Oak Lawn Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Oak Lawn, Illinois: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 3:56 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Oak Lawn?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:56 PM

Commute Time Burden in Oak Lawn: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Oak Lawn spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 253 hours, about 10.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 29% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 6.8 minutes.

Oak Lawn holds about 0.5% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Oak Lawn would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,141 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)
Oak Lawn	30.4 min	60.8 min	253 hrs/yr	$7,853	5,517
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.

Oak Lawn Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.4 minutes to get to work in Oak Lawn. That's 36% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Oak Lawn

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Oak Lawn, versus 0.1% in Illinois.

Commute Mode Trends in Oak Lawn, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Oak Lawn 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	87.8%	1.5%	7.5%	2.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	89.1%	1.4%	6.5%	1.8%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	88.5%	1.7%	6.3%	2.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	88.1%	1.7%	6.7%	2.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	87.5%	2.1%	7.1%	2.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	88.3%	2.2%	6.9%	1.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	86.8%	2.4%	8.3%	1.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	87.0%	2.2%	8.6%	1.1%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	85.7%	2.5%	9.3%	1.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	86.5%	2.5%	8.9%	1.2%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	86.8%	2.5%	8.5%	1.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	86.5%	3.2%	7.7%	1.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	84.7%	5.9%	6.7%	1.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	84.1%	7.5%	5.4%	1.7%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	82.8%	9.7%	3.9%	2.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	82.3%	10.5%	4.0%	1.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 89.1%. Overall it fell from 87.8% in 2009 to 82.3% in 2024, down 5.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Oak Lawn: its share of workers rose from 1.5% in 2009 to 10.5% in 2024, up 9.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.5% to 4.0% of workers (down 3.5 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 Oak Lawn

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Oak Lawn?

The bars show when commuters in Oak Lawn 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		6.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		10.7%

Oak Lawn Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Oak Lawn is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 17.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 43.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.6%) 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 Oak Lawn, 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 Oak Lawn 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 Oak Lawn 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	Oak Lawn	Illinois	United States
2009	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Oak Lawn were on the road by 7:27 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:32 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Oak Lawn now leave 11 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 Oak Lawn has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Oak Lawn's commute time compare?

Metric	Oak Lawn	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.4 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	04:00 PM – 11:59 PM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.5%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.0%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Oak Lawn is 30.4 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

4.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Oak Lawn, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Oak Lawn, IL compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Oak Lawn, IL	58,169	30.4 min #1/2	10.5% #1/2	7:27 AM #2/2
Burbank, IL	23,423	30.6 min	6.6%	7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

Is living in Oak Lawn, Illinois good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 253 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,853 at a typical national wage. That's 29% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Oak Lawn, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.