Allentown Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:18 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Allentown?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:18 PM

Commute Time Burden in Allentown: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Allentown spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 182 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Allentown holds about 1.0% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Allentown would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,253 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)
Allentown	21.8 min	43.6 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,631	2,183
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.

Allentown Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.8 minutes to get to work in Allentown. That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Allentown

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Allentown, versus 0.1% in Pennsylvania.

Biking is unusually rare in Allentown: 27.4 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.0% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Allentown, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Allentown 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	85.5%	2.0%	6.3%	4.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2010	86.3%	2.3%	5.4%	4.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2011	85.0%	3.7%	5.1%	5.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%
2012	84.4%	3.8%	5.1%	5.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%
2013	84.5%	4.1%	5.5%	4.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	83.6%	4.2%	5.9%	5.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	83.8%	3.9%	5.8%	5.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	83.7%	3.7%	6.0%	5.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	84.3%	4.2%	5.5%	5.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	84.6%	4.0%	5.5%	5.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	84.6%	3.9%	5.4%	4.9%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	84.2%	4.9%	5.2%	4.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	82.9%	6.9%	4.4%	3.8%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	81.9%	7.4%	4.6%	3.5%	2.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	81.3%	7.9%	4.2%	3.3%	2.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	80.7%	9.0%	3.7%	3.3%	2.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 86.3%. Overall it fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 80.7% in 2024, down 4.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Allentown: its share of workers rose from 2.0% in 2009 to 9.0% in 2024, up 7.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.3% to 3.7% of workers (down 2.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Allentown

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Allentown?

The bars show when commuters in Allentown 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.

12:00-4:59 AM		9.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		10.3%

Allentown Pennsylvania Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Allentown is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 13.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.6% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are more common than in Pennsylvania: 19.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Pennsylvania: 36.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (31.5%) 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 Allentown, 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 Allentown 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 Allentown 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	Allentown	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	7:50 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:48 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:49 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:53 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:52 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:58 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:56 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:58 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:57 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:47 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Allentown were on the road by 7:39 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:50 AM). The shift is sharper than across Pennsylvania, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Allentown now leave 2 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 Allentown has moved 16 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Allentown in the whole series.

How does Allentown's commute time compare?

Metric	Allentown	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.8 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	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	9.0%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.7%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.3%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Allentown is about the same as in Pennsylvania.

3.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Is living in Allentown, Pennsylvania good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 182 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,631 at a typical national wage. That's 3% less than the typical Pennsylvania commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Allentown, Pennsylvania?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 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.