Kent Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Kent, 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, 2:16 PM

How much time do drivers in Kent spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 2:16 PM

Commute Time Burden in Kent: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Kent spend about 56 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 234 hours, about 9.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% more time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 5.7 minutes.

Kent holds about 1.6% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 2.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Kent would save about 94 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,902 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)
Kent	28.1 min	56.2 min	234 hrs/yr	$7,255	3,424
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.

Kent Commute Map

On average, it takes 28.1 minutes to get to work in Kent. That's 25% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 13.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Kent

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Kent: 5.4 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Kent: 3.8 times more than the Washington average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Kent: 29.0 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Kent, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Kent 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	86.7%	3.1%	6.6%	1.7%	1.1%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
2010	86.1%	3.4%	6.9%	1.9%	0.9%	0.1%	0.5%	0.2%
2011	86.4%	3.5%	6.7%	1.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%
2012	86.7%	3.9%	6.2%	1.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2013	86.6%	4.1%	6.3%	1.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	86.7%	3.7%	6.4%	1.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	86.7%	3.3%	6.9%	1.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	85.4%	3.7%	7.8%	1.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	84.9%	3.7%	8.1%	1.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.4%
2018	84.6%	3.8%	8.6%	1.4%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%
2019	84.6%	4.1%	8.5%	1.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%
2020	84.0%	6.0%	7.5%	1.2%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2021	82.3%	8.5%	6.8%	1.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	81.2%	10.2%	6.0%	1.3%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	80.8%	11.5%	5.3%	1.3%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	79.4%	13.3%	4.4%	1.5%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 86.7% in 2009 to 79.4% in 2024, down 7.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Kent: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 13.3% in 2024, up 10.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 6.6% to 4.4% of workers (down 2.2 percentage points).

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

Commute Start Times in Kent

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Kent?

The bars show when commuters in Kent 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		9.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Kent is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 10.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.4% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 21.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 36.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.0%) 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 Kent, 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 Kent 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 Kent 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	Kent	Washington	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Kent were on the road by 7:27 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:20 AM). The shift is sharper than across Washington, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Kent 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 Kent has moved 13 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Kent in the whole series.

How does Kent's commute time compare?

Metric	Kent	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.1 min	22.4 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	13.3%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.4%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Kent is 28.1 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

4.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 3.4% in Washington. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Kent, WA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Kent, WA is the largest of the 4 cities compared here, 124,652 residents against a local median of 79,988. Kent, WA sits close to the middle of its own neighbourhood. No measure below is more than 15% off the local median, so the choice between these cities turns on things this data does not capture.

The largest of those small differences is work from home, 7% below the local median at 13.3% against 14.3%. Kent, WA has the 3rd highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Kent, WA	124,652	28.1 min #4/4	13.3% #3/4	7:27 AM #2/4
Auburn, WA	79,988	27.7 min	14.3%	7:12 AM
Renton, WA	106,398	27.8 min	22.2%	7:47 AM
SeaTac, WA	36,350	22.9 min	11.6%	7:44 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Kent, Washington.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Kent, Washington?

Commuters here spend an estimated 234 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,255 at a typical national wage. That's 25% more than the typical Washington commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Kent, Washington?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Kent, Washington. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.