Missoula Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Missoula, 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, 3:00 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in Missoula: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Missoula spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 111 hours, about 4.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Missoula holds about 5.3% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 4.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Missoula would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,381 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)
Missoula	13.4 min	26.7 min	111 hrs/yr	$3,454	2,478
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.

Missoula Commute Map

On average, it takes 13.4 minutes to get to work in Missoula. 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 14.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Missoula

Biking is unusually common in Missoula: 4.6 times more than the Montana average (4.5% vs 1.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Missoula, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Missoula 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	74.5%	5.6%	8.9%	7.2%	2.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	76.0%	6.2%	7.9%	6.0%	2.9%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	77.5%	5.8%	6.8%	6.4%	2.7%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2012	77.2%	5.4%	7.2%	6.8%	2.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	76.6%	4.7%	8.4%	7.0%	2.3%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%
2014	76.6%	4.9%	8.4%	6.3%	2.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	76.3%	4.9%	8.0%	7.3%	2.6%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2016	75.8%	4.8%	7.7%	7.9%	3.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	75.8%	4.5%	8.3%	7.1%	3.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	77.3%	4.2%	7.6%	6.8%	3.2%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	77.9%	4.0%	7.4%	6.8%	2.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	78.0%	5.8%	7.0%	5.8%	2.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	76.6%	9.0%	6.2%	5.0%	2.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	75.8%	10.1%	5.5%	5.6%	2.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	74.4%	12.9%	4.9%	4.8%	2.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	73.9%	14.3%	4.7%	4.5%	1.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2020 at 78.0%. Overall it fell from 74.5% in 2009 to 73.9% in 2024, down 0.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Missoula: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 14.3% in 2024, up 8.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 8.9% to 4.7% of workers (down 4.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Missoula

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Missoula?

The bars show when commuters in Missoula 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		2.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		3.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		8.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		11.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Missoula is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are less common than in Montana: 7.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Montana: 46.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (32.7%) 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 Missoula, 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 Missoula 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 Missoula 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	Missoula	Montana	United States
2009	8:04 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:09 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:10 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:10 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:00 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:59 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:00 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:06 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:05 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:10 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:12 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:13 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:09 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:11 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Missoula were on the road by 8:11 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (8:04 AM). That goes against the trend across Montana, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Missoula now leave 33 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 Missoula has moved 6 minutes later.

How does Missoula's commute time compare?

Metric	Missoula	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.4 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	14.3%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	4.7%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.9%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Missoula is 13.4 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

1.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in Montana. 4.7% commute by walking, higher than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Missoula, Montana.

Is commuting expensive in Missoula, Montana?

Commuters here spend an estimated 111 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,454 at a typical national wage. That's 17% less than the typical Montana commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Missoula, Montana?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Missoula, 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.