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SeaTac Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in SeaTac, 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, 12:40 PM
Is the commute in SeaTac longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 12:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in SeaTac: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in SeaTac spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 191 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% more time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

SeaTac holds about 0.5% of Washington's population and accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in SeaTac would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,367 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)
SeaTac 22.9 min 45.8 min 191 hrs/yr $5,918 3,869
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.

SeaTac Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.9 minutes to get to work in SeaTac. That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in SeaTac

  • Car: 74.9%
  • Worked at Home: 11.6%
  • Public Transportation: 7.3%
  • Walked: 4.9%
  • Other: 1.1%
  • Taxi: 0.3%
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in SeaTac, versus 0.2% in Washington.

Biking is unusually rare in SeaTac: 173.3 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in SeaTac, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in SeaTac 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 83.8% 1.8% 10.6% 1.7% 0.7% 0.6% 0.3% 0.4%
2010 82.9% 2.6% 10.5% 2.0% 0.7% 0.3% 0.4% 0.7%
2011 82.9% 2.6% 11.4% 1.6% 0.6% 0.0% 0.4% 0.5%
2012 82.8% 2.6% 11.7% 1.9% 0.4% 0.0% 0.4% 0.4%
2013 80.9% 2.4% 12.6% 2.8% 0.8% 0.0% 0.1% 0.4%
2014 76.7% 4.1% 14.2% 3.5% 1.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.4%
2015 77.6% 3.1% 13.5% 4.1% 1.1% 0.0% 0.1% 0.4%
2016 76.8% 3.4% 13.1% 5.4% 0.8% 0.0% 0.1% 0.4%
2017 76.6% 3.3% 13.3% 5.4% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5%
2018 79.7% 3.0% 12.0% 4.6% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2019 82.0% 2.7% 10.4% 4.2% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
2020 81.1% 4.2% 10.3% 3.6% 0.3% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
2021 77.5% 6.7% 10.6% 3.7% 1.0% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
2022 76.7% 8.5% 8.7% 4.7% 1.1% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0%
2023 75.7% 10.4% 8.1% 4.0% 1.1% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0%
2024 74.9% 11.6% 7.3% 4.9% 1.1% 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 83.8% in 2009 to 74.9% in 2024, down 8.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in SeaTac: its share of workers rose from 1.8% in 2009 to 11.6% in 2024, up 9.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 10.6% to 7.3% of workers (down 3.3 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in SeaTac

What Time Do People Leave for Work in SeaTac?

The bars show when commuters in SeaTac 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
7.3%
5:00-5:29 AM
5.7%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.7%
6:00-6:29 AM
8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM
7.3%
7:00-7:29 AM
9.9%
7:30-7:59 AM
10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
10.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
13.4%
4:00-11:59 PM
7.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in SeaTac is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 13.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.9% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 19.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 37.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.4%) 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 SeaTac, 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 SeaTac 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 SeaTac 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 SeaTac Washington United States
2009 7:15 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:19 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:17 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:20 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:29 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:40 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:42 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:41 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:38 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:29 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:26 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:23 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:32 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:36 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:32 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:44 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in SeaTac were on the road by 7:44 AM, 28 minutes later than in 2009 (7:15 AM). The shift is sharper than across Washington, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in SeaTac now leave 6 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 SeaTac has moved 18 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for SeaTac in the whole series.

How does SeaTac's commute time compare?

Metric SeaTac Washington US Average
Avg. Commute Time 22.9 min 22.4 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM 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 11.6% 19.8% 15.0%
Walked 4.9% 3.0% 2.4%
Public Transit 7.3% 3.4% 3.2%

The average commute time in SeaTac is 22.9 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

7.3% commute by public transit, higher than the 3.4% in Washington. 4.9% commute by walking, higher than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

SeaTac, WA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
SeaTac, WA 36,350 22.9 min #1/3 11.6% #3/3 7:44 AM #3/3
Burien, WA 47,382 23.7 min 18.9% 7:28 AM
Des Moines, WA 30,822 28.4 min 14.6% 7:39 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in SeaTac, Washington.

How much does the average commute cost workers in SeaTac, Washington?

Commuters here spend an estimated 191 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,918 at a typical national wage. That's 2% more than the typical Washington commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in SeaTac, Washington?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in SeaTac, Washington. 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.