Ames Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 3:58 PM

Is the commute in Ames longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:58 PM

Commute Time Burden in Ames: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Ames spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 107 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.1 minutes.

Ames holds about 1.9% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 1.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Ames would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,328 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)
Ames	12.9 min	25.7 min	107 hrs/yr	$3,320	1,871
Iowa	17.0 min	33.9 min	141 hrs/yr	$4,382	606
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.

Ames Commute Map

On average, it takes 12.9 minutes to get to work in Ames. That's 43% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Ames

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Ames: 123.4 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Walking is unusually common in Ames: 3.9 times more than the Iowa average (11.3% vs 2.9%).

Public transit is unusually common in Ames: 8.6 times more than the Iowa average (5.9% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Ames, versus 0.2% in Iowa.

Biking is unusually common in Ames: 5.4 times more than the Iowa average (1.8% vs 0.3%).

Ames stands out for active commuting: 13.2% of workers walk or bike to work, 4.1 times the Iowa average of 3.2%.

Commute Mode Trends in Ames, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Ames 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	72.9%	1.8%	13.8%	8.6%	2.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	72.4%	1.8%	12.9%	9.3%	2.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
2011	72.0%	1.8%	12.5%	10.1%	2.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
2012	72.0%	2.4%	12.4%	9.5%	2.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
2013	72.3%	2.5%	12.1%	9.4%	2.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	73.3%	2.5%	11.0%	9.7%	3.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	72.2%	2.7%	11.9%	9.9%	2.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	72.2%	3.2%	12.0%	9.3%	2.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	71.9%	3.5%	11.6%	9.4%	3.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	71.0%	3.8%	11.5%	10.3%	2.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	72.5%	3.9%	10.5%	10.1%	2.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	71.3%	7.0%	9.8%	8.6%	2.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	70.2%	8.9%	9.8%	8.0%	2.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	70.4%	9.8%	9.9%	7.6%	1.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	71.5%	11.0%	8.9%	6.4%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	68.6%	11.6%	11.3%	5.9%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 73.3%. Overall it fell from 72.9% in 2009 to 68.6% in 2024, down 4.3 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Ames: its share of workers rose from 1.8% in 2009 to 11.6% in 2024, up 9.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 8.6% to 5.9% of workers (down 2.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Biking peaked at 3.2% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 1.8%.

Commute Start Times in Ames

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Ames?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		2.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		2.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		14.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.9%

Ames Iowa Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Ames is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 5.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 42.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (42.9%) 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 Ames, 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 Ames 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 Ames next to Iowa 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	Ames	Iowa	United States
2009	8:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:25 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:11 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:15 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:10 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:13 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:20 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Ames were on the road by 8:28 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:34 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Ames now leave 50 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 Ames has moved 15 minutes later.

How does Ames's commute time compare?

Metric	Ames	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.9 min	17.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.6%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	11.3%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.9%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Ames is 12.9 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

5.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in Iowa. 11.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Ames, Iowa.

Is living in Ames, Iowa good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 107 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,320 at a typical national wage. That's 24% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Ames, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Ames, Iowa. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Ames, Iowa?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 5.9% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, making it a realistic option for many workers.