Rockford Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Rockford, 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, 2:36 PM

Is the commute in Rockford longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 2:36 PM

Commute Time Burden in Rockford: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rockford spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 148 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 5.9 minutes.

Rockford holds about 1.1% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Rockford would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,837 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)
Rockford	17.8 min	35.6 min	148 hrs/yr	$4,592	1,921
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.

Rockford Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.8 minutes to get to work in Rockford. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 9.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rockford

Public transit is unusually rare in Rockford: 6.1 times less than the Illinois average (1.0% vs 5.8%).

Biking is unusually rare in Rockford: 3.5 times less than the Illinois average (0.2% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Rockford, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Rockford 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	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	92.7%	3.0%	1.8%	1.3%	0.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	92.1%	3.0%	1.9%	1.6%	0.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	92.0%	3.2%	1.7%	1.8%	0.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%
2012	91.7%	3.5%	1.6%	1.7%	0.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%
2013	92.1%	3.6%	1.5%	1.7%	0.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2014	91.5%	3.6%	1.4%	2.0%	0.2%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2015	92.1%	3.6%	1.1%	1.7%	0.2%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	91.8%	3.4%	1.1%	2.1%	0.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%
2017	91.3%	3.5%	1.3%	2.2%	0.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%
2018	90.5%	3.7%	1.7%	2.3%	0.2%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%
2019	91.3%	3.3%	2.0%	1.9%	0.3%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%
2020	90.5%	4.3%	1.9%	1.7%	0.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%
2021	89.5%	5.5%	1.9%	1.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	89.1%	6.8%	1.4%	1.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	88.2%	7.8%	1.4%	1.0%	0.7%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	86.2%	9.8%	1.3%	1.0%	0.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 92.7% in 2009 to 86.2% in 2024, down 6.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rockford: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 9.8% in 2024, up 6.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.8% to 1.3% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook biking to become the 5th most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Rockford

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rockford?

The bars show when commuters in Rockford 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		7.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		10.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		11.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rockford is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 17.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 40.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (31.5%) 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 Rockford, 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 Rockford 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 Rockford 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	Rockford	Illinois	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:45 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:41 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rockford were on the road by 7:43 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:41 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Rockford now leave 5 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 Rockford has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Rockford's commute time compare?

Metric	Rockford	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.8 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	9.8%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.0%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Rockford is 17.8 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Rockford, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Rockford, IL compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Rockford, IL	139,970	17.8 min #2/3	9.8% #1/3	7:43 AM #3/3
Loves Park, IL	23,190	17.5 min	8.2%	7:28 AM
Machesney Park, IL	20,295	18.5 min	9.1%	7:25 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Rockford, Illinois.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Rockford, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 148 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,592 at a typical national wage. That's 25% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Rockford, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Rockford, 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Rockford, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.0% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.