Chicago Heights Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Chicago Heights, 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, 3:55 PM

How much time do drivers in Chicago Heights spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:55 PM

Commute Time Burden in Chicago Heights: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Chicago Heights spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 198 hours, about 8.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

Chicago Heights holds about 0.2% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Chicago Heights would save about 79 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,459 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 Heights	23.8 min	47.6 min	198 hrs/yr	$6,149	3,133
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 Heights Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.8 minutes to get to work in Chicago Heights. That's 6% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Chicago Heights

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Chicago Heights, versus 0.1% in Illinois.

Walking is unusually rare in Chicago Heights: 9.5 times less than the Illinois average (0.3% vs 2.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Chicago Heights: 3.0 times more than the Illinois average (1.1% vs 0.3%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Chicago Heights: just 0.7%, 4.7 times below the Illinois average of 3.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Chicago Heights, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Chicago Heights 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	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Walked	Motorcycle
2009	88.2%	1.2%	7.1%	1.1%	0.1%	1.1%	1.2%	0.0%
2010	89.5%	0.7%	6.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.9%	1.4%	0.0%
2011	88.7%	1.0%	6.4%	1.3%	0.1%	0.9%	1.7%	0.0%
2012	88.5%	0.9%	6.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.9%	1.6%	0.0%
2013	89.1%	1.1%	6.2%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	2.3%	0.0%
2014	87.9%	1.8%	6.4%	1.6%	0.1%	0.0%	2.1%	0.0%
2015	86.1%	3.1%	6.2%	2.3%	0.1%	0.0%	2.2%	0.0%
2016	85.1%	3.4%	6.7%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	2.2%	0.0%
2017	84.4%	4.5%	6.5%	2.5%	0.1%	0.0%	2.0%	0.0%
2018	85.4%	4.5%	5.9%	2.6%	0.1%	0.0%	1.6%	0.0%
2019	86.2%	4.2%	5.9%	2.4%	0.1%	0.0%	1.2%	0.0%
2020	87.3%	4.2%	5.6%	2.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	86.1%	5.8%	4.2%	3.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	85.9%	6.2%	4.0%	2.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	84.5%	5.6%	5.5%	3.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	84.0%	6.7%	4.7%	2.8%	1.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 89.5%. Overall it fell from 88.2% in 2009 to 84.0% in 2024, down 4.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Chicago Heights: its share of workers rose from 1.2% in 2009 to 6.7% in 2024, up 5.5 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.1% to 4.7% of workers (down 2.4 percentage points).

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

Walking peaked at 2.3% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 0.3%.

Commute Start Times in Chicago Heights

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Chicago Heights?

The bars show when commuters in Chicago Heights 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		10.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		8.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		11.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		7.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Chicago Heights is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 23.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 35.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.2%) 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 Heights, 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 Heights 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 Heights 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 Heights	Illinois	United States
2009	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:33 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:22 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Chicago Heights were on the road by 7:16 AM, 11 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:28 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Chicago Heights now leave 21 minutes earlier 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 Heights has moved 13 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Chicago Heights in the whole series.

How does Chicago Heights's commute time compare?

Metric	Chicago Heights	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.8 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.7%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	0.3%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.7%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Chicago Heights is about the same as in Illinois.

4.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

Is commuting expensive in Chicago Heights, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 198 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,149 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.