Puyallup Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Puyallup, 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

Is the commute in Puyallup longer than the national average?

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

Commute Time Burden in Puyallup: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Puyallup spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 222 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% more time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 4.3 minutes.

Puyallup holds about 0.5% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Puyallup would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,756 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)
Puyallup	26.7 min	53.3 min	222 hrs/yr	$6,891	3,148
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.

Puyallup Commute Map

On average, it takes 26.7 minutes to get to work in Puyallup. That's 19% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Puyallup

Biking is unusually rare in Puyallup: 4.5 times less than the Washington average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Puyallup, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Puyallup 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	88.3%	4.4%	3.8%	2.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%
2010	87.1%	5.0%	4.0%	2.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%
2011	86.6%	4.9%	4.4%	2.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%
2012	87.1%	4.6%	3.9%	2.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.5%	0.6%
2013	88.1%	4.3%	4.1%	2.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.6%	0.4%
2014	89.6%	4.3%	3.4%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%
2015	90.0%	3.8%	3.2%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.8%	0.6%
2016	90.1%	4.2%	2.9%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.6%	0.4%
2017	90.1%	4.2%	3.5%	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%	0.2%
2018	89.2%	4.0%	4.4%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2019	88.9%	4.1%	4.8%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%
2020	87.7%	5.6%	4.5%	1.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	86.6%	7.3%	3.8%	1.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	85.7%	8.3%	3.3%	1.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	85.0%	10.3%	2.2%	1.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	83.4%	12.0%	1.9%	1.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 90.1%. Overall it fell from 88.3% in 2009 to 83.4% in 2024, down 4.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Puyallup: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 12.0% in 2024, up 7.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.8% to 1.9% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Puyallup

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Puyallup?

The bars show when commuters in Puyallup 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		9.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Puyallup is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.4% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 23.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 40.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.3%) 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 Puyallup, 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 Puyallup 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 Puyallup 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	Puyallup	Washington	United States
2009	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:07 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:09 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:13 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Puyallup were on the road by 7:14 AM, 14 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:29 AM). That goes against the trend across Washington, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Puyallup now leave 24 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Puyallup's commute time compare?

Metric	Puyallup	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.7 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.0%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.9%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Puyallup is 26.7 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

1.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Puyallup, WA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Puyallup, WA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Puyallup, WA	42,307	26.7 min #1/2	12.0% #2/2	7:14 AM #1/2
South Hill, WA	63,936	30.9 min	14.1%	7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Puyallup, Washington.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 222 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,891 at a typical national wage. That's 19% more than the typical Washington commuter spends.

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

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