Oklahoma City Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:16 PM

Is the commute in Oklahoma City longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:16 PM

Commute Time Burden in Oklahoma City: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Oklahoma City spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 175 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% more time on the road than the Oklahoma average of 19.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.1 minutes.

Oklahoma City holds about 17.5% of Oklahoma's population but accounts for roughly 19.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Oklahoma City would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,175 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)
Oklahoma City	21.0 min	42.1 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,437	2,077
Oklahoma	19.0 min	37.9 min	158 hrs/yr	$4,901	941
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.

Oklahoma City Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.0 minutes to get to work in Oklahoma City. That's 6% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Oklahoma City

Commute Mode Trends in Oklahoma City, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Oklahoma City 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	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	93.5%	3.0%	1.4%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2010	93.7%	3.1%	1.3%	0.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	93.7%	3.1%	1.4%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	93.6%	3.1%	1.5%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	93.6%	3.2%	1.5%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2014	93.6%	3.3%	1.4%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	93.7%	3.3%	1.4%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	93.7%	3.4%	1.4%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	93.7%	3.4%	1.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	93.1%	3.6%	1.6%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	93.2%	3.5%	1.5%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	91.7%	4.9%	1.5%	1.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	89.8%	6.7%	1.5%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	88.0%	8.4%	1.5%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	86.8%	9.7%	1.4%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	85.7%	10.8%	1.4%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 93.7%. Overall it fell from 93.5% in 2009 to 85.7% in 2024, down 7.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Oklahoma City: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2024, up 7.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Oklahoma City

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Oklahoma City?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.0%

Oklahoma City Oklahoma Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Oklahoma City is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.2% across Oklahoma. Early starts are less common than in Oklahoma: 12.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Oklahoma's: 48.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.5%) 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 Oklahoma City, 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 Oklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City next to Oklahoma 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	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	United States
2009	7:44 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:39 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:40 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Oklahoma City were on the road by 7:42 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:44 AM). Across Oklahoma the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 4 minutes earlier. Commuters in Oklahoma City now leave 4 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 Oklahoma City has moved 6 minutes later.

How does Oklahoma City's commute time compare?

Metric	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.0 min	19.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.8%	9.4%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Oklahoma City is 21.0 minutes, longer than the 19.0 minutes in Oklahoma.

0.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in Oklahoma. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Oklahoma.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Oklahoma City, OK Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Oklahoma City, OK compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Oklahoma City, OK	704,597	21.0 min #2/2	10.8% #1/2	7:42 AM #2/2
Del City, OK	20,238	18.7 min	8.6%	7:29 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma?

Commuters here spend an estimated 175 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,437 at a typical national wage. That's 11% more than the typical Oklahoma commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma?

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