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Cedar Falls Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Cedar Falls, 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, 3:59 PM
Is the commute in Cedar Falls longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 3:59 PM

Commute Time Burden in Cedar Falls: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Cedar Falls spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 105 hours, about 4.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.3 minutes.

Cedar Falls holds about 1.1% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Cedar Falls would save about 42 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,304 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)
Cedar Falls 12.6 min 25.2 min 105 hrs/yr $3,261 1,232
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.

Cedar Falls Commute Map

On average, it takes 12.6 minutes to get to work in Cedar Falls. That's 44% 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 10.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Cedar Falls

  • Car: 81.8%
  • Worked at Home: 10.3%
  • Walked: 6.9%
  • Bicycle: 0.7%
  • Other: 0.3%
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Cedar Falls: 18.8 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Cedar Falls, versus 0.7% in Iowa.

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Cedar Falls: 4.3 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Cedar Falls, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Cedar Falls 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 Bicycle Other Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 81.0% 3.3% 14.5% 0.6% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2%
2010 81.0% 3.1% 14.5% 0.8% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2%
2011 81.9% 3.0% 13.7% 0.8% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%
2012 81.7% 2.7% 14.3% 0.9% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2%
2013 81.2% 2.7% 14.4% 1.1% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2%
2014 83.5% 2.2% 12.5% 1.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2%
2015 83.0% 2.7% 12.0% 1.3% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.2%
2016 82.9% 3.2% 12.1% 1.1% 0.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1%
2017 83.4% 4.1% 10.4% 1.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2%
2018 83.7% 5.0% 9.2% 1.5% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2%
2019 83.2% 5.4% 9.4% 1.2% 0.2% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2%
2020 83.8% 6.6% 8.2% 1.0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1%
2021 83.6% 7.5% 7.6% 0.9% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1%
2022 82.1% 9.0% 7.9% 0.8% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 80.9% 10.0% 8.1% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 81.8% 10.3% 6.9% 0.7% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2020 at 83.8% and lowest in 2023 at 80.9%. Overall it rose from 81.0% in 2009 to 81.8% in 2024, up 0.8 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Cedar Falls: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 10.3% in 2024, up 7.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 14.5% to 6.9% of workers (down 7.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Cedar Falls

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Cedar Falls?

The bars show when commuters in Cedar Falls 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
4.1%
5:00-5:29 AM
3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM
2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM
5.0%
6:30-6:59 AM
6.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
11.4%
7:30-7:59 AM
19.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
11.5%
8:30-8:59 AM
3.8%
9:00-9:59 AM
4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM
13.0%
4:00-11:59 PM
9.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Cedar Falls is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 9.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 49.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (32.0%) 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 Cedar Falls, 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 Cedar Falls 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 Cedar Falls 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 Cedar Falls Iowa United States
2009 8:10 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 8:12 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2011 8:12 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 8:14 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2013 8:11 AM 7:34 AM 7:39 AM
2014 8:03 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:57 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:56 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:54 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:57 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:57 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2020 8:01 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2021 8:01 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2022 8:04 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:58 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:56 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Cedar Falls were on the road by 7:56 AM, 14 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:10 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Cedar Falls now leave 18 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Cedar Falls's commute time compare?

Metric Cedar Falls Iowa US Average
Avg. Commute Time 12.6 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 10.3% 11.3% 15.0%
Walked 6.9% 2.9% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.7% 3.2%

The average commute time in Cedar Falls is 12.6 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 6.9% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Cedar Falls, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Cedar Falls, IA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Cedar Falls, IA 33,959 12.6 min #1/2 10.3% #1/2 7:56 AM #2/2
Waterloo, IA 64,027 13.7 min 7.7% 7:38 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Cedar Falls, Iowa?

Commuters here spend an estimated 105 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,261 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Cedar Falls, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Cedar Falls, 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.

How common is public transit use in Cedar Falls, Iowa?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.