Union City Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Union City: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Union City spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 263 hours, about 11.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the New Jersey average of 26.2 minutes each way, a difference of 5.4 minutes.

Union City holds about 0.7% of New Jersey's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Union City would save about 105 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,259 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)
Union City	31.5 min	63.1 min	263 hrs/yr	$8,147	3,130
New Jersey	26.2 min	52.4 min	218 hrs/yr	$6,764	2,109
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.

Union City Commute Map

On average, it takes 31.5 minutes to get to work in Union City. That's 41% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by public transit. About 7.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Union City

• Car: 42.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: 36.8% unusually high
• Walked: 10.0% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 7.9%
• Other: 2.2%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Taxi: 0.4%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Union City: 130.0 times less than the New Jersey average (0.0% vs 0.0%).

Driving is 40% less common in Union City than the New Jersey average (42.1% vs 69.9%).

Walking is unusually common in Union City: 3.9 times more than the New Jersey average (10.0% vs 2.6%).

Public transit is unusually common in Union City: 4.5 times more than the New Jersey average (36.8% vs 8.1%).

Union City stands out for active commuting: 10.6% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.7 times the New Jersey average of 2.9%.

Commute Mode Trends in Union City, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Union City 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
• Public Transportation
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Other
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Public Transportation	Walked	Worked at Home	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	44.2%	38.4%	12.0%	2.0%	3.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	43.7%	38.9%	11.7%	2.5%	2.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	42.9%	40.5%	12.0%	2.5%	1.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	43.0%	39.9%	12.7%	2.4%	1.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	40.7%	41.1%	13.7%	2.5%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	41.7%	40.7%	13.0%	2.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	41.1%	41.3%	13.1%	2.5%	1.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	41.2%	41.5%	12.6%	2.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	41.3%	43.0%	10.7%	3.0%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	43.2%	40.4%	11.1%	3.3%	1.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2019	43.6%	40.2%	10.5%	2.7%	1.3%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%
2020	44.5%	40.2%	9.7%	3.1%	1.2%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%
2021	43.4%	38.9%	9.6%	4.9%	1.6%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%
2022	42.8%	35.6%	11.6%	6.1%	2.2%	0.8%	0.8%	0.1%
2023	42.1%	35.4%	11.4%	7.1%	2.5%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%
2024	42.1%	36.8%	10.0%	7.9%	2.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%

Driving's share was highest in 2020 at 44.5% and lowest in 2013 at 40.7%. Overall it fell from 44.2% in 2009 to 42.1% in 2024, down 2.1 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Union City: its share of workers rose from 2.0% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2024, up 5.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 12.0% to 10.0% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 43.0% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 36.8%.

Driving is the most common way to get to work in 2024, as it was in 2009, though it did not lead in every release in between.

Commute Start Times in Union City

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Union City?

The bars show when commuters in Union City 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 New Jersey for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Union City5.4% New Jersey3.9%	5.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Union City3.8% New Jersey3.1%	3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Union City2.6% New Jersey3.9%	2.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Union City9.6% New Jersey8.0%	9.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Union City6.9% New Jersey8.9%	6.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Union City13.4% New Jersey14.2%	13.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Union City8.1% New Jersey11.8%	8.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Union City18.7% New Jersey14.0%	18.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Union City6.4% New Jersey7.6%	6.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Union City6.7% New Jersey8.1%	6.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Union City4.2% New Jersey3.2%	4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Union City2.5% New Jersey1.5%	2.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Union City7.8% New Jersey6.3%	7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Union City3.9% New Jersey5.4%	3.9%

Union City New Jersey Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Union City is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 18.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New Jersey. Early starts are about as common as in New Jersey: 11.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.9% there. The morning rush looks much like New Jersey's: 47.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.1%) 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 Union City, 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 Union City 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 Union City next to New Jersey 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.

• Union City
• New Jersey
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Union City	New Jersey	United States
2009	7:32 AM	7:48 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:34 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:48 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:44 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:45 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:47 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:47 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:51 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:55 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:54 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:59 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:01 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Union City were on the road by 8:01 AM, 28 minutes later than in 2009 (7:32 AM). The shift is sharper than across New Jersey, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Union City 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 Union City has moved 14 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Union City in the whole series.

How does Union City's commute time compare?

Metric	Union City	New Jersey	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.5 min	26.2 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.9%	16.8%	15.0%
Walked	10.0%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	36.8%	8.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Union City is 31.5 minutes, longer than the 26.2 minutes in New Jersey.

36.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 8.1% in New Jersey. 10.0% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in New Jersey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau