Chicago Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/21/26, 8:06 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Chicago?

Map AI 10/21/26, 8:06 PM

Commute Time Burden in Chicago: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Chicago spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 263 hours, about 10.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 33% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 7.9 minutes.

Chicago holds about 20.9% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 27.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Chicago would save about 105 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,257 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)
Chicago	31.5 min	63.0 min	263 hrs/yr	$8,143	4,222
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.

Chicago Commute Map

On average, it takes 31.5 minutes to get to work in Chicago. That's 41% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Chicago

Driving is 28% less common in Chicago than the Illinois average (52.7% vs 73.7%).

Public transit is unusually common in Chicago: 3.0 times more than the Illinois average (17.5% vs 5.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Chicago, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Chicago 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	62.3%	3.7%	26.0%	5.6%	1.0%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%
2010	61.6%	4.0%	26.2%	5.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%
2011	60.8%	4.1%	26.5%	5.9%	1.2%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%
2012	60.5%	4.2%	26.3%	6.2%	1.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
2013	60.2%	4.3%	26.3%	6.4%	1.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
2014	59.4%	4.3%	26.8%	6.5%	1.4%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%
2015	58.9%	4.3%	27.2%	6.5%	1.6%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%
2016	58.5%	4.4%	27.4%	6.5%	1.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%
2017	57.8%	4.5%	27.8%	6.5%	1.6%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2018	57.5%	4.7%	28.0%	6.3%	1.7%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2019	57.2%	5.1%	27.8%	6.3%	1.7%	0.9%	0.8%	0.1%
2020	56.4%	8.4%	25.8%	5.9%	1.5%	1.0%	0.9%	0.1%
2021	55.6%	12.2%	23.1%	5.7%	1.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.1%
2022	54.8%	15.4%	20.9%	5.4%	1.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.1%
2023	54.0%	18.1%	19.0%	5.6%	1.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.1%
2024	52.7%	20.7%	17.5%	5.7%	1.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 62.3% in 2009 to 52.7% in 2024, down 9.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 15 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Chicago: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 20.7% in 2024, up 17.0 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 26.0% to 17.5% of workers (down 8.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Chicago

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Chicago?

The bars show when commuters in Chicago 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		5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Chicago is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 12.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Illinois's: 45.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.9%) 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 Chicago, 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 Chicago 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 Chicago 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	Chicago	Illinois	United States
2009	7:46 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:50 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:52 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:54 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Chicago were on the road by 7:54 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:46 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Chicago now leave 16 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 Chicago has moved 4 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Chicago in the whole series.

How does Chicago's commute time compare?

Metric	Chicago	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.5 min	23.6 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	20.7%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	5.7%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	17.5%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Chicago is 31.5 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

17.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 5.8% in Illinois. 5.7% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Chicago, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Chicago, IL compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Chicago, IL	2,650,794	31.5 min #3/3	20.7% #1/3	7:54 AM #3/3
Cicero, IL	82,796	30.3 min	5.5%	7:23 AM
Berwyn, IL	55,595	28.3 min	12.2%	7:41 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Chicago, Illinois.

Is commuting expensive in Chicago, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 263 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,143 at a typical national wage. That's 33% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Chicago, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Chicago, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Chicago, Illinois?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 17.5% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, making it a realistic option for many workers.

How much time do residents in Chicago, Illinois save by working from home?

About 20.7% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Chicago would save about 105 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,257 at the same national wage assumption used above.