Mount Prospect Commute Time Map & Patterns
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Commute Time Burden in Mount Prospect: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Mount Prospect spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.8 minutes.
Mount Prospect holds about 0.4% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Mount Prospect would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,359 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Prospect | 22.8 min | 45.7 min | 190 hrs/yr | $5,897 | 2,837 |
| 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.
Mount Prospect Commute Map
On average, it takes 22.8 minutes to get to work in Mount Prospect. That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 18.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Mount Prospect
- Car: 76.2%
- Worked at Home: 18.8%
- Public Transportation: 3.2%
- Walked: 0.9%
- Other: 0.6%
- Taxi: 0.2%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1%
- Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
Biking is unusually rare in Mount Prospect: 13.3 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.5%).
Few people walk or bike to work in Mount Prospect: just 1.0%, 3.4 times below the Illinois average of 3.3%.
Commute Mode Trends in Mount Prospect, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Mount Prospect 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 | Taxi | Motorcycle | Bicycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 86.4% | 3.3% | 5.7% | 2.6% | 1.1% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.6% |
| 2010 | 86.1% | 4.0% | 6.0% | 2.2% | 0.9% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| 2011 | 86.1% | 4.1% | 6.1% | 1.9% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.6% |
| 2012 | 86.8% | 3.7% | 5.8% | 2.3% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| 2013 | 86.5% | 3.7% | 6.3% | 2.0% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| 2014 | 87.2% | 4.1% | 6.1% | 1.7% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| 2015 | 87.0% | 3.7% | 6.3% | 1.6% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.5% |
| 2016 | 86.2% | 3.6% | 6.7% | 1.9% | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.5% |
| 2017 | 84.9% | 4.5% | 7.2% | 1.3% | 0.9% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 0.6% |
| 2018 | 84.3% | 4.3% | 7.9% | 1.4% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.8% |
| 2019 | 83.6% | 4.4% | 8.1% | 1.1% | 1.0% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.8% |
| 2020 | 81.4% | 7.8% | 7.4% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| 2021 | 78.9% | 11.2% | 6.7% | 0.9% | 1.3% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| 2022 | 79.0% | 12.7% | 5.6% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.3% |
| 2023 | 78.3% | 15.6% | 3.8% | 0.9% | 1.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| 2024 | 76.2% | 18.8% | 3.2% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 87.2%. Overall it fell from 86.4% in 2009 to 76.2% in 2024, down 10.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Mount Prospect: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 18.8% in 2024, up 15.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.7% to 3.2% of workers (down 2.5 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 Mount Prospect
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mount Prospect?
The bars show when commuters in Mount Prospect 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
Mount Prospect4.0%
Illinois5.6%
|
4.0% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Mount Prospect4.0%
Illinois4.3%
|
4.0% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Mount Prospect3.9%
Illinois4.9%
|
3.9% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Mount Prospect8.1%
Illinois9.0%
|
8.1% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Mount Prospect9.7%
Illinois9.4%
|
9.7% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Mount Prospect16.8%
Illinois14.3%
|
16.8% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Mount Prospect10.3%
Illinois11.6%
|
10.3% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Mount Prospect12.7%
Illinois11.2%
|
12.7% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Mount Prospect6.5%
Illinois5.2%
|
6.5% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Mount Prospect6.1%
Illinois6.1%
|
6.1% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Mount Prospect2.8%
Illinois2.9%
|
2.8% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Mount Prospect1.2%
Illinois1.5%
|
1.2% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Mount Prospect8.8%
Illinois7.7%
|
8.8% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Mount Prospect5.2%
Illinois6.3%
|
5.2% |
Mount Prospect Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Mount Prospect is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 11.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 49.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.1%) 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 Mount Prospect, 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 Mount Prospect 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 Mount Prospect 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 | Mount Prospect | Illinois | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:37 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:43 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 7:42 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 7:40 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:36 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:40 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:37 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:41 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:45 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:44 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:42 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:40 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:38 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:37 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:41 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:41 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Mount Prospect were on the road by 7:41 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:37 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Mount Prospect now leave 3 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 Mount Prospect has moved 2 minutes earlier.
How does Mount Prospect's commute time compare?
| Metric | Mount Prospect | Illinois | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 22.8 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 | 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 18.8% | 15.9% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 0.9% | 2.8% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 3.2% | 5.8% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Mount Prospect is 22.8 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.
3.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.
Mount Prospect, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities
Mount Prospect, IL is typical in size for this group, 54,782 residents against a local median of 48,770, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. The measure that sets Mount Prospect, IL apart most is work from home: 18.8%, 34% above the local median of 14.1%.
The cities themselves spread 10.9% on work from home, so Mount Prospect, IL sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Mount Prospect, IL has the 2nd highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.
| Area | Population | One-way commute | Work from home | Typical departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Prospect, IL | 54,782 | 22.8 min #3/5 | 18.8% #2/5 | 7:41 AM #4/5 |
| Des Plaines, IL | 61,932 | 26.3 min | 13.6% | 7:36 AM |
| Arlington Heights, IL | 77,229 | 23.9 min | 24.5% | 7:39 AM |
| Wheeling, IL | 35,608 | 22.4 min | 13.9% | 7:44 AM |
| Elk Grove Village, IL | 27,591 | 22.6 min | 14.2% | 7:34 AM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
Is living in Mount Prospect, Illinois good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,897 at a typical national wage. That's 3% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Mount Prospect, Illinois?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.