Moorhead Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Moorhead, 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, 4:06 PM

Is the commute in Moorhead longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:06 PM

Commute Time Burden in Moorhead: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Moorhead spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.2 minutes.

Moorhead holds about 0.6% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Moorhead would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,666 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)
Moorhead	16.1 min	32.2 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,165	1,656
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.

Moorhead Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.1 minutes to get to work in Moorhead. That's 28% 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 11.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Moorhead

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Moorhead, versus 0.1% in Minnesota.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Moorhead, versus 0.2% in Minnesota.

Commute Mode Trends in Moorhead, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Moorhead 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	87.0%	3.0%	7.1%	0.7%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	86.7%	2.9%	7.5%	0.9%	0.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	85.6%	2.9%	8.7%	0.8%	0.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	85.3%	3.7%	8.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	84.7%	3.6%	9.3%	1.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	84.5%	4.4%	7.9%	1.5%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	84.3%	4.3%	7.8%	1.4%	1.1%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2016	85.5%	4.8%	6.7%	1.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	84.8%	6.0%	5.6%	1.6%	0.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	85.9%	6.5%	4.2%	1.4%	0.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	86.5%	7.4%	3.0%	1.1%	1.0%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	84.5%	9.6%	2.6%	1.5%	0.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	83.5%	10.8%	2.4%	1.3%	1.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	83.0%	10.2%	3.6%	1.6%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	80.3%	11.6%	4.4%	2.1%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	80.2%	11.9%	3.7%	2.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 87.0% in 2009 to 80.2% in 2024, down 6.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Moorhead: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 11.9% in 2024, up 8.9 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.1% to 3.7% of workers (down 3.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Moorhead

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Moorhead?

The bars show when commuters in Moorhead 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		4.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		20.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Moorhead is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 10.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 55.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.4%) 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 Moorhead, 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 Moorhead 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 Moorhead 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	Moorhead	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:58 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:57 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	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:46 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:43 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:41 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:42 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:44 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:47 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Moorhead were on the road by 7:44 AM, 14 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:58 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Moorhead 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 Moorhead has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Moorhead's commute time compare?

Metric	Moorhead	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.1 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	11.9%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.9%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Moorhead is 16.1 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

2.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Moorhead, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Moorhead, MN	37,203	16.1 min #2/2	11.9% #1/2	7:44 AM #1/2
Fargo, ND	124,648	13.6 min	9.8%	7:51 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Is commuting expensive in Moorhead, Minnesota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 134 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,165 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Moorhead, Minnesota?

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