Albuquerque Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Albuquerque, New Mexico: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:11 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:11 PM

Commute Time Burden in Albuquerque: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Albuquerque spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the New Mexico average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Albuquerque holds about 24.4% of New Mexico's population but accounts for roughly 26.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Albuquerque would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,109 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)
Albuquerque	20.4 min	40.8 min	170 hrs/yr	$5,273	3,250
New Mexico	18.8 min	37.7 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,866	619
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.

Albuquerque Commute Map

On average, it takes 20.4 minutes to get to work in Albuquerque. That's 9% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Albuquerque

Commute Mode Trends in Albuquerque, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Albuquerque 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	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	89.5%	3.8%	2.2%	0.8%	2.0%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%
2010	89.5%	3.9%	2.1%	0.7%	2.1%	1.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2011	89.3%	4.0%	2.1%	0.8%	2.0%	1.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	89.4%	4.0%	2.1%	0.7%	2.0%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	89.3%	3.8%	2.1%	0.9%	2.0%	1.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	89.0%	3.7%	2.2%	0.9%	2.2%	1.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2015	88.9%	3.9%	2.2%	0.9%	2.1%	1.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2016	88.7%	4.1%	2.1%	0.9%	2.2%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2017	88.7%	4.3%	2.1%	0.9%	2.1%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2018	89.1%	4.4%	2.0%	0.7%	2.1%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2019	89.4%	4.4%	2.0%	0.7%	1.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	87.8%	6.6%	2.0%	0.7%	1.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	85.3%	9.5%	2.0%	0.7%	1.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	83.6%	11.0%	2.1%	0.8%	1.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	81.8%	12.9%	2.0%	0.9%	1.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	79.9%	15.0%	2.1%	1.0%	0.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 89.5% in 2009 to 79.9% in 2024, down 9.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Albuquerque: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 15.0% in 2024, up 11.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 0.9% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Albuquerque

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Albuquerque?

The bars show when commuters in Albuquerque 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 Mexico for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.0%

Albuquerque New Mexico Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Albuquerque is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across New Mexico. Early starts are less common than in New Mexico: 10.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush looks much like New Mexico's: 50.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.7%) 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 Albuquerque, 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 Albuquerque 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 Albuquerque next to New Mexico 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	Albuquerque	New Mexico	United States
2009	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Albuquerque were on the road by 7:45 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:44 AM). That goes against the trend across New Mexico, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Albuquerque now leave 7 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 Albuquerque has moved 2 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Albuquerque in the whole series.

How does Albuquerque's commute time compare?

Metric	Albuquerque	New Mexico	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.4 min	18.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.0%	12.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Albuquerque is 20.4 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in New Mexico.

0.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in New Mexico. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in New Mexico.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Albuquerque, NM Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Albuquerque, NM compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Albuquerque, NM	517,565	20.4 min #1/2	15.0% #1/2	7:45 AM #2/2
South Valley, NM	36,142	23.4 min	8.3%	7:33 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Albuquerque, New Mexico?

Commuters here spend an estimated 170 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,273 at a typical national wage. That's 8% more than the typical New Mexico commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Albuquerque, New Mexico?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.