Dallas Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 11:52 AM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Dallas?

Map AI 9/24/26, 11:52 AM

Commute Time Burden in Dallas: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dallas spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 193 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the Texas average of 22.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.

Dallas holds about 4.5% of Texas's population and accounts for roughly 4.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Dallas would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,390 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)
Dallas	23.1 min	46.3 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,976	3,408
Texas	22.8 min	45.6 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,888	1,441
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.

Dallas Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.1 minutes to get to work in Dallas. That's 3% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 16.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dallas

Commute Mode Trends in Dallas, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dallas 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	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	89.1%	3.5%	4.1%	1.8%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	89.1%	3.6%	4.1%	1.8%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	89.1%	3.8%	4.0%	1.7%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	88.7%	4.0%	4.0%	1.8%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	88.5%	4.2%	3.8%	1.8%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	88.1%	4.2%	4.0%	1.8%	1.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	87.9%	4.3%	4.2%	1.8%	1.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	87.6%	4.5%	4.2%	1.8%	1.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	87.7%	4.6%	4.1%	1.8%	1.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	87.7%	4.8%	4.0%	1.9%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	87.8%	5.1%	3.6%	2.0%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	85.5%	7.7%	3.2%	2.1%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	83.6%	9.8%	3.0%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	81.6%	12.1%	2.6%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	79.9%	14.2%	2.3%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	78.3%	16.1%	2.1%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 89.1% in 2009 to 78.3% in 2024, down 10.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dallas: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 16.1% in 2024, up 12.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.1% to 2.1% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2013 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Dallas

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dallas?

The bars show when commuters in Dallas 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 Texas for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.8%

Dallas Texas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Dallas is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Texas. Early starts are less common than in Texas: 13.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Texas: 45.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.7%) 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 Dallas, 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 Dallas 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 Dallas next to Texas 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	Dallas	Texas	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:44 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:44 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:46 AM	7:32 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:42 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:42 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:44 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:45 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:47 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:46 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:48 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dallas were on the road by 7:48 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:42 AM). The shift is sharper than across Texas, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Dallas now leave 10 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 Dallas has moved 6 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Dallas in the whole series.

How does Dallas's commute time compare?

Metric	Dallas	Texas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.1 min	22.8 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	16.1%	14.4%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	1.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.1%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Dallas is about the same as in Texas.

2.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.9% in Texas. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 1.5% in Texas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Dallas, TX Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Dallas, TX compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Dallas, TX	1,350,137	23.1 min #2/3	16.1% #2/3	7:48 AM #2/3
University Park, TX	25,094	16.1 min	22.7%	8:22 AM
Balch Springs, TX	32,011	31.6 min	9.6%	7:08 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dallas, Texas.

Is living in Dallas, Texas good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 193 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,976 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical Texas commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Dallas, Texas?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Dallas, Texas. 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.