Kettering Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 2:38 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 2:38 PM

Commute Time Burden in Kettering: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kettering 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 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 15% less time on the road than the Ohio average of 21.1 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Kettering holds about 0.5% of Ohio's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kettering would save about 60 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,857 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)
Kettering	18.0 min	35.9 min	150 hrs/yr	$4,644	2,776
Ohio	21.1 min	42.2 min	176 hrs/yr	$5,447	1,212
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.

Kettering Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.0 minutes to get to work in Kettering. 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 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kettering

Commute Mode Trends in Kettering, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Kettering 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	93.0%	2.8%	1.2%	1.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.5%	0.2%
2010	93.0%	3.0%	1.2%	1.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2011	92.5%	3.4%	1.4%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.2%
2012	91.8%	3.7%	1.7%	1.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2013	92.0%	3.8%	1.7%	1.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2014	92.2%	3.8%	1.9%	1.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	91.9%	3.9%	1.8%	1.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	92.5%	3.7%	1.6%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2017	92.4%	3.9%	1.7%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2018	92.8%	3.7%	1.5%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2019	91.5%	4.5%	1.6%	1.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2020	90.8%	5.2%	1.7%	1.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2021	89.4%	6.7%	1.5%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	88.3%	8.7%	1.0%	1.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	85.7%	11.1%	1.2%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	84.6%	12.5%	1.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	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 93.0% in 2009 to 84.6% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kettering: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 12.5% in 2024, up 9.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.7% to 0.9% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Kettering

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kettering?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.2%

Kettering Ohio Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Kettering is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.2% across Ohio. Early starts are less common than in Ohio: 10.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Ohio: 49.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.0%) 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 Kettering, 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 Kettering 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 Kettering next to Ohio 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	Kettering	Ohio	United States
2009	7:56 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:53 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:50 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:48 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:49 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:49 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:48 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:47 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:47 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:46 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:46 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:50 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:53 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:54 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:56 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kettering were on the road by 7:56 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Ohio, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Kettering now leave 18 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 Kettering has moved 10 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Kettering in the whole series.

How does Kettering's commute time compare?

Metric	Kettering	Ohio	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.0 min	21.1 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.5%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	1.0%	3.2%

The average commute time in Kettering is 18.0 minutes, shorter than the 21.1 minutes in Ohio.

0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.0% in Ohio. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Ohio.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Kettering, OH Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Kettering, OH is the largest of the 4 cities compared here, 58,792 residents against a local median of 24,742. The measure that sets Kettering, OH apart most is work from home: 12.5%, 19% below the local median of 15.5%.

The cities themselves spread 9.0% on work from home, so Kettering, OH sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Kettering, OH has the 3rd highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Kettering, OH	58,792	18.0 min #3/4	12.5% #3/4	7:56 AM #4/4
Centerville, OH	24,742	20.4 min	19.0%	7:51 AM
Riverside, OH	22,650	17.9 min	9.9%	7:42 AM
Beavercreek, OH	42,546	17.4 min	15.5%	7:50 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Kettering, Ohio.

Is living in Kettering, Ohio good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 150 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,644 at a typical national wage. That's 15% less than the typical Ohio commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Kettering, Ohio?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Kettering, Ohio. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.