Bloomington Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 3:56 PM

Is the commute in Bloomington longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:56 PM

Commute Time Burden in Bloomington: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bloomington spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 113 hours, about 4.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 43% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 10.1 minutes.

Bloomington holds about 0.5% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bloomington would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,396 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)
Bloomington	13.5 min	27.0 min	113 hrs/yr	$3,491	1,684
Illinois	23.6 min	47.3 min	197 hrs/yr	$6,104	1,547
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.

Bloomington Commute Map

On average, it takes 13.5 minutes to get to work in Bloomington. That's 40% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 19.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bloomington

Public transit is unusually rare in Bloomington: 8.2 times less than the Illinois average (0.7% vs 5.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Bloomington: 13.2 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Bloomington, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bloomington 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	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	88.4%	3.5%	4.4%	2.3%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	88.7%	3.1%	4.2%	2.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	89.1%	2.9%	3.8%	2.2%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	89.4%	3.0%	3.6%	2.2%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	89.0%	2.8%	3.5%	2.7%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	89.4%	2.6%	3.8%	2.2%	1.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	89.4%	2.7%	3.8%	2.2%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%
2016	89.6%	2.7%	3.7%	1.9%	0.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.3%
2017	90.1%	2.8%	3.6%	1.7%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%
2018	89.6%	3.4%	3.9%	1.2%	0.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%
2019	89.3%	3.8%	3.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.8%	0.2%	0.4%
2020	86.3%	6.8%	3.7%	1.4%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	83.5%	9.9%	3.8%	1.1%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	79.8%	13.7%	3.9%	1.0%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	77.3%	17.2%	3.1%	0.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	75.6%	19.4%	3.1%	0.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 90.1%. Overall it fell from 88.4% in 2009 to 75.6% in 2024, down 12.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bloomington: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 19.4% in 2024, up 15.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 15.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 0.7% of workers (down 1.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Bloomington

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bloomington?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		2.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.6%

Bloomington Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bloomington is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.6% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 10.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 53.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.1%) 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 Bloomington, 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 Bloomington 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 Bloomington next to Illinois 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	Bloomington	Illinois	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:47 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bloomington were on the road by 7:44 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:42 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Bloomington now leave 6 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 Bloomington has moved 6 minutes earlier.

How does Bloomington's commute time compare?

Metric	Bloomington	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.5 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	19.4%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.1%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bloomington is 13.5 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 3.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Bloomington, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Bloomington, IL compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Bloomington, IL	63,748	13.5 min #2/2	19.4% #1/2	7:44 AM #1/2
Normal, IL	43,476	13.1 min	12.5%	7:59 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Bloomington, Illinois.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Bloomington, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 113 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,491 at a typical national wage. That's 43% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Bloomington, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Bloomington, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Bloomington, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.7% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.