Tulsa Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Tulsa, 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, 11:46 AM

How much time do drivers in Tulsa spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 11:46 AM

Commute Time Burden in Tulsa: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Tulsa spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 146 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Oklahoma average of 19.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.4 minutes.

Tulsa holds about 10.2% of Oklahoma's population but accounts for roughly 9.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Tulsa would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,812 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)
Tulsa	17.5 min	35.1 min	146 hrs/yr	$4,530	2,515
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.

Tulsa Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.5 minutes to get to work in Tulsa. That's 22% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Tulsa

Commute Mode Trends in Tulsa, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Tulsa 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	91.6%	3.5%	2.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.3%
2010	91.6%	3.9%	2.1%	0.9%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2011	91.9%	3.7%	2.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2012	92.0%	3.6%	2.0%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2013	92.2%	3.6%	1.8%	0.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2014	92.0%	3.6%	1.9%	0.9%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2015	91.8%	3.7%	1.7%	1.1%	1.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	91.5%	3.8%	1.7%	1.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	91.2%	4.0%	1.7%	1.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2018	91.0%	3.9%	1.8%	1.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2019	90.9%	4.0%	1.8%	1.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2020	90.0%	5.5%	1.8%	1.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	88.4%	7.2%	1.8%	1.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	87.1%	8.4%	1.8%	1.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	85.6%	10.1%	1.7%	1.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	84.4%	11.5%	1.7%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%	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 2013 at 92.2%. Overall it fell from 91.6% in 2009 to 84.4% in 2024, down 7.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 11 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Tulsa: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 11.5% in 2024, up 8.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.0% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Tulsa

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Tulsa?

The bars show when commuters in Tulsa 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		5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Tulsa is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.5% across Oklahoma. Early starts are less common than in Oklahoma: 12.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Oklahoma: 47.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.5%) 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 Tulsa, 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 Tulsa 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 Tulsa 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	Tulsa	Oklahoma	United States
2009	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:47 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:46 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:45 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:46 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:47 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:47 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:48 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:48 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:47 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Tulsa were on the road by 7:47 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Oklahoma, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 4 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Tulsa now leave 9 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 Tulsa has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Tulsa's commute time compare?

Metric	Tulsa	Oklahoma	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.5 min	19.0 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.5%	9.4%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Tulsa is 17.5 minutes, shorter than the 19.0 minutes in Oklahoma.

0.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in Oklahoma. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Oklahoma.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Tulsa, OK Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Tulsa, OK compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Tulsa, OK	412,712	17.5 min #1/3	11.5% #2/3	7:47 AM #2/3
Jenks, OK	23,435	21.4 min	14.2%	7:48 AM
Broken Arrow, OK	112,740	21.1 min	11.4%	7:42 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Is commuting expensive in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

Commuters here spend an estimated 146 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,530 at a typical national wage. That's 8% less than the typical Oklahoma commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

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