White Bear Lake Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in White Bear Lake, 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, 4:07 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in White Bear Lake?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:07 PM

Commute Time Burden in White Bear Lake: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in White Bear Lake spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 177 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% more time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 0.9 minutes.

White Bear Lake holds about 0.4% of Minnesota's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in White Bear Lake would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,190 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)
White Bear Lake	21.2 min	42.4 min	177 hrs/yr	$5,476	2,672
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.

White Bear Lake Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.2 minutes to get to work in White Bear Lake. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in White Bear Lake

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in White Bear Lake: 155.9 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in White Bear Lake: 121.2 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in White Bear Lake, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in White Bear Lake 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	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	92.3%	2.8%	1.5%	2.2%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	91.8%	3.4%	1.5%	2.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	91.7%	3.8%	1.3%	2.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2012	92.3%	3.6%	1.0%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%
2013	92.2%	3.7%	1.1%	1.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%
2014	92.7%	3.3%	1.4%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.6%
2015	91.4%	4.0%	1.5%	1.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.5%
2016	91.5%	4.1%	1.7%	2.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%
2017	91.2%	4.1%	1.4%	2.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%
2018	90.8%	4.1%	1.7%	2.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.5%
2019	91.4%	4.3%	1.0%	2.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2020	88.0%	8.6%	0.9%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2021	85.1%	11.2%	1.4%	1.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2022	82.4%	14.5%	1.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2023	79.3%	17.9%	1.3%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	76.7%	20.6%	1.3%	0.7%	0.6%	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 2014 at 92.7%. Overall it fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 76.7% in 2024, down 15.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in White Bear Lake: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 20.6% in 2024, up 17.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.2% to 0.7% of workers (down 1.5 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in White Bear Lake

What Time Do People Leave for Work in White Bear Lake?

The bars show when commuters in White Bear Lake 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		3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		13.7%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.0%

White Bear Lake Minnesota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in White Bear Lake is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% 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: 51.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.6%) 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 White Bear Lake, 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 White Bear Lake 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 White Bear Lake 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	White Bear Lake	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:26 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in White Bear Lake were on the road by 7:34 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved either. Commuters in White Bear Lake now leave 4 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in White Bear Lake has moved 8 minutes later.

How does White Bear Lake's commute time compare?

Metric	White Bear Lake	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.2 min	20.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	20.6%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in White Bear Lake is 21.2 minutes, longer than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

Is living in White Bear Lake, Minnesota good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 177 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,476 at a typical national wage. That's 4% more than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in White Bear Lake, Minnesota?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.