Highland Park Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Highland Park, Illinois: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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Commute Time Burden in Highland Park: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Highland Park spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 188 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.0 minutes.
Highland Park 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 Highland Park would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,337 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Park | 22.6 min | 45.2 min | 188 hrs/yr | $5,843 | 2,845 |
| 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.
Highland Park Commute Map
On average, it takes 22.6 minutes to get to work in Highland Park. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 26.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Highland Park
- Car: 64.3%
- Worked at Home: 26.4%
- Public Transportation: 5.7%
- Walked: 2.3%
- Other: 0.7%
- Bicycle: 0.5%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1%
- Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Highland Park: 7.4 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.3%).
Commute Mode Trends in Highland Park, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Highland 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Public Transportation | Walked | Other | Bicycle | Motorcycle | Taxi |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 77.0% | 9.6% | 10.0% | 2.1% | 0.9% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| 2010 | 76.6% | 10.5% | 9.6% | 2.1% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2011 | 74.5% | 11.4% | 10.1% | 2.2% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2012 | 74.8% | 11.3% | 10.3% | 1.9% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2013 | 74.2% | 11.3% | 11.1% | 1.7% | 1.1% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2014 | 73.8% | 10.8% | 11.5% | 2.1% | 1.1% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2015 | 74.9% | 9.9% | 11.6% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2016 | 76.8% | 9.2% | 11.2% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2017 | 75.9% | 9.1% | 12.7% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2018 | 75.8% | 8.8% | 13.2% | 1.3% | 0.8% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2019 | 75.2% | 9.7% | 13.2% | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2020 | 71.4% | 14.0% | 12.6% | 1.0% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2021 | 68.0% | 19.0% | 10.9% | 1.3% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2022 | 66.9% | 21.7% | 8.7% | 1.9% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2023 | 65.3% | 24.7% | 6.5% | 2.4% | 0.5% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2024 | 64.3% | 26.4% | 5.7% | 2.3% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 77.0% in 2009 to 64.3% in 2024, down 12.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Highland Park: its share of workers rose from 9.6% in 2009 to 26.4% in 2024, up 16.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 10.0% to 5.7% of workers (down 4.3 percentage points).
Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Highland Park
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Highland Park?
The bars show when commuters in Highland 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 |
12:00-4:59 AM
Highland Park1.0%
Illinois5.6%
|
1.0% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Highland Park1.5%
Illinois4.3%
|
1.5% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Highland Park1.1%
Illinois4.9%
|
1.1% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Highland Park5.0%
Illinois9.0%
|
5.0% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Highland Park5.7%
Illinois9.4%
|
5.7% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Highland Park13.9%
Illinois14.3%
|
13.9% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Highland Park17.4%
Illinois11.6%
|
17.4% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Highland Park17.9%
Illinois11.2%
|
17.9% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Highland Park10.3%
Illinois5.2%
|
10.3% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Highland Park10.8%
Illinois6.1%
|
10.8% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Highland Park4.4%
Illinois2.9%
|
4.4% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Highland Park1.6%
Illinois1.5%
|
1.6% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Highland Park5.9%
Illinois7.7%
|
5.9% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Highland Park3.5%
Illinois6.3%
|
3.5% |
Highland Park Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Highland Park is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 17.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.2% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 3.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 54.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.3%) 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 Highland 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 Highland 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 Highland 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Highland Park | Illinois | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:56 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:59 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 8:00 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 8:02 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:56 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:59 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:59 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:57 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:57 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 8:00 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:59 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 8:02 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 8:03 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 8:05 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 8:04 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 8:08 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Highland Park were on the road by 8:08 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (7:56 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Highland Park now leave 30 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 Highland Park has moved 9 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Highland Park in the whole series.
How does Highland Park's commute time compare?
| Metric | Highland Park | Illinois | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 22.6 min | 23.6 min | 22.4 min |
| Departure Window | 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM | 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM |
| Secondary Departure Window | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 26.4% | 15.9% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 2.3% | 2.8% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 5.7% | 5.8% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Highland Park is 22.6 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.
5.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.
Highland Park, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities
How Highland Park, IL compares with the 1 cities closest to it.
| Area | Population | One-way commute | Work from home | Typical departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highland Park, IL | 26,861 | 22.6 min #1/2 | 26.4% #2/2 | 8:07 AM #2/2 |
| Northbrook, IL | 32,185 | 22.9 min | 30.9% | 7:59 AM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Highland Park, Illinois.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Highland Park, Illinois?
Commuters here spend an estimated 188 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,843 at a typical national wage. That's 4% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Highland Park, Illinois?
Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Highland Park, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How much time do residents in Highland Park, Illinois save by working from home?
About 26.4% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Highland Park would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,337 at the same national wage assumption used above.