DeKalb Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in DeKalb, 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 DeKalb spend on the road daily?

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

Commute Time Burden in DeKalb: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in DeKalb spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 128 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 35% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 8.2 minutes.

DeKalb holds about 0.2% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in DeKalb would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,592 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)
DeKalb	15.4 min	30.8 min	128 hrs/yr	$3,980	1,941
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.

DeKalb Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.4 minutes to get to work in DeKalb. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 6.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in DeKalb

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

Walking is unusually common in DeKalb: 3.5 times more than the Illinois average (9.6% vs 2.8%).

Public transit is unusually rare in DeKalb: 3.9 times less than the Illinois average (1.5% vs 5.8%).

Biking is unusually rare in DeKalb: 14.0 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in DeKalb, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in DeKalb 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	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	77.3%	13.0%	5.4%	2.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	1.4%
2010	79.5%	10.8%	4.3%	3.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	1.4%
2011	78.4%	11.1%	5.4%	3.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	1.3%
2012	77.2%	10.9%	5.2%	4.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	1.7%
2013	75.6%	12.4%	4.0%	5.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	2.4%
2014	78.3%	10.5%	3.3%	5.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	2.2%
2015	78.1%	10.8%	3.8%	4.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	2.7%
2016	79.3%	10.1%	2.9%	4.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	3.0%
2017	80.0%	10.4%	2.5%	4.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	2.4%
2018	83.3%	8.3%	3.0%	3.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	1.6%
2019	84.1%	7.9%	3.0%	2.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	1.7%
2020	85.7%	7.7%	2.4%	2.1%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	1.0%
2021	85.7%	7.5%	3.0%	1.8%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%
2022	86.4%	7.4%	3.0%	1.2%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2023	85.1%	7.9%	4.4%	1.2%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	82.0%	9.6%	6.0%	1.5%	0.8%	0.1%	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 2022 at 86.4% and lowest in 2013 at 75.6%. Overall it rose from 77.3% in 2009 to 82.0% in 2024, up 4.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in DeKalb: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 6.0% in 2024, up 0.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 13.0% to 9.6% of workers (down 3.4 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 5.4% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 1.5%.

Commute Start Times in DeKalb

What Time Do People Leave for Work in DeKalb?

The bars show when commuters in DeKalb 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		2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		14.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in DeKalb is 4:00-11:59 PM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.3% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 9.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 35.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (41.7%) 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 DeKalb, 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 DeKalb 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 DeKalb 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	DeKalb	Illinois	United States
2009	8:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:17 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:12 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:56 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:02 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in DeKalb were on the road by 8:32 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (8:20 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in DeKalb now leave 54 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 DeKalb has moved 29 minutes later.

How does DeKalb's commute time compare?

Metric	DeKalb	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.4 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	04:00 PM – 11:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.0%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	9.6%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.5%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in DeKalb is 15.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 9.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in DeKalb, Illinois.

What is the financial impact of commuting in DeKalb, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 128 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,980 at a typical national wage. That's 35% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in DeKalb, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM in DeKalb, Illinois. 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 DeKalb, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.5% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.