Pittsburgh Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Pittsburgh, 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 Pittsburgh?

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

Commute Time Burden in Pittsburgh: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Pittsburgh spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 176 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% less time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.

Pittsburgh holds about 2.3% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 2.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Pittsburgh would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,176 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)
Pittsburgh	21.1 min	42.1 min	176 hrs/yr	$5,441	2,049
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.

Pittsburgh Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.1 minutes to get to work in Pittsburgh. That's 6% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 22.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Pittsburgh

Driving is 29% less common in Pittsburgh than the Pennsylvania average (53.5% vs 75.7%).

Public transit is unusually common in Pittsburgh: 3.2 times more than the Pennsylvania average (11.5% vs 3.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Pittsburgh, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Pittsburgh 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	64.3%	2.8%	19.6%	11.4%	0.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	64.0%	3.0%	19.4%	11.7%	0.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	63.8%	3.7%	19.0%	11.3%	0.7%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	64.1%	3.4%	18.8%	11.3%	0.8%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	65.0%	3.6%	17.5%	11.2%	0.8%	1.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	65.5%	3.8%	16.8%	10.8%	0.9%	1.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	65.1%	4.0%	17.0%	11.1%	0.8%	1.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	64.9%	4.0%	17.1%	11.1%	0.8%	1.9%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	64.4%	4.5%	17.1%	11.1%	0.8%	1.9%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	63.9%	4.9%	17.9%	10.6%	0.7%	1.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	63.4%	5.6%	17.7%	10.7%	0.6%	1.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	61.1%	9.0%	16.9%	10.1%	0.9%	1.6%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	58.8%	13.9%	15.1%	9.6%	1.0%	1.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2022	56.2%	17.5%	13.3%	10.2%	1.0%	1.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2023	54.6%	20.4%	12.3%	9.7%	1.3%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2024	53.5%	22.4%	11.5%	9.5%	1.4%	1.2%	0.4%	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 65.5%. Overall it fell from 64.3% in 2009 to 53.5% in 2024, down 10.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Pittsburgh: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 22.4% in 2024, up 19.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 19.6% to 11.5% of workers (down 8.1 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Pittsburgh

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pittsburgh?

The bars show when commuters in Pittsburgh 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		3.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		10.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Pittsburgh is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.9% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are less common than in Pennsylvania: 9.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Pennsylvania: 43.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (32.4%) 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 Pittsburgh, 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh 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	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	8:06 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:04 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:04 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:05 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:05 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:05 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:05 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:06 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:07 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:09 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:10 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Pittsburgh were on the road by 8:10 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (8:06 AM). That goes against the trend across Pennsylvania, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Pittsburgh now leave 32 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 Pittsburgh has moved 6 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Pittsburgh in the whole series.

How does Pittsburgh's commute time compare?

Metric	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.1 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 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	22.4%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	9.5%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	11.5%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Pittsburgh is 21.1 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.

11.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 9.5% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Pittsburgh, PA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Pittsburgh, PA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Pittsburgh, PA	300,895	21.1 min #1/2	22.4% #1/2	8:10 AM #2/2
Baldwin, PA	21,040	25.8 min	16.0%	7:31 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?

Commuters here spend an estimated 176 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,441 at a typical national wage. That's 6% less than the typical Pennsylvania commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 11.5% of commuters use it versus 3.6% in Pennsylvania, making it a realistic option for many workers.

How much time do residents in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania save by working from home?

About 22.4% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Pittsburgh would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,176 at the same national wage assumption used above.