Kennewick Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

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

You 9/24/26, 4:28 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Kennewick?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:28 PM

Commute Time Burden in Kennewick: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kennewick spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 147 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 4.8 minutes.

Kennewick holds about 1.0% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kennewick would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,819 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)
Kennewick	17.6 min	35.2 min	147 hrs/yr	$4,548	2,021
Washington	22.4 min	44.8 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,785	1,525
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.

Kennewick Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.6 minutes to get to work in Kennewick. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kennewick

Driving is 21% more common in Kennewick than the Washington average (87.0% vs 71.9%).

Walking is unusually rare in Kennewick: 3.2 times less than the Washington average (1.0% vs 3.0%).

Biking is unusually rare in Kennewick: 3.3 times less than the Washington average (0.2% vs 0.6%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Kennewick: just 1.2%, 3.2 times below the Washington average of 3.7%.

Commute Mode Trends in Kennewick, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Kennewick 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	91.3%	2.1%	3.6%	1.8%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	92.8%	2.0%	2.5%	1.3%	0.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	91.8%	2.5%	2.7%	1.6%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	91.8%	2.8%	1.9%	2.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	91.6%	3.0%	1.7%	2.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	91.5%	3.4%	1.7%	2.2%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	91.0%	3.9%	1.8%	2.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	91.9%	3.5%	1.6%	2.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	92.2%	3.2%	1.7%	2.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	92.4%	3.5%	1.4%	1.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	93.6%	2.9%	1.1%	1.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	91.6%	4.6%	1.4%	1.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	91.6%	5.6%	1.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	90.2%	6.9%	1.2%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	88.2%	8.0%	1.8%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	87.0%	9.3%	1.8%	1.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 93.6%. Overall it fell from 91.3% in 2009 to 87.0% in 2024, down 4.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kennewick: its share of workers rose from 2.1% in 2009 to 9.3% in 2024, up 7.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 1.8% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2012 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Kennewick

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kennewick?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		9.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.9%

Kennewick Washington Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Kennewick is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.0% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 20.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 40.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.8%) 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 Kennewick, 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 Kennewick 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 Kennewick next to Washington 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	Kennewick	Washington	United States
2009	7:21 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:32 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:31 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:32 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kennewick were on the road by 7:27 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:21 AM). The shift is sharper than across Washington, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Kennewick now leave 11 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Kennewick has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Kennewick's commute time compare?

Metric	Kennewick	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.6 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.3%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Kennewick is 17.6 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

1.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Kennewick, WA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Kennewick, WA compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Kennewick, WA	74,609	17.6 min #2/3	9.3% #2/3	7:27 AM #2/3
Pasco, WA	72,525	18.6 min	7.5%	7:16 AM
Richland, WA	59,474	17.3 min	16.2%	7:30 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Kennewick, Washington.

Is commuting expensive in Kennewick, Washington?

Commuters here spend an estimated 147 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,548 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical Washington commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Kennewick, Washington?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Kennewick, Washington. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.