Bozeman Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 12:12 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Bozeman?

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

Commute Time Burden in Bozeman: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bozeman spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 112 hours, about 4.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.6 minutes.

Bozeman holds about 4.2% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 3.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bozeman would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,392 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)
Bozeman	13.5 min	26.9 min	112 hrs/yr	$3,480	3,044
Montana	16.0 min	32.1 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,143	403
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.

Bozeman Commute Map

On average, it takes 13.5 minutes to get to work in Bozeman. That's 40% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bozeman

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Bozeman: 3.1 times more than the Montana average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Bozeman: 3.6 times more than the Montana average (0.2% vs 0.1%).

Biking is unusually common in Bozeman: 3.2 times more than the Montana average (3.1% vs 1.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Bozeman, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bozeman 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	78.2%	5.0%	9.3%	5.7%	0.6%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%
2010	77.7%	5.5%	8.9%	6.1%	1.1%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	76.3%	5.2%	10.5%	5.8%	1.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2012	77.4%	5.0%	10.0%	5.6%	1.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	77.0%	5.3%	9.8%	5.6%	1.2%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	77.8%	5.0%	9.7%	5.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	77.5%	5.1%	9.6%	6.2%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	78.0%	5.7%	9.3%	5.5%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	79.1%	5.5%	9.4%	4.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	79.1%	6.3%	9.0%	4.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	77.7%	6.7%	9.4%	4.9%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	76.7%	8.7%	8.8%	4.0%	0.4%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	73.3%	11.7%	9.1%	3.9%	0.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	70.3%	14.2%	9.3%	4.0%	0.6%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	70.0%	14.7%	9.2%	3.8%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	70.3%	16.1%	8.6%	3.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2017 at 79.1% and lowest in 2023 at 70.0%. Overall it fell from 78.2% in 2009 to 70.3% in 2024, down 7.9 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bozeman: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 16.1% in 2024, up 11.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 5.7% to 3.1% of workers (down 2.6 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 10.5% in 2011 and has since fallen back to 8.6%.

Commute Start Times in Bozeman

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bozeman?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		1.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		8.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		19.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		6.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.0%

Bozeman Montana Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bozeman is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are less common than in Montana: 6.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Montana: 50.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.0%) 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 Bozeman, 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 Bozeman 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 Bozeman next to Montana 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	Bozeman	Montana	United States
2009	8:00 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:04 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:08 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:11 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:06 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:04 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:01 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:02 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:06 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:07 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:06 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:01 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bozeman were on the road by 8:01 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (8:00 AM). That goes against the trend across Montana, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Bozeman now leave 23 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 Bozeman has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Bozeman's commute time compare?

Metric	Bozeman	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.5 min	16.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	16.1%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	8.6%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bozeman is 13.5 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in Montana. 8.6% commute by walking, higher than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Bozeman, Montana.

Is living in Bozeman, Montana good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 112 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,480 at a typical national wage. That's 16% less than the typical Montana commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Bozeman, Montana?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Bozeman, Montana. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.