Dearborn Heights Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Dearborn Heights, 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 long is the round-trip commute in Dearborn Heights?

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

Commute Time Burden in Dearborn Heights: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dearborn Heights spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 182 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% more time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

Dearborn Heights holds about 0.6% of Michigan's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Dearborn Heights would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,258 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)
Dearborn Heights	21.8 min	43.7 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,645	4,223
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.

Dearborn Heights Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.8 minutes to get to work in Dearborn Heights. That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dearborn Heights

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Dearborn Heights: 3.8 times less than the Michigan average (0.2% vs 0.9%).

Biking is unusually rare in Dearborn Heights: 6.5 times less than the Michigan average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Dearborn Heights, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dearborn Heights 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	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	94.3%	3.0%	0.7%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	93.9%	2.8%	1.0%	0.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.5%	0.0%
2011	94.6%	2.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	94.8%	2.7%	0.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	95.5%	2.2%	0.7%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	95.6%	2.1%	0.5%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	96.5%	1.4%	0.3%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2016	96.0%	1.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%
2017	95.0%	1.6%	1.1%	0.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%
2018	94.8%	1.8%	1.0%	0.6%	0.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2019	95.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	92.2%	4.9%	0.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	89.4%	7.6%	0.8%	1.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	88.8%	9.0%	0.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	87.7%	9.9%	1.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	85.3%	12.4%	1.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 96.5%. Overall it fell from 94.3% in 2009 to 85.3% in 2024, down 9.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dearborn Heights: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 12.4% in 2024, up 9.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.8% to 0.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Dearborn Heights

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dearborn Heights?

The bars show when commuters in Dearborn Heights 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		5.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		8.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		14.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		6.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Dearborn Heights is 9:00-9:59 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.7% across Michigan. Early starts are less common than in Michigan: 12.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Michigan: 34.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (39.0%) 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 Dearborn Heights, 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 Dearborn Heights 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 Dearborn Heights 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	Dearborn Heights	Michigan	United States
2009	7:53 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:58 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:02 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:06 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:52 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:51 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:53 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:00 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:02 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:05 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:07 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:16 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dearborn Heights were on the road by 8:16 AM, 23 minutes later than in 2009 (7:53 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Dearborn Heights now leave 38 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 Dearborn Heights has moved 23 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Dearborn Heights in the whole series.

How does Dearborn Heights's commute time compare?

Metric	Dearborn Heights	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.8 min	21.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.4%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Dearborn Heights is 21.8 minutes, longer than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Dearborn Heights, MI Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Dearborn Heights, MI is the 3rd largest of the 6 cities compared here, 61,726 residents against a local median of 27,928. Dearborn Heights, MI's work from home, at 12.4%, runs 22% above the 10.2% typical of the cities around it.

The cities themselves spread 7.2% on work from home, so Dearborn Heights, MI sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Dearborn Heights, MI has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Dearborn Heights, MI	61,726	21.8 min #4/6	12.4% #2/6	8:16 AM #5/6
Inkster, MI	25,428	23.8 min	5.9%	7:56 AM
Dearborn, MI	107,299	20.5 min	13.2%	8:21 AM
Garden City, MI	26,743	23.2 min	10.2%	7:30 AM
Allen Park, MI	27,928	21.1 min	10.4%	7:36 AM
Taylor, MI	62,081	18.9 min	10.0%	7:33 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Dearborn Heights, Michigan?

Commuters here spend an estimated 182 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,645 at a typical national wage. That's 2% more than the typical Michigan commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Dearborn Heights, Michigan?

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

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Dearborn Heights, Michigan?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.2% of commuters use it versus 0.9% in Michigan, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.