East Honolulu Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in East Honolulu: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in East Honolulu spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 258 hours, about 10.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 36% more time on the road than the Hawaii average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 8.2 minutes.

East Honolulu holds about 3.6% of Hawaii's population but accounts for roughly 4.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in East Honolulu would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,196 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)
East Honolulu	30.9 min	61.9 min	258 hrs/yr	$7,989	2,992
Hawaii	22.8 min	45.5 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,883	2,478
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.

East Honolulu Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.9 minutes to get to work in East Honolulu. That's 38% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in East Honolulu

• Car: 78.8%
• Worked at Home: 17.0%
• Public Transportation: 1.2% unusually low
• Other: 1.1%
• Walked: 0.8% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.5%
• Bicycle: 0.4%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Walking is unusually rare in East Honolulu: 5.2 times less than the Hawaii average (0.8% vs 4.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in East Honolulu: 3.1 times less than the Hawaii average (1.2% vs 3.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in East Honolulu, versus 0.2% in Hawaii.

Few people walk or bike to work in East Honolulu: just 1.3%, 4.1 times below the Hawaii average of 5.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in East Honolulu, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in East Honolulu 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Public Transportation
• Other
• Walked
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Other	Walked	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	89.1%	5.5%	3.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%
2010	89.4%	5.4%	2.5%	0.9%	0.7%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%
2011	89.3%	5.7%	2.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	89.9%	5.6%	2.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	89.7%	5.8%	2.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	89.7%	5.9%	2.5%	0.7%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	89.0%	6.6%	2.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	88.8%	6.7%	2.8%	0.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	88.6%	6.9%	2.6%	0.5%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	87.4%	7.5%	2.8%	0.5%	0.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2019	86.1%	8.3%	2.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2020	82.9%	11.2%	2.7%	1.4%	1.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2021	79.9%	13.8%	2.6%	1.7%	1.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	78.2%	15.4%	2.3%	1.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%
2023	78.2%	16.5%	1.8%	1.5%	1.1%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2024	78.8%	17.0%	1.2%	1.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2012 at 89.9% and lowest in 2022 at 78.2%. Overall it fell from 89.1% in 2009 to 78.8% in 2024, down 10.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in East Honolulu: its share of workers rose from 5.5% in 2009 to 17.0% in 2024, up 11.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in East Honolulu

What Time Do People Leave for Work in East Honolulu?

The bars show when commuters in East Honolulu 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 Hawaii for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM East Honolulu2.8% Hawaii6.7%	2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM East Honolulu3.7% Hawaii5.6%	3.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM East Honolulu5.5% Hawaii6.7%	5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM East Honolulu12.8% Hawaii11.1%	12.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM East Honolulu15.9% Hawaii11.0%	15.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM East Honolulu13.7% Hawaii14.5%	13.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM East Honolulu10.2% Hawaii9.4%	10.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM East Honolulu13.0% Hawaii9.3%	13.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM East Honolulu4.0% Hawaii3.8%	4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM East Honolulu7.3% Hawaii6.2%	7.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM East Honolulu3.8% Hawaii2.8%	3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM East Honolulu1.3% Hawaii1.5%	1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM East Honolulu4.0% Hawaii6.9%	4.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM East Honolulu2.1% Hawaii4.4%	2.1%

East Honolulu Hawaii Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in East Honolulu is 6:30-6:59 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.0% across Hawaii. Early starts are less common than in Hawaii: 12.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 19.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Hawaii: 52.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 44.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.4%) 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 East Honolulu, 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 East Honolulu 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 East Honolulu next to Hawaii 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.

• East Honolulu
• Hawaii
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	East Honolulu	Hawaii	United States
2009	7:14 AM	7:11 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:12 AM	7:12 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:15 AM	7:13 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:18 AM	7:13 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:15 AM	7:14 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:14 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:18 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:18 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:16 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:18 AM	7:14 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:20 AM	7:15 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:15 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:16 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:20 AM	7:17 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:21 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:20 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in East Honolulu were on the road by 7:20 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:14 AM). Hawaii followed the same path, with the typical start moving 7 minutes later. Commuters in East Honolulu now leave 17 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does East Honolulu's commute time compare?

Metric	East Honolulu	Hawaii	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.9 min	22.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	17.0%	9.6%	15.0%
Walked	0.8%	4.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	3.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in East Honolulu is 30.9 minutes, longer than the 22.8 minutes in Hawaii.

1.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.8% in Hawaii. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 4.2% in Hawaii.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau