North Chicago Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in North Chicago, Illinois: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in North Chicago: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in North Chicago spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 137 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 30% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 7.2 minutes.
North Chicago 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 North Chicago would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,700 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Chicago | 16.5 min | 32.9 min | 137 hrs/yr | $4,250 | 2,588 |
| 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.
North Chicago Commute Map
On average, it takes 16.5 minutes to get to work in North Chicago. That's 27% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 22.7% work from home.
How People Get to Work in North Chicago
- Car: 55.7% unusually low
- Worked at Home: 22.7%
- Walked: 18.8% unusually high
- Public Transportation: 1.3% unusually low
- Other: 1.1%
- Bicycle: 0.3%
- Taxi: 0.1%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in North Chicago, versus 0.1% in Illinois.
Driving is 24% less common in North Chicago than the Illinois average (55.7% vs 73.7%).
Walking is unusually common in North Chicago: 6.8 times more than the Illinois average (18.8% vs 2.8%).
Public transit is unusually rare in North Chicago: 4.5 times less than the Illinois average (1.3% vs 5.8%).
North Chicago stands out for active commuting: 19.1% of workers walk or bike to work, 5.8 times the Illinois average of 3.3%.
Commute Mode Trends in North Chicago, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in North Chicago 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 | Walked | Public Transportation | Other | Bicycle | Taxi | Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 59.1% | 13.4% | 21.0% | 3.5% | 1.8% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
| 2010 | 59.3% | 12.9% | 23.2% | 3.2% | 0.8% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| 2011 | 57.3% | 15.0% | 23.4% | 3.2% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2012 | 57.4% | 13.2% | 24.4% | 3.3% | 1.2% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 2013 | 57.1% | 12.4% | 26.3% | 2.7% | 1.4% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2014 | 54.2% | 10.5% | 31.9% | 1.6% | 1.5% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.1% |
| 2015 | 56.3% | 11.0% | 28.7% | 1.9% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2016 | 59.0% | 9.7% | 27.1% | 2.0% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 2017 | 60.7% | 10.3% | 25.6% | 1.8% | 1.1% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2018 | 61.8% | 9.2% | 25.5% | 2.0% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2019 | 62.4% | 11.7% | 21.2% | 2.8% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 63.7% | 14.8% | 16.6% | 2.6% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2021 | 62.1% | 15.4% | 17.9% | 2.3% | 1.9% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2022 | 62.8% | 14.6% | 17.7% | 2.3% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 61.2% | 17.0% | 18.0% | 1.9% | 1.5% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2024 | 55.7% | 22.7% | 18.8% | 1.3% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2020 at 63.7% and lowest in 2014 at 54.2%. Overall it fell from 59.1% in 2009 to 55.7% in 2024, down 3.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in North Chicago: its share of workers rose from 13.4% in 2009 to 22.7% in 2024, up 9.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.5% to 1.3% of workers (down 2.2 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.
Walking peaked at 31.9% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 18.8%.
Commute Start Times in North Chicago
What Time Do People Leave for Work in North Chicago?
The bars show when commuters in North Chicago 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
North Chicago9.6%
Illinois5.6%
|
9.6% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
North Chicago8.1%
Illinois4.3%
|
8.1% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
North Chicago9.2%
Illinois4.9%
|
9.2% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
North Chicago12.9%
Illinois9.0%
|
12.9% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
North Chicago12.6%
Illinois9.4%
|
12.6% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
North Chicago11.0%
Illinois14.3%
|
11.0% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
North Chicago7.7%
Illinois11.6%
|
7.7% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
North Chicago7.4%
Illinois11.2%
|
7.4% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
North Chicago2.7%
Illinois5.2%
|
2.7% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
North Chicago5.3%
Illinois6.1%
|
5.3% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
North Chicago1.9%
Illinois2.9%
|
1.9% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
North Chicago0.7%
Illinois1.5%
|
0.7% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
North Chicago5.8%
Illinois7.7%
|
5.8% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
North Chicago5.0%
Illinois6.3%
|
5.0% |
North Chicago Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in North Chicago is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 12.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.0% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 26.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 38.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.8%) 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 North Chicago, 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 North Chicago 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 North Chicago 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 | North Chicago | Illinois | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 6:53 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 6:51 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 6:59 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 6:51 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 6:43 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 6:39 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 6:47 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 6:49 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 6:56 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 6:55 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:01 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:03 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 6:57 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 6:52 AM | 7:35 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 6:54 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 6:55 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in North Chicago were on the road by 6:55 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (6:53 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in North Chicago now leave 43 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 North Chicago has moved 7 minutes earlier.
How does North Chicago's commute time compare?
| Metric | North Chicago | Illinois | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 16.5 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 | 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM | 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM |
| Work From Home | 22.7% | 15.9% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 18.8% | 2.8% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 1.3% | 5.8% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in North Chicago is 16.5 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.
1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 18.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.
North Chicago, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities
How North Chicago, IL compares with the 1 cities closest to it.
| Area | Population | One-way commute | Work from home | Typical departure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Chicago, IL | 25,553 | 16.5 min #1/2 | 22.7% #1/2 | 6:55 AM #1/2 |
| Waukegan, IL | 86,567 | 23.2 min | 7.6% | 7:24 AM |
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in North Chicago, Illinois.
Is living in North Chicago, Illinois good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 137 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,250 at a typical national wage. That's 30% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in North Chicago, Illinois?
Traffic peaks between 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM in North Chicago, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Is public transportation a realistic commute option in North Chicago, Illinois?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.3% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How much money can remote workers save in North Chicago, Illinois?
About 22.7% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in North Chicago would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,700 at the same national wage assumption used above.