Multnomah County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 7:58 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:58 PM

Commute Time Burden in Multnomah County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Multnomah County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 184 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% more time on the road than the Oregon average of 20.1 minutes each way, a difference of 2.0 minutes.

Multnomah County holds about 18.8% of Oregon's population but accounts for roughly 20.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Multnomah County would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,286 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)
Multnomah County	22.1 min	44.2 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,715	2,813
Oregon	20.1 min	40.3 min	168 hrs/yr	$5,203	967
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.

Commute Time Map: Oregon Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Oregon

Lake County (7.7 min)
Harney County (8.6 min)
Baker County (8.9 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Oregon

Columbia County (31.7 min)
Clackamas County (23.9 min)
Polk County (22.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Multnomah County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 22.1 minutes to get to work in Multnomah County. That's 1% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Oregon

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 26.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Multnomah County

Commute Mode Trends in Multnomah County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Multnomah County 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	73.5%	5.7%	11.2%	4.6%	4.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	72.7%	6.1%	11.0%	4.8%	4.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	72.2%	6.4%	11.1%	4.6%	4.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	71.3%	6.7%	10.9%	5.0%	5.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	71.0%	6.9%	10.7%	5.2%	5.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%
2014	70.4%	7.2%	10.9%	5.2%	5.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	69.9%	7.0%	11.2%	5.3%	5.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	69.8%	7.0%	11.1%	5.4%	5.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%
2017	69.7%	7.2%	11.4%	5.1%	5.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%
2018	69.3%	7.6%	11.6%	5.0%	5.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%
2019	69.0%	7.8%	11.8%	5.2%	5.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%
2020	67.1%	11.7%	10.3%	5.0%	4.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	64.8%	16.5%	8.8%	4.6%	4.0%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2022	62.9%	20.2%	7.6%	4.5%	3.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	61.4%	23.1%	6.5%	4.4%	3.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	60.1%	26.1%	5.5%	4.0%	2.8%	1.1%	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 73.5% in 2009 to 60.1% in 2024, down 13.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 15 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Multnomah County: its share of workers rose from 5.7% in 2009 to 26.1% in 2024, up 20.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 18.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 11.2% to 5.5% of workers (down 5.7 percentage points).

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

Biking peaked at 5.4% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 2.8%.

Commute Start Times in Multnomah County

Night OwlThe 3rd-latest start among Oregon's 36 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:57 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Multnomah County?

The bars show when commuters in Multnomah County 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 Oregon for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.1%

Multnomah County Oregon Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Multnomah County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Oregon. Early starts are less common than in Oregon: 12.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Oregon: 43.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.3%) 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 Multnomah County, 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 Multnomah County 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 Multnomah County next to Oregon 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	Multnomah County	Oregon	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:52 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:52 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:53 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:55 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:54 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:53 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:53 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:52 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:53 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:54 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:56 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:57 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Multnomah County were on the road by 7:57 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:49 AM). The shift is sharper than across Oregon, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Multnomah County now leave 19 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 Multnomah County has moved 5 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Multnomah County in the whole series.

How does Multnomah County's commute time compare?

Metric	Multnomah County	Oregon	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.1 min	20.1 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	26.1%	19.0%	15.0%
Walked	4.0%	3.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.5%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Multnomah County is 22.1 minutes, longer than the 20.1 minutes in Oregon.

5.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.2% in Oregon. 4.0% commute by walking, higher than the 3.3% in Oregon.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Multnomah County, OR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Multnomah County, OR is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 801,042 residents against a local median of 423,491. Where Multnomah County, OR breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 37% above the local median of 19.1% at 26.1%.

The counties themselves spread 11.8% on work from home, so Multnomah County, OR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Multnomah County, OR has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Multnomah County, OR	801,042	22.1 min #4/6	26.1% #1/6	7:57 AM #6/6
Clark County, WA	516,710	21.7 min	19.1%	7:31 AM
Clackamas County, OR	423,491	23.9 min	20.9%	7:32 AM
Marion County, OR	349,246	20.3 min	12.7%	7:26 AM
Washington County, OR	603,920	21.5 min	24.4%	7:44 AM
Skamania County, WA	12,398	27.0 min	17.4%	7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Multnomah County, Oregon.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Multnomah County, Oregon?

Commuters here spend an estimated 184 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,715 at a typical national wage. That's 10% more than the typical Oregon commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Multnomah County, Oregon?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Multnomah County, Oregon. 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.

How much money can remote workers save in Multnomah County, Oregon?

About 26.1% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Multnomah County would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,286 at the same national wage assumption used above.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Oregon?

Among counties in Oregon, the shortest average commutes are in Lake County (7.7 min), Harney County (8.6 min), Baker County (8.9 min). The longest are in Columbia County (31.7 min), Clackamas County (23.9 min), Polk County (22.2 min).