Iowa City Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Iowa City, 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

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Iowa City?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:59 PM

Commute Time Burden in Iowa City: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Iowa City spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 131 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.

Iowa City holds about 2.1% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 1.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Iowa City would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,619 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)
Iowa City	15.7 min	31.3 min	131 hrs/yr	$4,048	2,033
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.

Iowa City Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.7 minutes to get to work in Iowa City. That's 30% 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 walking. About 12.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Iowa City

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Iowa City: 4.7 times more than the Iowa average (0.5% vs 0.1%).

Driving is 28% less common in Iowa City than the Iowa average (60.6% vs 83.7%).

Walking is unusually common in Iowa City: 5.9 times more than the Iowa average (16.9% vs 2.9%).

Public transit is unusually common in Iowa City: 8.4 times more than the Iowa average (5.8% vs 0.7%).

Biking is unusually common in Iowa City: 9.2 times more than the Iowa average (3.1% vs 0.3%).

Iowa City stands out for active commuting: 20.0% of workers walk or bike to work, 6.2 times the Iowa average of 3.2%.

Commute Mode Trends in Iowa City, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Iowa City 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	Walked	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	67.2%	17.6%	2.6%	7.5%	4.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.2%
2010	66.3%	17.3%	2.9%	8.2%	4.3%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%
2011	65.0%	17.5%	3.1%	9.2%	4.0%	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%
2012	63.8%	18.3%	3.1%	9.5%	4.2%	0.3%	0.7%	0.2%
2013	62.5%	19.3%	3.6%	9.1%	4.3%	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%
2014	62.0%	19.1%	4.0%	9.3%	4.4%	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%
2015	63.4%	18.1%	3.8%	9.4%	4.2%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%
2016	62.4%	19.1%	4.7%	8.8%	3.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%
2017	63.7%	18.4%	4.7%	7.9%	4.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%
2018	65.1%	17.0%	4.5%	8.0%	4.0%	0.7%	0.7%	0.1%
2019	64.7%	17.2%	4.4%	8.3%	4.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%
2020	64.2%	16.5%	6.8%	7.4%	3.1%	1.2%	0.6%	0.1%
2021	64.3%	15.9%	8.3%	6.4%	3.2%	1.1%	0.7%	0.2%
2022	63.2%	16.0%	9.5%	6.3%	3.3%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2023	61.6%	16.0%	11.0%	6.4%	3.5%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%
2024	60.6%	16.9%	12.0%	5.8%	3.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 67.2% in 2009 to 60.6% in 2024, down 6.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Iowa City: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 12.0% in 2024, up 9.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.5% to 5.8% of workers (down 1.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 19.3% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 16.9%.

Commute Start Times in Iowa City

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Iowa City?

The bars show when commuters in Iowa City 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		3.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		10.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Iowa City is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 7.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 41.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (40.8%) 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 Iowa City, 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 Iowa City 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 Iowa City 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	Iowa City	Iowa	United States
2009	8:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:23 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:21 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:23 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:19 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:15 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:13 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	8:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:21 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Iowa City were on the road by 8:22 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:28 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Iowa City now leave 44 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 Iowa City has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Iowa City's commute time compare?

Metric	Iowa City	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.7 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	12.0%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	16.9%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.8%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Iowa City is 15.7 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

5.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in Iowa. 16.9% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Iowa City, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Iowa City, IA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Iowa City, IA	66,193	15.7 min #1/2	12.0% #2/2	8:22 AM #2/2
Coralville, IA	22,755	17.2 min	12.0%	7:51 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Iowa City, Iowa.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 131 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,048 at a typical national wage. That's 8% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Iowa City, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Iowa City, 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 Iowa City, Iowa?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 5.8% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, making it a realistic option for many workers.