Elmwood Park Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Elmwood Park, 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, 8:07 PM

How much time do drivers in Elmwood Park spend on the road daily?

Map AI 10/21/26, 8:07 PM

Commute Time Burden in Elmwood Park: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Elmwood Park spend about 64 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 266 hours, about 11.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 35% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 8.3 minutes.

Elmwood Park holds about 0.2% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Elmwood Park would save about 107 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,302 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)
Elmwood Park	32.0 min	63.9 min	266 hrs/yr	$8,255	5,487
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.

Elmwood Park Commute Map

On average, it takes 32.0 minutes to get to work in Elmwood Park. That's 43% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 13.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Elmwood Park

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

Commute Mode Trends in Elmwood Park, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Elmwood Park 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	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	83.2%	2.3%	11.5%	2.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	83.4%	3.2%	10.5%	2.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	83.7%	3.1%	9.8%	2.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	85.3%	2.6%	8.6%	2.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	84.7%	3.0%	9.0%	2.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	85.2%	2.8%	9.3%	2.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	85.1%	2.8%	9.6%	1.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	85.2%	2.9%	9.7%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	86.3%	2.7%	9.2%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	85.4%	3.4%	9.6%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	83.9%	3.8%	10.2%	1.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	83.6%	4.8%	9.4%	1.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	82.9%	6.6%	8.8%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	80.9%	8.7%	8.2%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%
2023	79.6%	10.3%	6.8%	1.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	77.8%	13.7%	5.0%	1.5%	0.9%	0.6%	0.4%	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 86.3%. Overall it fell from 83.2% in 2009 to 77.8% in 2024, down 5.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Elmwood Park: its share of workers rose from 2.3% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2024, up 11.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 11.5% to 5.0% of workers (down 6.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Elmwood Park

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Elmwood Park?

The bars show when commuters in Elmwood Park 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		8.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		7.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		14.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		2.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Elmwood Park is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 14.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.0% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 18.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 42.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.3%) 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 Elmwood Park, 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 Elmwood Park 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 Elmwood Park 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	Elmwood Park	Illinois	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:28 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	7:27 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	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Elmwood Park were on the road by 7:21 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:33 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Elmwood Park now leave 17 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 Elmwood Park has moved 9 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Elmwood Park in the whole series.

How does Elmwood Park's commute time compare?

Metric	Elmwood Park	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	32.0 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 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	13.7%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.0%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Elmwood Park is 32.0 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

5.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Elmwood Park, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Elmwood Park, IL	23,868	32.0 min #1/2	13.7% #2/2	7:21 AM #1/2
Oak Park, IL	53,290	32.3 min	31.0%	7:59 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Elmwood Park, Illinois.

Is living in Elmwood Park, Illinois good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 266 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,255 at a typical national wage. That's 35% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Elmwood Park, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM in Elmwood Park, 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.