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Wheeling Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

Updated

You 11/2/26, 6:32 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Wheeling?
Map AI 11/2/26, 6:32 PM

Commute Time Burden in Wheeling: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wheeling spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 186 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 5% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.

Wheeling holds about 0.3% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wheeling would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,311 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)
Wheeling 22.4 min 44.7 min 186 hrs/yr $5,778 3,093
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.

Wheeling Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.4 minutes to get to work in Wheeling. That's about the same as 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 13.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wheeling

  • Car: 81.2%
  • Worked at Home: 13.9%
  • Public Transportation: 2.2%
  • Walked: 1.1%
  • Taxi: 0.7%
  • Other: 0.5%
  • Bicycle: 0.4%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Wheeling: 309.1 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Wheeling, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Wheeling 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 Taxi Other Bicycle Motorcycle
2009 90.3% 3.4% 2.6% 2.0% 0.3% 0.7% 0.6% 0.1%
2010 91.1% 4.1% 2.2% 1.4% 0.0% 0.7% 0.5% 0.0%
2011 91.2% 4.0% 2.3% 1.4% 0.0% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1%
2012 91.8% 3.3% 2.4% 1.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0.6% 0.2%
2013 91.6% 4.0% 2.3% 0.8% 0.3% 0.2% 0.6% 0.2%
2014 92.4% 3.4% 2.3% 0.9% 0.3% 0.2% 0.4% 0.1%
2015 93.0% 3.1% 2.1% 0.8% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.1%
2016 93.1% 3.2% 1.8% 0.8% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.1%
2017 92.4% 3.6% 1.8% 1.4% 0.1% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0%
2018 92.6% 2.7% 2.1% 1.2% 0.2% 0.9% 0.3% 0.0%
2019 91.4% 2.9% 2.9% 1.3% 0.2% 1.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2020 88.4% 5.9% 2.7% 1.3% 0.4% 0.9% 0.3% 0.0%
2021 86.3% 8.3% 2.8% 1.1% 0.6% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 85.6% 9.4% 2.9% 0.9% 0.5% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 83.4% 11.4% 3.4% 0.9% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0%
2024 81.2% 13.9% 2.2% 1.1% 0.7% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 93.1%. Overall it fell from 90.3% in 2009 to 81.2% in 2024, down 9.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Wheeling: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 13.9% in 2024, up 10.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 1.1% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Wheeling

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wheeling?

The bars show when commuters in Wheeling 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
5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.2%
5:30-5:59 AM
5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM
9.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
14.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
11.2%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
8.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
8.6%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM
7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wheeling is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 12.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Illinois's: 45.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.4%) 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 Wheeling, 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 Wheeling 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 Wheeling 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 Wheeling Illinois United States
2009 7:43 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:45 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:42 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:43 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 7:46 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:51 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:55 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:51 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:47 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:49 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:47 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:44 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wheeling were on the road by 7:44 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:43 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Wheeling now leave 6 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 Wheeling has moved 7 minutes earlier.

How does Wheeling's commute time compare?

Metric Wheeling Illinois US Average
Avg. Commute Time 22.4 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 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 13.9% 15.9% 15.0%
Walked 1.1% 2.8% 2.4%
Public Transit 2.2% 5.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Wheeling is 22.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

2.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Wheeling, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Wheeling, IL 35,608 22.4 min #1/3 13.9% #3/3 7:44 AM #2/3
Buffalo Grove, IL 36,064 23.3 min 30.8% 7:57 AM
Mount Prospect, IL 54,782 22.8 min 18.8% 7:41 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Wheeling, Illinois.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 186 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,778 at a typical national wage. That's 5% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

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

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