Springfield Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Springfield, 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, 3:55 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Springfield?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:55 PM

Commute Time Burden in Springfield: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Springfield spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 135 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 32% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 7.5 minutes.

Springfield holds about 0.8% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Springfield would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,669 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)
Springfield	16.2 min	32.3 min	135 hrs/yr	$4,174	2,082
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.

Springfield Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.2 minutes to get to work in Springfield. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Springfield

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Springfield: 45.6 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Springfield: 4.2 times less than the Illinois average (1.4% vs 5.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Springfield, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Springfield 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	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.7%	2.4%	2.4%	2.0%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	91.6%	2.4%	2.2%	2.4%	0.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	90.5%	2.8%	2.6%	2.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	90.3%	3.0%	2.7%	2.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	90.6%	3.0%	2.9%	2.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	89.3%	3.3%	3.2%	2.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2015	89.6%	3.1%	3.0%	2.6%	1.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2016	89.8%	3.1%	2.6%	2.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	89.6%	3.5%	2.3%	2.7%	1.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	89.4%	3.6%	2.2%	2.6%	1.2%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	89.4%	4.1%	2.0%	2.5%	1.0%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	87.1%	7.0%	1.6%	1.9%	1.3%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	85.6%	8.7%	1.6%	1.7%	1.3%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	84.0%	10.4%	1.5%	1.8%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	82.4%	12.1%	1.9%	1.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	80.9%	14.0%	1.8%	1.4%	1.1%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 91.7% in 2009 to 80.9% in 2024, down 10.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Springfield: its share of workers rose from 2.4% in 2009 to 14.0% in 2024, up 11.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 1.4% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Springfield

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Springfield?

The bars show when commuters in Springfield 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		2.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		16.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		19.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		15.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Springfield is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.6% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 6.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 59.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.6%) 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 Springfield, 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 Springfield 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 Springfield 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	Springfield	Illinois	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:47 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:47 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:47 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:49 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:48 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Springfield were on the road by 7:48 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Illinois, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Springfield now leave 10 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Springfield's commute time compare?

Metric	Springfield	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.2 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.0%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.4%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Springfield is 16.2 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Springfield, Illinois.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Springfield, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 135 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,174 at a typical national wage. That's 32% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Springfield, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Springfield, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Springfield, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.4% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.