St. Paul Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in St. Paul, 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, 1:13 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in St. Paul?

Map AI 9/24/26, 1:13 PM

Commute Time Burden in St. Paul: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in St. Paul spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 168 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

St. Paul holds about 5.4% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 5.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in St. Paul would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,081 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)
St. Paul	20.1 min	40.3 min	168 hrs/yr	$5,202	2,611
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.

St. Paul Commute Map

On average, it takes 20.1 minutes to get to work in St. Paul. That's 10% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in St. Paul

Public transit is unusually common in St. Paul: 3.1 times more than the Minnesota average (5.4% vs 1.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in St. Paul, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in St. Paul 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	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	80.2%	4.5%	9.0%	4.4%	0.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	79.8%	4.5%	9.2%	4.6%	0.5%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	79.8%	4.7%	9.1%	4.4%	0.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	80.5%	4.6%	8.5%	4.4%	0.5%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	80.6%	4.9%	8.1%	4.2%	0.5%	1.3%	0.2%	0.3%
2014	79.9%	5.1%	8.4%	4.2%	0.6%	1.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	79.8%	5.1%	8.5%	4.0%	0.6%	1.6%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	79.2%	5.3%	8.8%	4.0%	0.7%	1.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	78.6%	5.6%	9.2%	3.9%	0.8%	1.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	78.4%	5.6%	9.5%	3.9%	0.8%	1.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	79.0%	5.5%	9.3%	3.7%	0.8%	1.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	75.7%	9.5%	9.0%	3.8%	0.7%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	72.9%	13.0%	8.4%	3.8%	0.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	71.4%	15.4%	7.5%	3.8%	0.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	69.3%	18.3%	6.5%	3.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2024	67.9%	20.2%	5.4%	3.8%	1.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 80.6%. Overall it fell from 80.2% in 2009 to 67.9% in 2024, down 12.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in St. Paul: its share of workers rose from 4.5% in 2009 to 20.2% in 2024, up 15.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 9.0% to 5.4% of workers (down 3.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in St. Paul

What Time Do People Leave for Work in St. Paul?

The bars show when commuters in St. Paul 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		4.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		12.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in St. Paul is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 12.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 8.2% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 11.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Minnesota: 42.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (33.0%) 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 St. Paul, 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 St. Paul 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 St. Paul 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	St. Paul	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:58 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:57 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:56 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:55 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:54 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:53 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:55 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:56 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:59 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:02 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in St. Paul were on the road by 8:02 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:55 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in St. Paul now leave 24 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 St. Paul has moved 8 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for St. Paul in the whole series.

How does St. Paul's commute time compare?

Metric	St. Paul	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.1 min	20.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	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	20.2%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.8%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.4%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in St. Paul is about the same as in Minnesota.

5.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 3.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

St. Paul, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
St. Paul, MN	307,141	20.1 min #1/2	20.2% #1/2	8:02 AM #2/2
West St. Paul, MN	21,361	21.2 min	19.6%	7:43 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in St. Paul, Minnesota.

How much does the average commute cost workers in St. Paul, Minnesota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 168 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,202 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in St. Paul, Minnesota?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in St. Paul, Minnesota. 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.

How common is public transit use in St. Paul, Minnesota?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 5.4% of commuters use it versus 1.8% in Minnesota, making it a realistic option for many workers.