Commuting in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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Is the commute in Allegheny County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:31 PM
Commute Time Burden in Allegheny County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Allegheny County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% more time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.4 minutes.
Allegheny County holds about 9.5% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 9.7% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Allegheny County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,354 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)
Allegheny County
22.8 min
45.6 min
190 hrs/yr
$5,885
1,728
Pennsylvania
22.4 min
44.7 min
186 hrs/yr
$5,779
1,152
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.
On average, it takes
22.8
minutes to get to work in
Allegheny County.
That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 73% of counties in Pennsylvania
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 21.1% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Allegheny County
Car:
68.3%
Worked at Home:
21.1%
Public Transportation:
5.4%
Walked:
3.5%
Other:
1.0%
Bicycle:
0.4%
Taxi:
0.2%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Commute Mode Trends in Allegheny County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Allegheny 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
Other
Bicycle
Taxi
Motorcycle
2009
80.8%
3.2%
10.2%
4.7%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2010
80.8%
3.3%
10.0%
4.7%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2011
80.9%
3.6%
9.8%
4.5%
0.7%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2012
80.9%
3.6%
9.7%
4.4%
0.7%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
2013
81.2%
3.7%
9.3%
4.3%
0.8%
0.5%
0.0%
0.1%
2014
81.3%
4.0%
9.1%
4.1%
0.9%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
2015
81.2%
4.2%
9.0%
4.2%
0.8%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
2016
80.9%
4.4%
9.1%
4.2%
0.8%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
2017
80.6%
4.7%
9.1%
4.2%
0.7%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
2018
80.1%
5.1%
9.4%
4.1%
0.7%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
2019
79.6%
5.5%
9.4%
4.1%
0.7%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
77.2%
8.6%
8.8%
3.9%
0.8%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
2021
74.5%
12.7%
7.7%
3.7%
0.9%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2022
72.1%
15.8%
6.8%
3.8%
0.9%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2023
70.0%
18.6%
6.2%
3.6%
1.0%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2024
68.3%
21.1%
5.4%
3.5%
1.0%
0.4%
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 2014 at 81.3%. Overall it fell from 80.8% in 2009 to 68.3% in 2024, down 12.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Allegheny County: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 21.1% in 2024, up 17.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 15.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 10.2% to 5.4% of workers (down 4.8 percentage points).
Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Allegheny County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Allegheny County?
The bars show when commuters in Allegheny 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 Pennsylvania for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
Allegheny CountyPennsylvaniaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Allegheny County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are less common than in Pennsylvania: 11.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush looks much like Pennsylvania's: 47.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% 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 Allegheny 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 Allegheny 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 Allegheny County next to Pennsylvania 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
Allegheny County
Pennsylvania
United States
2009
7:46 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:45 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:44 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:44 AM
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:43 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:43 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:43 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:43 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:46 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:49 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Allegheny County were on the road by 7:49 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:46 AM). That goes against the trend across Pennsylvania, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Allegheny County now leave 12 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 Allegheny County has moved 7 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Allegheny County in the whole series.
How does Allegheny County's commute time compare?
Metric
Allegheny County
Pennsylvania
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
22.8 min
22.4 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
21.1%
15.6%
15.0%
Walked
3.5%
3.2%
2.4%
Public Transit
5.4%
3.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Allegheny County is 22.8 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.
5.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 3.5% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.
Allegheny County, PA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Allegheny County, PA is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 1,233,873 residents against a local median of 197,141. Where Allegheny County, PA breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 56% above the local median of 13.5% at 21.1%.
The counties themselves spread 6.7% on work from home, so Allegheny County, PA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Allegheny County, PA has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Is commuting expensive in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania?
Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,885 at a typical national wage. That's 2% more than the typical Pennsylvania commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. 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 Allegheny County, Pennsylvania?
About 21.1% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Allegheny County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,354 at the same national wage assumption used above.
How do commute times compare across counties in Pennsylvania?
Among counties in Pennsylvania, the shortest average commutes are in Cameron County (11.4 min), Elk County (15.4 min), McKean County (15.9 min). The longest are in Pike County (32.5 min), Perry County (32.0 min), Carbon County (30.5 min).