Clearwater Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

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

You 10/21/26, 8:00 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Clearwater?

Map AI 10/21/26, 8:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in Clearwater: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Clearwater spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 178 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% less time on the road than the Florida average of 24.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.6 minutes.

Clearwater holds about 0.5% of Florida's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Clearwater would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,211 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)
Clearwater	21.4 min	42.8 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,527	4,816
Florida	24.0 min	47.9 min	200 hrs/yr	$6,189	3,068
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.

Clearwater Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.4 minutes to get to work in Clearwater. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Clearwater

Public transit is unusually common in Clearwater: 3.3 times more than the Florida average (3.9% vs 1.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Clearwater, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Clearwater 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	Other	Bicycle	Walked	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	83.5%	4.4%	5.4%	3.5%	1.2%	1.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	83.8%	4.1%	4.9%	3.6%	1.1%	1.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2011	84.5%	4.4%	3.4%	3.4%	1.3%	2.4%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	84.1%	5.2%	3.3%	3.4%	1.1%	2.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2013	84.1%	5.7%	3.3%	2.5%	1.4%	2.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2014	85.2%	5.5%	2.9%	2.2%	1.3%	2.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2015	84.0%	6.8%	2.7%	2.1%	1.6%	2.3%	0.1%	0.4%
2016	82.9%	6.9%	3.2%	2.5%	1.6%	2.2%	0.1%	0.6%
2017	82.4%	7.2%	3.8%	2.4%	1.6%	2.1%	0.1%	0.5%
2018	82.8%	7.0%	3.7%	2.0%	1.5%	2.4%	0.2%	0.4%
2019	82.0%	7.9%	3.8%	1.9%	1.3%	2.5%	0.1%	0.4%
2020	80.0%	10.7%	3.2%	1.9%	0.9%	2.4%	0.3%	0.6%
2021	78.2%	13.3%	2.9%	1.7%	1.2%	2.1%	0.3%	0.5%
2022	76.0%	16.0%	3.0%	1.8%	0.9%	1.6%	0.3%	0.4%
2023	72.4%	19.6%	3.0%	1.9%	1.2%	1.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	70.7%	20.3%	3.9%	2.0%	1.3%	1.3%	0.4%	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 85.2%. Overall it fell from 83.5% in 2009 to 70.7% in 2024, down 12.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Clearwater: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 20.3% in 2024, up 15.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.4% to 3.9% of workers (down 1.5 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 Clearwater

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Clearwater?

The bars show when commuters in Clearwater 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 Florida for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.4%

Clearwater Florida Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Clearwater is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.1% across Florida. Early starts are less common than in Florida: 9.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Florida: 44.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.7% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.4%) 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 Clearwater, 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 Clearwater 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 Clearwater next to Florida 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	Clearwater	Florida	United States
2009	7:52 AM	7:41 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:52 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:52 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:55 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:56 AM	7:47 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:47 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:56 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:57 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:54 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:53 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:57 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:59 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:01 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:01 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Clearwater were on the road by 8:01 AM, 9 minutes later than in 2009 (7:52 AM). The shift is sharper than across Florida, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Clearwater now leave 24 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 Clearwater has moved 11 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Clearwater in the whole series.

How does Clearwater's commute time compare?

Metric	Clearwater	Florida	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.4 min	24.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	20.3%	15.7%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	1.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.9%	1.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Clearwater is 21.4 minutes, shorter than the 24.0 minutes in Florida.

3.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.2% in Florida. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.4% in Florida.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Clearwater, FL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Clearwater, FL compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Clearwater, FL	107,767	21.4 min #1/3	20.3% #2/3	8:01 AM #3/3
Dunedin, FL	36,661	22.3 min	25.4%	7:51 AM
Largo, FL	84,816	21.4 min	13.6%	7:49 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Clearwater, Florida.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Clearwater, Florida?

Commuters here spend an estimated 178 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,527 at a typical national wage. That's 11% less than the typical Florida commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Clearwater, Florida?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Clearwater, Florida. 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.

How common is public transit use in Clearwater, Florida?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 3.9% of commuters use it versus 1.2% in Florida, making it a realistic option for many workers.