Great Falls Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Great Falls, 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, 4:09 PM

How much time do drivers in Great Falls spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:09 PM

Commute Time Burden in Great Falls: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Great Falls spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 108 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Great Falls holds about 3.6% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 2.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Great Falls would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,335 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)
Great Falls	12.9 min	25.8 min	108 hrs/yr	$3,339	1,845
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.

Great Falls Commute Map

On average, it takes 12.9 minutes to get to work in Great Falls. That's 42% 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 7.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Great Falls

Commute Mode Trends in Great Falls, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Great Falls 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	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	91.1%	2.3%	3.1%	1.7%	1.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	90.5%	2.8%	3.4%	1.9%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	90.0%	2.8%	3.6%	1.9%	0.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	90.5%	2.8%	3.2%	1.3%	1.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	91.0%	2.5%	4.1%	1.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	90.8%	2.7%	4.4%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	90.7%	2.6%	4.2%	0.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	91.5%	2.7%	3.6%	0.8%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	91.2%	3.0%	3.7%	0.7%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	91.3%	3.4%	2.9%	0.9%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	91.3%	3.3%	2.4%	1.1%	0.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	90.1%	5.0%	2.3%	1.0%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	89.2%	5.7%	2.1%	1.0%	0.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	88.6%	6.6%	1.8%	1.3%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	88.0%	7.3%	1.7%	1.0%	0.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	88.3%	7.5%	1.7%	0.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2016 at 91.5% and lowest in 2023 at 88.0%. Overall it fell from 91.1% in 2009 to 88.3% in 2024, down 2.8 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Great Falls: its share of workers rose from 2.3% in 2009 to 7.5% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.1% to 1.7% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Great Falls

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Great Falls?

The bars show when commuters in Great Falls 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		4.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Great Falls is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are about as common as in Montana: 11.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Montana's: 53.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.8%) 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 Great Falls, 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 Great Falls 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 Great Falls 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	Great Falls	Montana	United States
2009	7:46 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:46 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:41 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:40 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:41 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:43 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Great Falls were on the road by 7:43 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:46 AM). Montana followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Great Falls now leave 5 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 Great Falls has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Great Falls's commute time compare?

Metric	Great Falls	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.9 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.5%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Great Falls is 12.9 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in Montana. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Great Falls, Montana.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Great Falls, Montana?

Commuters here spend an estimated 108 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,339 at a typical national wage. That's 19% less than the typical Montana commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Great Falls, Montana?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Great Falls, Montana. 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.