Grand Forks Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Grand Forks, North Dakota: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in Grand Forks: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Grand Forks spend about 24 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 101 hours, about 4.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.
Grand Forks holds about 6.7% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 5.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Grand Forks would save about 40 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,248 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks | 12.1 min | 24.2 min | 101 hrs/yr | $3,121 | 2,198 |
| North Dakota | 13.8 min | 27.6 min | 115 hrs/yr | $3,567 | 360 |
| 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.
Grand Forks Commute Map
On average, it takes 12.1 minutes to get to work in Grand Forks. That's 46% 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 6.3% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Grand Forks
- Car: 86.4%
- Worked at Home: 6.3%
- Walked: 3.6%
- Public Transportation: 1.4% unusually high
- Motorcycle: 0.8% unusually high
- Taxi: 0.7% unusually high
- Other: 0.4%
- Bicycle: 0.2%
Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Grand Forks: 4.6 times more than the North Dakota average (0.8% vs 0.2%).
Public transit is unusually common in Grand Forks: 4.2 times more than the North Dakota average (1.4% vs 0.3%).
Taking a taxi is unusually common in Grand Forks: 6.2 times more than the North Dakota average (0.7% vs 0.1%).
Commute Mode Trends in Grand Forks, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Grand Forks 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Walked | Public Transportation | Motorcycle | Taxi | Other | Bicycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 90.4% | 2.8% | 4.0% | 1.2% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.8% |
| 2010 | 89.2% | 2.8% | 4.0% | 1.8% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 1.0% |
| 2011 | 87.9% | 3.4% | 4.6% | 1.9% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 1.2% |
| 2012 | 87.6% | 3.7% | 4.3% | 1.8% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 1.3% |
| 2013 | 88.1% | 3.7% | 4.5% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 1.1% |
| 2014 | 88.1% | 4.0% | 4.4% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 1.0% |
| 2015 | 89.6% | 3.7% | 4.0% | 1.2% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.6% | 0.6% |
| 2016 | 89.5% | 3.5% | 3.7% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.7% | 1.1% |
| 2017 | 89.1% | 3.4% | 4.3% | 1.0% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 1.2% |
| 2018 | 88.9% | 2.9% | 5.1% | 1.1% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.6% | 1.2% |
| 2019 | 89.2% | 2.7% | 5.4% | 1.2% | 0.3% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.7% |
| 2020 | 88.6% | 4.0% | 4.7% | 1.4% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.9% |
| 2021 | 87.6% | 4.8% | 5.2% | 1.4% | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| 2022 | 87.7% | 4.8% | 5.0% | 1.5% | 0.0% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2023 | 88.0% | 5.3% | 4.1% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2024 | 86.4% | 6.3% | 3.6% | 1.4% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.4% in 2009 to 86.4% in 2024, down 4.0 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.
Working from home gained the most ground in Grand Forks: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 6.3% in 2024, up 3.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Biking lost the most ground, falling from 0.8% to 0.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.
Walking peaked at 5.4% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 3.6%.
Commute Start Times in Grand Forks
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Grand Forks?
The bars show when commuters in Grand Forks 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 North Dakota for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
| 12:00-4:59 AM |
12:00-4:59 AM
Grand Forks4.6%
North Dakota3.6%
|
4.6% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Grand Forks1.5%
North Dakota2.7%
|
1.5% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Grand Forks4.3%
North Dakota4.4%
|
4.3% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Grand Forks5.8%
North Dakota6.7%
|
5.8% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Grand Forks9.0%
North Dakota11.2%
|
9.0% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Grand Forks13.1%
North Dakota14.8%
|
13.1% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Grand Forks18.9%
North Dakota20.9%
|
18.9% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Grand Forks10.6%
North Dakota11.0%
|
10.6% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Grand Forks5.7%
North Dakota4.7%
|
5.7% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Grand Forks4.8%
North Dakota4.5%
|
4.8% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Grand Forks3.5%
North Dakota2.3%
|
3.5% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Grand Forks1.9%
North Dakota1.0%
|
1.9% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Grand Forks8.4%
North Dakota6.4%
|
8.4% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Grand Forks7.9%
North Dakota5.9%
|
7.9% |
Grand Forks North Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Grand Forks is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are about as common as in North Dakota: 10.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Dakota: 51.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.6%) 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 Grand Forks, 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 Grand Forks 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 Grand Forks next to North Dakota 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Grand Forks | North Dakota | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 7:55 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 7:54 AM | 7:42 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 7:54 AM | 7:41 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 7:55 AM | 7:40 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 7:55 AM | 7:40 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 7:53 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:52 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:52 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:52 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:51 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:52 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:52 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:54 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:52 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:51 AM | 7:39 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:49 AM | 7:40 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Grand Forks were on the road by 7:49 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:55 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Grand Forks now leave 11 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 Grand Forks has moved 3 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Grand Forks in the whole series.
How does Grand Forks's commute time compare?
| Metric | Grand Forks | North Dakota | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 12.1 min | 13.8 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 | 6.3% | 8.1% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 3.6% | 3.2% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 1.4% | 0.3% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Grand Forks is 12.1 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.
1.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 3.6% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Is living in Grand Forks, North Dakota good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 101 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,121 at a typical national wage. That's 12% less than the typical North Dakota commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Grand Forks, North Dakota?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 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.
How common is public transit use in Grand Forks, North Dakota?
Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 1.4% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in North Dakota, making it a realistic option for many workers.