Reno Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

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

You 9/24/26, 4:09 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Reno?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:09 PM

Commute Time Burden in Reno: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Reno spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 150 hours, about 6.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Nevada average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

Reno holds about 7.9% of Nevada's population but accounts for roughly 6.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Reno would save about 60 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,863 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)
Reno	18.0 min	36.1 min	150 hrs/yr	$4,658	2,363
Nevada	22.4 min	44.9 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,797	1,402
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.

Reno Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.0 minutes to get to work in Reno. That's 20% 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 12.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Reno

Commute Mode Trends in Reno, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Reno 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	84.5%	3.2%	4.1%	1.7%	5.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%
2010	86.1%	3.1%	3.6%	1.5%	4.4%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	86.8%	3.2%	3.6%	1.5%	3.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	86.4%	3.2%	3.6%	1.7%	3.8%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	86.8%	3.4%	3.7%	1.3%	3.3%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2014	87.1%	3.4%	3.9%	1.2%	2.9%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2015	87.4%	3.1%	4.0%	1.3%	2.8%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%
2016	87.4%	3.5%	4.1%	1.1%	2.8%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%
2017	87.6%	3.8%	4.0%	0.9%	2.4%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	87.9%	4.0%	3.7%	0.9%	2.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	87.7%	4.3%	3.7%	0.8%	2.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	85.0%	6.4%	3.2%	1.4%	2.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	83.0%	8.1%	2.9%	2.1%	2.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	81.8%	9.1%	2.8%	2.5%	2.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	80.2%	10.6%	3.3%	2.4%	2.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	79.0%	12.2%	2.7%	2.6%	2.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 87.9%. Overall it fell from 84.5% in 2009 to 79.0% in 2024, down 5.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Reno: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 12.2% in 2024, up 9.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.2% to 2.4% of workers (down 2.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Reno

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Reno?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		6.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.1%

Reno Nevada Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Reno is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.2% across Nevada. Early starts are less common than in Nevada: 14.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Nevada: 43.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 38.8% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.0%) 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 Reno, 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 Reno 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 Reno next to Nevada 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	Reno	Nevada	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:45 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:49 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:46 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:43 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:45 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Reno were on the road by 7:45 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:43 AM). Nevada followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes later. Commuters in Reno now leave 7 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Reno's commute time compare?

Metric	Reno	Nevada	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.0 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	12.2%	11.9%	15.0%
Walked	2.7%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.4%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Reno is 18.0 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Nevada.

2.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.2% in Nevada. 2.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.5% in Nevada.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Reno, NV Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Reno, NV compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Reno, NV	252,492	18.0 min #1/3	12.2% #1/3	7:45 AM #3/3
Sun Valley, NV	21,618	22.0 min	4.2%	7:20 AM
Sparks, NV	103,031	21.4 min	10.7%	7:27 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Reno, Nevada.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Reno, Nevada?

Commuters here spend an estimated 150 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,658 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Nevada commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Reno, Nevada?

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