Utica Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Utica, 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 much time do drivers in Utica spend on the road daily?

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

Commute Time Burden in Utica: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Utica spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 129 hours, about 5.4 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.

Utica holds about 0.3% of New York's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Utica would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,596 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)
Utica	15.4 min	30.9 min	129 hrs/yr	$3,989	3,480
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.

Utica Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.4 minutes to get to work in Utica. 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 7.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Utica

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Utica, versus 0.1% in New York.

Driving is 48% more common in Utica than the New York average (81.5% vs 55.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Utica: 6.4 times less than the New York average (3.4% vs 21.7%).

Commute Mode Trends in Utica, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Utica 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	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	88.0%	2.3%	5.6%	3.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.6%	0.1%
2010	86.5%	2.1%	6.3%	3.6%	0.4%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%
2011	86.8%	2.3%	6.4%	2.9%	0.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	85.4%	2.4%	7.2%	3.2%	0.4%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	86.4%	1.9%	6.8%	3.1%	0.3%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%
2014	86.1%	2.2%	6.3%	3.5%	0.5%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
2015	86.6%	2.3%	5.9%	3.7%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2016	86.0%	2.8%	6.6%	3.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2017	85.7%	3.6%	6.5%	3.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2018	85.5%	3.8%	6.2%	3.6%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%
2019	85.7%	3.7%	6.5%	3.2%	0.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	83.6%	5.0%	6.9%	3.7%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	83.3%	6.1%	5.3%	4.1%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	82.1%	6.5%	5.2%	4.9%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	80.7%	7.7%	5.6%	3.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%
2024	81.5%	7.5%	5.1%	3.4%	1.1%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2023 at 80.7%. Overall it fell from 88.0% in 2009 to 81.5% in 2024, down 6.5 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Utica: its share of workers rose from 2.3% in 2009 to 7.5% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.6% to 5.1% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 4.9% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 3.4%.

Commute Start Times in Utica

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Utica?

The bars show when commuters in Utica 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		5.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		12.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		10.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Utica is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.1% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 12.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New York: 40.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (33.2%) 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 Utica, 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 Utica 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 Utica 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	Utica	New York	United States
2009	8:00 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:59 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:03 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:07 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:08 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:11 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:11 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:07 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:07 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:05 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:01 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:10 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:07 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:03 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:02 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:58 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Utica were on the road by 7:58 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (8:00 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Utica now leave 20 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 Utica has moved 2 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Utica in the whole series.

How does Utica's commute time compare?

Metric	Utica	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	7.5%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	5.1%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.4%	21.7%	3.2%

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

3.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 5.1% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Utica, New York.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Utica, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 129 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,989 at a typical national wage. That's 46% less than the typical New York commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Utica, New York?

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

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Utica, New York?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 3.4% of commuters use it versus 21.7% in New York, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.