Birmingham Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:05 PM

How much time do drivers in Birmingham spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:05 PM

Commute Time Burden in Birmingham: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Birmingham spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 155 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 13% less time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Birmingham holds about 0.2% of Michigan's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Birmingham would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,927 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)
Birmingham	18.7 min	37.3 min	155 hrs/yr	$4,818	5,223
Michigan	21.3 min	42.6 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,509	1,585
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.

Birmingham Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.7 minutes to get to work in Birmingham. That's 17% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 26.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Birmingham

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Birmingham, versus 0.1% in Michigan.

Public transit is unusually rare in Birmingham: 7.2 times less than the Michigan average (0.1% vs 0.9%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Birmingham, versus 0.1% in Michigan.

Commute Mode Trends in Birmingham, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Birmingham 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	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	90.4%	5.4%	3.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	90.9%	5.7%	2.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	91.1%	5.6%	1.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	91.0%	5.9%	1.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	91.0%	6.5%	1.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	90.7%	6.9%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	89.6%	7.2%	2.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	90.2%	7.6%	1.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	90.1%	7.7%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	90.0%	7.7%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	87.1%	10.3%	1.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	84.8%	12.8%	1.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	78.2%	19.3%	1.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	74.5%	22.9%	2.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	72.2%	25.2%	1.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	71.2%	26.4%	1.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2011 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 90.4% in 2009 to 71.2% in 2024, down 19.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Birmingham: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 26.4% in 2024, up 21.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.6% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Birmingham

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Birmingham?

The bars show when commuters in Birmingham 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 Michigan for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		2.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		20.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		11.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		14.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.6%

Birmingham Michigan Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Birmingham is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 20.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.9% across Michigan. Early starts are less common than in Michigan: 4.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Michigan: 55.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.2%) 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 Birmingham, 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 Birmingham 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 Birmingham next to Michigan 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	Birmingham	Michigan	United States
2009	8:05 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:04 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:01 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:00 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:01 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:01 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:00 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:02 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:03 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:04 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:04 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:05 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:04 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:04 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:10 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:12 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Birmingham were on the road by 8:12 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (8:05 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Birmingham now leave 34 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 Birmingham has moved 8 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Birmingham in the whole series.

How does Birmingham's commute time compare?

Metric	Birmingham	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 min	21.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	26.4%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	1.6%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Birmingham is 18.7 minutes, shorter than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 1.6% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Birmingham, Michigan.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Birmingham, Michigan?

Commuters here spend an estimated 155 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,818 at a typical national wage. That's 13% less than the typical Michigan commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Birmingham, Michigan?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Birmingham, Michigan. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Birmingham, Michigan?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.1% of commuters use it versus 0.9% in Michigan, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How much money can remote workers save in Birmingham, Michigan?

About 26.4% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Birmingham would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,927 at the same national wage assumption used above.