Ithaca Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Ithaca, 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, 3:48 PM

Is the commute in Ithaca longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:48 PM

Commute Time Burden in Ithaca: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Ithaca spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 132 hours, about 5.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 45% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 12.9 minutes.

Ithaca 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 Ithaca would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,635 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)
Ithaca	15.8 min	31.6 min	132 hrs/yr	$4,087	2,143
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.

Ithaca Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.8 minutes to get to work in Ithaca. That's 29% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM, followed by 08:30 AM – 08:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 27.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Ithaca

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Ithaca: 4.2 times more than the New York average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Driving is 41% less common in Ithaca than the New York average (32.4% vs 55.0%).

Walking is unusually common in Ithaca: 4.8 times more than the New York average (27.1% vs 5.6%).

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

Biking is unusually common in Ithaca: 3.0 times more than the New York average (2.5% vs 0.8%).

Ithaca stands out for active commuting: 29.6% of workers walk or bike to work, 4.6 times the New York average of 6.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in Ithaca, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Ithaca 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	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	37.8%	5.3%	41.3%	11.8%	3.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%
2010	37.3%	5.8%	38.3%	15.2%	3.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	37.0%	6.0%	40.3%	13.1%	3.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	35.4%	6.5%	41.8%	13.5%	2.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	35.2%	6.0%	41.8%	14.5%	2.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	36.6%	6.2%	40.5%	14.0%	2.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	39.1%	6.0%	40.6%	11.4%	2.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2016	39.3%	6.0%	36.7%	14.6%	2.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2017	37.0%	6.9%	37.8%	14.9%	3.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	37.0%	7.0%	36.3%	15.8%	3.1%	0.1%	0.5%	0.2%
2019	33.9%	9.2%	37.4%	14.5%	3.4%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2020	29.3%	20.7%	33.1%	12.8%	2.6%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	28.1%	24.4%	31.4%	12.2%	2.5%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	27.9%	27.1%	28.4%	12.8%	2.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	28.0%	31.1%	25.7%	10.9%	2.0%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	32.4%	27.5%	27.1%	9.5%	2.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving's share was highest in 2016 at 39.3% and lowest in 2022 at 27.9%. Overall it fell from 37.8% in 2009 to 32.4% in 2024, down 5.4 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Ithaca: its share of workers rose from 5.3% in 2009 to 27.5% in 2024, up 22.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 18.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 41.3% to 27.1% of workers (down 14.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 15.8% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 9.5%.

The most common way to get to work changed: walking led in 2009, while driving led in 2024.

Commute Start Times in Ithaca

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Ithaca?

The bars show when commuters in Ithaca 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		0.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		0.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		2.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		2.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		3.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		17.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		20.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		10.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Ithaca is 9:00-9:59 AM, when 20.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.5% across New York. Early starts are less common than in New York: 2.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New York: 29.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (48.7%) 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 Ithaca, 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 Ithaca 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 Ithaca 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	Ithaca	New York	United States
2009	9:02 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	9:15 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	9:23 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	9:18 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	9:11 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	9:07 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:49 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:41 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:44 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:49 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:53 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:58 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:55 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:58 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:54 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:58 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Ithaca were on the road by 8:58 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (9:02 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Ithaca now leave 80 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 Ithaca has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Ithaca's commute time compare?

Metric	Ithaca	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.8 min	28.7 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	08:30 AM – 08:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	27.5%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	27.1%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	9.5%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Ithaca is 15.8 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

9.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 27.1% commute by walking, higher than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Ithaca, New York.

Is commuting expensive in Ithaca, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 132 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,087 at a typical national wage. That's 45% less than the typical New York commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM in Ithaca, New York. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:30 AM – 08:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How much money can remote workers save in Ithaca, New York?

About 27.5% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Ithaca would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,635 at the same national wage assumption used above.