Commuting in Utah: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 11:43 AM
Is the commute in Utah longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 11:43 AM
Commute Time Burden in Utah: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Utah spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 158 hours, about 6.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the US average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.
Utah holds about 1.0% of US's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Utah would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,954 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)
Utah
18.9 min
37.8 min
158 hrs/yr
$4,885
1,192
US
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
18.9
minutes to get to work in
Utah.
That's 16% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 76% of states in US
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Utah
Car:
77.3%
Worked at Home:
17.6%
Walked:
2.0%
Public Transportation:
1.6%
Other:
0.7%
Bicycle:
0.5%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Utah: 3.2 times less than the US average (0.1% vs 0.3%).
Commute Mode Trends in Utah, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Utah 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
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
88.0%
4.9%
2.8%
2.5%
0.7%
0.7%
0.4%
0.0%
2010
88.1%
4.8%
2.8%
2.4%
0.7%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2011
88.1%
4.8%
2.8%
2.3%
0.7%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2012
88.1%
4.7%
2.8%
2.4%
0.7%
0.8%
0.5%
0.0%
2013
88.1%
4.8%
2.7%
2.4%
0.8%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2014
88.2%
4.9%
2.5%
2.4%
0.7%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2015
87.9%
5.1%
2.5%
2.5%
0.7%
0.9%
0.4%
0.0%
2016
87.5%
5.4%
2.6%
2.6%
0.7%
0.8%
0.4%
0.0%
2017
87.4%
5.8%
2.5%
2.5%
0.7%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
2018
87.1%
6.2%
2.5%
2.5%
0.6%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
2019
86.8%
6.6%
2.5%
2.4%
0.6%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
2020
84.8%
9.1%
2.3%
2.2%
0.7%
0.6%
0.2%
0.0%
2021
82.6%
11.8%
2.2%
2.0%
0.7%
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
2022
80.5%
14.1%
2.1%
1.8%
0.7%
0.5%
0.2%
0.1%
2023
78.9%
16.0%
2.0%
1.7%
0.7%
0.5%
0.2%
0.1%
2024
77.3%
17.6%
2.0%
1.6%
0.7%
0.5%
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 88.2%. Overall it fell from 88.0% in 2009 to 77.3% in 2024, down 10.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Utah: its share of workers rose from 4.9% in 2009 to 17.6% in 2024, up 12.7 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 2.5% to 1.6% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Utah
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Utah?
The bars show when commuters in Utah 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 the U.S. for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMUtah4.8%The U.S.5.5%
4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMUtah3.6%The U.S.4.0%
3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMUtah5.1%The U.S.4.9%
5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMUtah7.4%The U.S.8.7%
7.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMUtah8.4%The U.S.9.4%
8.4%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMUtah12.3%The U.S.14.4%
12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMUtah12.5%The U.S.11.9%
12.5%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMUtah12.1%The U.S.11.5%
12.1%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMUtah7.4%The U.S.5.5%
7.4%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMUtah7.7%The U.S.6.8%
7.7%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMUtah3.2%The U.S.3.1%
3.2%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMUtah1.5%The U.S.1.5%
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMUtah7.7%The U.S.6.8%
7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMUtah6.3%The U.S.6.1%
6.3%
UtahThe U.S.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Utah is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.9% across the U.S.. Early starts are about as common as in the U.S.: 13.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush looks much like the U.S.'s: 45.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.3%) 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 Utah, 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 Utah 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 Utah next to 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
Utah
United States
2009
7:48 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:46 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:48 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:48 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:48 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:48 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:48 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:48 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:50 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:50 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:50 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Utah were on the road by 7:50 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:48 AM). Commuters in Utah 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 Utah has moved 2 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Utah in the whole series.
How does Utah's commute time compare?
Metric
Utah
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
18.9 min
22.4 min
Work From Home
17.6%
15.0%
Walked
2.0%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Utah is 18.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in US.
1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.2% in US. 2.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in US.
Utah is typical in size for this group, 3,390,702 residents against a local median of 3,183,702, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Utah's work from home, at 17.6%, runs 33% above the 13.3% typical of the states around it.
The states themselves spread 11.7% on work from home, so Utah sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Utah has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Is living in Utah good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 158 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,885 at a typical national wage. That's 16% less than the typical US commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Utah?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Utah. 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.
Which counties in Utah have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in Utah, the shortest average commutes are in Garfield County (7.3 min), Daggett County (8.6 min), Beaver County (8.7 min). The longest are in Tooele County (30.8 min), Morgan County (23.8 min), Piute County (22.9 min).