Commuting in Kane County, Illinois: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:14 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Kane County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:14 PM
Commute Time Burden in Kane County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Kane County spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 199 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.
Kane County holds about 4.1% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 4.1% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Kane County would save about 79 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,464 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)
Kane County
23.8 min
47.7 min
199 hrs/yr
$6,160
3,030
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.
On average, it takes
23.8
minutes to get to work in
Kane County.
That's 6% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 80% of counties in Illinois
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Kane County
Car:
79.6%
Worked at Home:
15.9%
Public Transportation:
1.6%unusually low
Other:
1.2%
Walked:
1.2%
Bicycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
0.2%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Public transit is unusually rare in Kane County: 3.6 times less than the Illinois average (1.6% vs 5.8%).
Commute Mode Trends in Kane County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Kane County 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
89.6%
4.4%
2.5%
1.6%
1.2%
0.1%
0.4%
0.1%
2010
89.6%
4.5%
2.6%
1.5%
1.2%
0.0%
0.4%
0.2%
2011
89.4%
4.7%
2.7%
1.4%
1.3%
0.0%
0.3%
0.1%
2012
89.3%
4.7%
2.6%
1.5%
1.3%
0.1%
0.3%
0.2%
2013
90.1%
4.5%
2.5%
1.4%
1.1%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2014
90.1%
4.5%
2.7%
1.4%
0.8%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2015
90.1%
4.8%
2.7%
1.5%
0.6%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
90.2%
4.7%
2.5%
1.5%
0.6%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
89.8%
5.0%
2.6%
1.3%
0.8%
0.1%
0.3%
0.1%
2018
89.3%
5.4%
2.6%
1.3%
0.9%
0.1%
0.3%
0.1%
2019
89.2%
5.5%
2.4%
1.2%
1.1%
0.1%
0.3%
0.1%
2020
86.7%
8.1%
2.2%
1.1%
1.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2021
83.9%
11.0%
2.0%
1.2%
1.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2022
82.5%
12.7%
1.8%
1.3%
1.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2023
80.8%
14.4%
1.7%
1.3%
1.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2024
79.6%
15.9%
1.6%
1.2%
1.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 90.2%. Overall it fell from 89.6% in 2009 to 79.6% in 2024, down 10.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Kane County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 15.9% in 2024, up 11.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.5% to 1.6% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Kane County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kane County?
The bars show when commuters in Kane County 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 AMKane County5.4%Illinois5.6%
5.4%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMKane County5.5%Illinois4.3%
5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMKane County5.7%Illinois4.9%
5.7%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMKane County9.9%Illinois9.0%
9.9%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMKane County10.1%Illinois9.4%
10.1%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMKane County14.2%Illinois14.3%
14.2%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMKane County10.6%Illinois11.6%
10.6%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMKane County9.4%Illinois11.2%
9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMKane County4.3%Illinois5.2%
4.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMKane County6.1%Illinois6.1%
6.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMKane County2.6%Illinois2.9%
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMKane County1.5%Illinois1.5%
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMKane County8.6%Illinois7.7%
8.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMKane County6.2%Illinois6.3%
6.2%
Kane CountyIllinoisSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Kane County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 16.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 44.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.0%) 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 Kane County, 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 Kane County 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 Kane County 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
Kane County
Illinois
United States
2009
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:26 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:28 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:29 AM
7:36 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:26 AM
7:36 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:27 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:26 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:27 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:27 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:27 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:28 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:29 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Kane County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:26 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Kane County now leave 9 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 Kane County has moved 2 minutes later.
How does Kane County's commute time compare?
Metric
Kane County
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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
15.9%
15.9%
15.0%
Walked
1.2%
2.8%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.6%
5.8%
3.2%
The average commute time in Kane County is about the same as in Illinois.
1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.
Kane County, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Kane County, IL is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 517,214 residents against a local median of 137,674. Nothing separates Kane County, IL sharply from the counties around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.
The largest of those small differences is work from home, 8% above the local median at 15.9% against 14.7%. Kane County, IL has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Kane County, Illinois.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Kane County, Illinois?
Commuters here spend an estimated 199 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,160 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Kane County, Illinois?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Kane County, 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.
Do people use public transit in Kane County, Illinois?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.6% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Which counties in Illinois have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in Illinois, the shortest average commutes are in Edgar County (12.0 min), Brown County (12.7 min), Morgan County (13.1 min). The longest are in Calhoun County (43.8 min), Pulaski County (31.2 min), Pope County (31.0 min).