Waukegan Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Waukegan, 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, 3:57 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Waukegan?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:57 PM

Commute Time Burden in Waukegan: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Waukegan spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 194 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.4 minutes.

Waukegan holds about 0.7% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Waukegan would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,400 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)
Waukegan	23.2 min	46.5 min	194 hrs/yr	$6,000	3,221
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.

Waukegan Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.2 minutes to get to work in Waukegan. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Waukegan

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Waukegan: 3.8 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Waukegan: 3.2 times less than the Illinois average (1.8% vs 5.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Waukegan, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Waukegan 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	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	90.1%	2.5%	1.0%	4.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%
2010	90.2%	3.0%	0.7%	3.9%	1.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2011	89.9%	3.4%	0.7%	4.1%	1.3%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	90.3%	3.6%	0.7%	3.5%	1.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	90.3%	4.0%	0.8%	3.0%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	90.7%	4.1%	0.9%	2.5%	1.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	90.5%	3.6%	0.9%	3.2%	1.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	90.9%	3.3%	0.8%	3.3%	1.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	91.1%	2.9%	0.9%	3.4%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	91.2%	2.9%	0.8%	3.5%	1.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	92.0%	2.4%	0.5%	3.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	91.3%	3.5%	0.8%	3.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	89.7%	5.1%	1.1%	2.5%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	88.5%	5.7%	1.6%	2.3%	0.9%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	86.9%	6.9%	2.1%	2.3%	0.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	86.4%	7.6%	2.0%	1.8%	1.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 92.0%. Overall it fell from 90.1% in 2009 to 86.4% in 2024, down 3.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Waukegan: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 7.6% in 2024, up 5.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.0% to 1.8% of workers (down 2.2 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 Waukegan

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Waukegan?

The bars show when commuters in Waukegan 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		7.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		11.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Waukegan is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 11.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.7% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 20.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Illinois: 36.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.0%) 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 Waukegan, 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 Waukegan 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 Waukegan 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	Waukegan	Illinois	United States
2009	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Waukegan were on the road by 7:24 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:17 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Waukegan now leave 14 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 Waukegan has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Waukegan's commute time compare?

Metric	Waukegan	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.2 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.6%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Waukegan is 23.2 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Waukegan, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Waukegan, IL	86,567	23.2 min #2/3	7.6% #3/3	7:24 AM #2/3
North Chicago, IL	25,553	16.5 min	22.7%	6:55 AM
Gurnee, IL	23,970	23.5 min	17.5%	7:35 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Waukegan, Illinois.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 194 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,000 at a typical national wage. That's 2% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Waukegan, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Waukegan, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.8% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.