Independence Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:08 PM

Is the commute in Independence longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:08 PM

Commute Time Burden in Independence: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Independence spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% more time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

Independence holds about 1.9% of Missouri's population but accounts for roughly 2.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Independence would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,357 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)
Independence	22.8 min	45.6 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,891	1,622
Missouri	21.0 min	41.9 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,415	923
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.

Independence Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.8 minutes to get to work in Independence. That's 2% longer 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 12.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Independence

Biking is unusually rare in Independence: 2617.4 times less than the Missouri average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Independence, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Independence 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	93.7%	2.9%	0.7%	1.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	94.1%	2.9%	0.9%	1.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	94.7%	2.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	95.1%	2.4%	0.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	95.0%	2.4%	0.8%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	95.2%	2.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	94.5%	3.0%	1.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	94.4%	3.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	94.6%	3.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	94.3%	3.7%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	94.4%	3.7%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	93.8%	4.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	91.7%	6.9%	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	90.3%	8.2%	0.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.4%	10.3%	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	85.5%	12.5%	0.8%	0.6%	0.5%	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 95.2%. Overall it fell from 93.7% in 2009 to 85.5% in 2024, down 8.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Independence: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 12.5% in 2024, up 9.6 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 1.1% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Independence

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Independence?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		5.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.4%

Independence Missouri Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Independence is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 11.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.0% across Missouri. Early starts are more common than in Missouri: 16.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Missouri: 40.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.9%) 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 Independence, 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 Independence 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 Independence next to Missouri 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	Independence	Missouri	United States
2009	7:26 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:26 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:26 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:26 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:33 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Independence were on the road by 7:33 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:26 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Independence now leave 5 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 Independence has moved 6 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Independence in the whole series.

How does Independence's commute time compare?

Metric	Independence	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.8 min	21.0 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	12.5%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	0.8%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Independence is 22.8 minutes, longer than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Independence, MO Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Independence, MO compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Independence, MO	120,545	22.8 min #1/2	12.5% #2/2	7:33 AM #1/2
Blue Springs, MO	48,094	23.7 min	13.6%	7:37 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Independence, Missouri.

Is commuting expensive in Independence, Missouri?

Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,891 at a typical national wage. That's 9% more than the typical Missouri commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Independence, Missouri?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Independence, Missouri. 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.