Duluth Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 12:37 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Duluth?

Map AI 9/24/26, 12:37 PM

Commute Time Burden in Duluth: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Duluth spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 132 hours, about 5.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

Duluth holds about 1.4% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 1.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Duluth would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,641 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)
Duluth	15.9 min	31.8 min	132 hrs/yr	$4,103	2,060
Minnesota	20.3 min	40.6 min	169 hrs/yr	$5,249	854
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.

Duluth Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.9 minutes to get to work in Duluth. That's 29% 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 12.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Duluth

Commute Mode Trends in Duluth, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Duluth 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	85.5%	3.6%	5.0%	4.4%	0.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	85.1%	3.6%	5.1%	4.5%	0.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	84.1%	3.6%	5.8%	4.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%
2012	84.3%	3.9%	5.3%	4.8%	0.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	84.4%	3.3%	5.7%	4.7%	0.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%
2014	84.3%	3.8%	5.7%	4.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.4%
2015	84.2%	3.7%	6.0%	4.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%
2016	84.6%	3.7%	5.8%	4.3%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	84.2%	3.8%	6.2%	4.2%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%
2018	84.6%	4.0%	5.7%	4.1%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	84.9%	3.9%	5.2%	4.2%	0.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	84.3%	5.2%	5.2%	3.4%	0.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	82.9%	7.8%	4.7%	2.9%	0.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	81.4%	9.1%	4.4%	3.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	79.5%	11.3%	4.3%	3.0%	0.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	77.2%	12.7%	4.5%	3.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 77.2% in 2024, down 8.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Duluth: its share of workers rose from 3.6% in 2009 to 12.7% in 2024, up 9.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 3.4% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 6.2% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 4.5%.

Commute Start Times in Duluth

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Duluth?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		2.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.3%

Duluth Minnesota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Duluth is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 7.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Minnesota's: 50.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.9%) 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 Duluth, 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 Duluth 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 Duluth next to Minnesota 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	Duluth	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:54 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:53 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:54 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:54 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:53 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:52 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:50 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:52 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:51 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:55 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:57 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Duluth were on the road by 7:57 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:54 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Duluth now leave 19 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 Duluth has moved 5 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Duluth in the whole series.

How does Duluth's commute time compare?

Metric	Duluth	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.9 min	20.3 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	12.7%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	4.5%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.4%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Duluth is 15.9 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

3.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 4.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Duluth, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Duluth, MN compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Duluth, MN	77,579	15.9 min #2/2	12.7% #1/2	7:57 AM #2/2
Superior, WI	25,358	13.7 min	9.0%	7:42 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Duluth, Minnesota.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Duluth, Minnesota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 132 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,103 at a typical national wage. That's 22% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Duluth, Minnesota?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Duluth, Minnesota. 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.