Elmira Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:12 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Elmira?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:12 PM

Commute Time Burden in Elmira: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Elmira spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 128 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 46% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 13.3 minutes.

Elmira holds about 0.1% of New York's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Elmira would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,591 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)
Elmira	15.4 min	30.8 min	128 hrs/yr	$3,976	1,934
New York	28.7 min	57.4 min	239 hrs/yr	$7,414	1,586
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.

Elmira Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.4 minutes to get to work in Elmira. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Elmira

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Elmira: 12.7 times more than the New York average (1.0% vs 0.1%).

Driving is 39% more common in Elmira than the New York average (76.3% vs 55.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Elmira: 5.8 times less than the New York average (3.8% vs 21.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Elmira, versus 0.7% in New York.

Biking is unusually rare in Elmira: 6.6 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Elmira, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Elmira 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	Public Transportation	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	83.9%	4.0%	7.4%	1.9%	1.6%	0.0%	0.5%	0.7%
2010	84.3%	4.5%	7.8%	1.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.5%
2011	82.9%	3.3%	8.5%	3.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.4%
2012	84.3%	2.9%	7.4%	3.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.5%	0.4%
2013	83.7%	2.6%	7.6%	4.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%
2014	84.1%	2.5%	7.6%	4.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.5%	0.2%
2015	83.8%	2.1%	7.2%	5.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	84.5%	2.0%	7.1%	5.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.8%	0.2%
2017	82.7%	2.6%	7.5%	5.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.4%
2018	83.4%	2.8%	6.7%	5.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.5%	0.6%
2019	80.9%	2.8%	7.6%	5.7%	0.5%	0.3%	1.4%	0.8%
2020	79.9%	4.6%	7.9%	3.7%	0.4%	1.2%	1.2%	1.0%
2021	77.4%	6.7%	8.4%	3.2%	1.4%	1.1%	0.8%	1.0%
2022	78.6%	6.8%	6.1%	3.1%	1.9%	1.1%	0.9%	1.6%
2023	76.0%	8.9%	6.6%	3.9%	2.1%	1.1%	0.9%	0.4%
2024	76.3%	10.3%	5.8%	3.8%	2.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2016 at 84.5% and lowest in 2023 at 76.0%. Overall it fell from 83.9% in 2009 to 76.3% in 2024, down 7.6 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Elmira: its share of workers rose from 4.0% in 2009 to 10.3% in 2024, up 6.3 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 7.4% to 5.8% of workers (down 1.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 5.8% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 3.8%.

Commute Start Times in Elmira

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Elmira?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		2.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.7%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.0%

Elmira New York Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Elmira is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.1% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 13.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New York: 40.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (33.0%) 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 Elmira, 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 Elmira 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 Elmira next to New York 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	Elmira	New York	United States
2009	7:58 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:54 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:50 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:42 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:55 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:00 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:06 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:06 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:07 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:58 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:57 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:53 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Elmira were on the road by 7:53 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:58 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Elmira now leave 15 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 Elmira has moved 13 minutes earlier.

How does Elmira's commute time compare?

Metric	Elmira	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.4 min	28.7 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.3%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	5.8%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.8%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Elmira is 15.4 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

3.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 5.8% commute by walking, higher than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Elmira, New York.

Is commuting expensive in Elmira, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 128 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,976 at a typical national wage. That's 46% less than the typical New York commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Elmira, New York?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Elmira, New York. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Elmira, New York?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 3.8% of commuters use it versus 21.7% in New York, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.