West Fargo Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in West Fargo: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in West Fargo spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 137 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% more time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

West Fargo holds about 4.8% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 5.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in West Fargo would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,701 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)
West Fargo	16.5 min	32.9 min	137 hrs/yr	$4,253	1,790
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.

West Fargo Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.5 minutes to get to work in West Fargo. That's 27% 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 10.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in West Fargo

• Car: 88.1%
• Worked at Home: 10.1%
• Other: 0.7%
• Walked: 0.5% unusually low
• Public Transportation: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: 0.3%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Walking is unusually rare in West Fargo: 6.5 times less than the North Dakota average (0.5% vs 3.2%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in West Fargo, versus 0.1% in North Dakota.

Biking is unusually rare in West Fargo: 68145167.6 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Few people walk or bike to work in West Fargo: just 0.5%, 7.0 times below the North Dakota average of 3.5%.

Commute Mode Trends in West Fargo, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in West Fargo 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Other
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Motorcycle
• Taxi
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	94.8%	2.6%	0.4%	1.2%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	94.3%	3.2%	0.2%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	93.1%	4.0%	0.1%	1.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	93.3%	4.2%	0.3%	1.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	93.4%	4.2%	0.3%	1.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	93.3%	3.7%	0.6%	1.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	93.5%	3.5%	0.7%	1.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	94.1%	2.9%	0.8%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	95.0%	2.7%	0.6%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	95.4%	2.3%	0.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	95.1%	2.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	93.8%	4.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	92.1%	6.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	91.2%	7.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	88.4%	9.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.1%	10.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	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 2018 at 95.4%. Overall it fell from 94.8% in 2009 to 88.1% in 2024, down 6.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in West Fargo: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 10.1% in 2024, up 7.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.2% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in West Fargo

What Time Do People Leave for Work in West Fargo?

The bars show when commuters in West Fargo 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 West Fargo3.9% North Dakota3.6%	3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM West Fargo1.7% North Dakota2.7%	1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM West Fargo3.8% North Dakota4.4%	3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM West Fargo5.8% North Dakota6.7%	5.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM West Fargo12.2% North Dakota11.2%	12.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM West Fargo14.7% North Dakota14.8%	14.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM West Fargo24.9% North Dakota20.9%	24.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM West Fargo10.0% North Dakota11.0%	10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM West Fargo5.0% North Dakota4.7%	5.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM West Fargo3.3% North Dakota4.5%	3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM West Fargo1.9% North Dakota2.3%	1.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM West Fargo0.5% North Dakota1.0%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM West Fargo5.8% North Dakota6.4%	5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM West Fargo6.6% North Dakota5.9%	6.6%

West Fargo North Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in West Fargo is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 24.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are less common than in North Dakota: 9.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 61.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (18.1%) 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 West Fargo, 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 West Fargo 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 West Fargo 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.

• West Fargo
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	West Fargo	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:37 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in West Fargo were on the road by 7:40 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:41 AM). North Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in West Fargo now leave 2 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 West Fargo has moved 2 minutes later.

How does West Fargo's commute time compare?

Metric	West Fargo	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.5 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	10.1%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	0.5%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in West Fargo is 16.5 minutes, longer than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as North Dakota. 0.5% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau