Hilo Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 3:02 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Hilo?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:02 PM

Commute Time Burden in Hilo: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hilo spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 132 hours, about 5.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 30% less time on the road than the Hawaii average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 6.9 minutes.

Hilo holds about 3.5% of Hawaii's population but accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hilo would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,640 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)
Hilo	15.9 min	31.7 min	132 hrs/yr	$4,100	2,613
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.

Hilo Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.9 minutes to get to work in Hilo. That's 29% shorter 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 8.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hilo

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Hilo, versus 0.5% in Hawaii.

Public transit is unusually rare in Hilo: 4.1 times less than the Hawaii average (0.9% vs 3.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Hilo: 3.7 times more than the Hawaii average (0.6% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Hilo, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hilo 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	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	87.0%	5.1%	3.9%	0.9%	1.5%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	86.1%	5.4%	4.0%	0.8%	1.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	88.0%	5.2%	2.5%	0.8%	1.7%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%
2012	90.0%	4.3%	2.0%	0.9%	1.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2013	90.9%	4.3%	1.9%	1.0%	0.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	91.6%	4.2%	1.6%	1.2%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2015	92.5%	4.0%	1.1%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2016	90.9%	5.1%	1.5%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2017	89.4%	6.5%	1.6%	0.7%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%
2018	90.1%	5.7%	2.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	89.1%	6.0%	2.5%	0.7%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%
2020	88.3%	6.6%	2.9%	0.5%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	86.4%	8.6%	2.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	86.7%	7.7%	3.0%	1.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	85.9%	8.5%	2.8%	1.2%	0.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	85.3%	8.9%	2.4%	1.3%	0.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 92.5%. Overall it fell from 87.0% in 2009 to 85.3% in 2024, down 1.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Hilo: its share of workers rose from 5.1% in 2009 to 8.9% in 2024, up 3.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.9% to 2.4% of workers (down 1.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Hilo

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hilo?

The bars show when commuters in Hilo 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		5.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hilo is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.5% across Hawaii. Early starts are less common than in Hawaii: 13.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 19.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Hawaii: 50.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 44.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.3%) 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 Hilo, 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 Hilo 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 Hilo 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Hilo	Hawaii	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:11 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:12 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:13 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:13 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:22 AM	7:14 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:24 AM	7:14 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:25 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:26 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:28 AM	7:14 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:14 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:27 AM	7:15 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:26 AM	7:15 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:16 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:17 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:29 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hilo were on the road by 7:29 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:22 AM). Hawaii followed the same path, with the typical start moving 7 minutes later. Commuters in Hilo now leave 9 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Hilo in the whole series.

How does Hilo's commute time compare?

Metric	Hilo	Hawaii	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.9 min	22.8 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.9%	9.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	4.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	3.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hilo is 15.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.8 minutes in Hawaii.

0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.8% in Hawaii. 2.4% commute by walking, lower than the 4.2% in Hawaii.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Hilo, Hawaii.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Hilo, Hawaii?

Commuters here spend an estimated 132 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,100 at a typical national wage. That's 30% less than the typical Hawaii commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Hilo, Hawaii?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Hilo, Hawaii. 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Hilo, Hawaii?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.9% of commuters use it versus 3.8% in Hawaii, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.