	4.5%	3.2%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	89.6%	5.2%	3.4%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	89.3%	5.5%	3.5%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	88.8%	6.1%	3.5%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	87.6%	7.4%	3.2%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	86.1%	9.5%	2.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	84.0%	11.8%	2.4%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	83.1%	13.1%	1.9%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	81.9%	14.6%	1.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	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 2014 at 91.2%. Overall it fell from 90.3% in 2009 to 81.9% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 9 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Thornton: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 14.6% in 2024, up 11.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.5% to 1.7% of workers (down 2.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2011 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Thornton

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Thornton?

The bars show when commuters in Thornton 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		6.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Thornton is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Colorado. Early starts are more common than in Colorado: 17.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Colorado: 47.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.5%) 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 Thornton, 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 Thornton 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 Thornton 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	Thornton	Colorado	United States
2009	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:13 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Thornton were on the road by 7:21 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Colorado, the typical start barely moved either. Commuters in Thornton now leave 17 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 Thornton has moved 7 minutes later.

How does Thornton's commute time compare?

Metric	Thornton	Colorado	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.6 min	22.0 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	14.6%	21.0%	15.0%
Walked	0.7%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.7%	1.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Thornton is 28.6 minutes, longer than the 22.0 minutes in Colorado.

1.7% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.6% in Colorado. 0.7% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Colorado.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Thornton, CO Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Thornton, CO compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Thornton, CO	134,665	28.6 min #2/2	14.6% #1/2	7:21 AM #2/2
Northglenn, CO	36,757	27.5 min	14.0%	7:10 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Thornton, Colorado.

Is commuting expensive in Thornton, Colorado?

Commuters here spend an estimated 239 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,394 at a typical national wage. That's 30% more than the typical Colorado commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Thornton, Colorado?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Thornton, Colorado. 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.