Wheat Ridge Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Wheat Ridge, Colorado: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in Wheat Ridge: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Wheat Ridge spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 183 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the Colorado average of 22.0 minutes each way.
Wheat Ridge holds about 0.6% of Colorado's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Wheat Ridge would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,271 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat Ridge | 22.0 min | 44.0 min | 183 hrs/yr | $5,678 | 3,817 |
| 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.
Wheat Ridge Commute Map
On average, it takes 22.0 minutes to get to work in Wheat Ridge. That's 2% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 21.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Wheat Ridge
- Car: 71.3%
- Worked at Home: 21.8%
- Public Transportation: 2.7%
- Walked: 2.0%
- Other: 1.1%
- Bicycle: 0.5%
- Taxi: 0.3%
- Motorcycle: 0.2%
Commute Mode Trends in Wheat Ridge, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Wheat Ridge 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 | Public Transportation | Walked | Other | Bicycle | Taxi | Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 87.2% | 4.8% | 3.3% | 2.1% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 2010 | 86.2% | 5.5% | 3.4% | 2.0% | 1.8% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| 2011 | 86.7% | 6.1% | 3.2% | 2.1% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 2012 | 85.8% | 6.7% | 3.4% | 1.7% | 1.2% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| 2013 | 85.8% | 6.4% | 3.5% | 1.6% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| 2014 | 85.5% | 6.1% | 3.8% | 2.1% | 1.2% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| 2015 | 86.3% | 5.2% | 4.1% | 2.5% | 0.4% | 1.2% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 2016 | 86.4% | 5.4% | 4.0% | 2.2% | 0.5% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 2017 | 86.5% | 5.4% | 4.5% | 1.7% | 0.6% | 1.2% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2018 | 85.6% | 5.9% | 4.4% | 1.5% | 0.5% | 1.8% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2019 | 83.5% | 7.5% | 4.7% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 2.2% | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| 2020 | 79.3% | 12.3% | 4.6% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 1.6% | 0.4% | 0.3% |
| 2021 | 77.6% | 15.1% | 4.0% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 0.3% | 0.2% |
| 2022 | 74.9% | 17.4% | 3.5% | 1.4% | 0.6% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2023 | 72.9% | 19.6% | 3.1% | 1.7% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| 2024 | 71.3% | 21.8% | 2.7% | 2.0% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.2% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 87.2% in 2009 to 71.3% in 2024, down 15.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Wheat Ridge: its share of workers rose from 4.8% in 2009 to 21.8% in 2024, up 17.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.3% to 2.7% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).
Biking peaked at 2.2% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 0.5%.
Commute Start Times in Wheat Ridge
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wheat Ridge?
The bars show when commuters in Wheat Ridge 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 |
12:00-4:59 AM
Wheat Ridge4.2%
Colorado4.6%
|
4.2% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Wheat Ridge3.6%
Colorado3.6%
|
3.6% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Wheat Ridge6.7%
Colorado5.0%
|
6.7% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Wheat Ridge8.8%
Colorado8.5%
|
8.8% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Wheat Ridge12.2%
Colorado10.2%
|
12.2% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Wheat Ridge11.0%
Colorado15.3%
|
11.0% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Wheat Ridge13.8%
Colorado12.8%
|
13.8% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Wheat Ridge12.1%
Colorado11.8%
|
12.1% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Wheat Ridge4.9%
Colorado5.4%
|
4.9% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Wheat Ridge7.7%
Colorado6.9%
|
7.7% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Wheat Ridge2.8%
Colorado3.2%
|
2.8% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Wheat Ridge1.5%
Colorado1.5%
|
1.5% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Wheat Ridge6.3%
Colorado6.0%
|
6.3% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Wheat Ridge4.5%
Colorado5.2%
|
4.5% |
Wheat Ridge Colorado Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Wheat Ridge is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across Colorado. Early starts are more common than in Colorado: 14.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Colorado's: 49.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.7%) 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 Wheat Ridge, 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 Wheat Ridge 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 Wheat Ridge 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Wheat Ridge | Colorado | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:43 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:40 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 7:44 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 7:43 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:33 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:33 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:31 AM | 7:34 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:32 AM | 7:33 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:32 AM | 7:33 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:36 AM | 7:34 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:40 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:32 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:32 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:36 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:38 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Wheat Ridge were on the road by 7:38 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:43 AM). Across Colorado, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Wheat Ridge now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).
How does Wheat Ridge's commute time compare?
| Metric | Wheat Ridge | Colorado | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 22.0 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 | 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 21.8% | 21.0% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 2.0% | 2.5% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 2.7% | 1.6% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Wheat Ridge is about the same as in Colorado.
2.7% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.6% in Colorado. 2.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Colorado.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Wheat Ridge, Colorado?
Commuters here spend an estimated 183 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,678 at a typical national wage.
When is rush hour worst in Wheat Ridge, Colorado?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Wheat Ridge, 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.