Spanaway Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Spanaway, 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, 4:29 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Spanaway?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:29 PM

Commute Time Burden in Spanaway: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Spanaway spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 263 hours, about 10.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 41% more time on the road than the Washington average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 9.1 minutes.

Spanaway holds about 0.4% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Spanaway would save about 105 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,255 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)
Spanaway	31.5 min	63.0 min	263 hrs/yr	$8,138	2,811
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.

Spanaway Commute Map

On average, it takes 31.5 minutes to get to work in Spanaway. That's 41% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM, followed by 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Spanaway

Walking is unusually rare in Spanaway: 12.1 times less than the Washington average (0.3% vs 3.0%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Spanaway: 25135239.2 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Biking is unusually rare in Spanaway: 5.4 times less than the Washington average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Spanaway: just 0.4%, 9.9 times below the Washington average of 3.7%.

Commute Mode Trends in Spanaway, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Spanaway 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	Other	Walked	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	90.6%	3.1%	4.4%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	91.5%	3.0%	2.8%	1.1%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	92.0%	2.4%	3.1%	1.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	91.7%	2.7%	2.9%	1.1%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	92.2%	2.1%	2.4%	1.4%	1.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	93.5%	1.8%	1.5%	1.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	94.0%	1.9%	1.5%	1.4%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	94.0%	2.1%	1.5%	1.2%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.8%	1.9%	1.7%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	95.2%	2.5%	1.6%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	94.2%	2.8%	2.1%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	91.8%	4.0%	2.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	90.3%	5.0%	3.1%	1.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	88.4%	7.2%	2.9%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	87.2%	8.2%	2.9%	0.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	85.9%	10.0%	2.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 95.2%. Overall it fell from 90.6% in 2009 to 85.9% in 2024, down 4.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Spanaway: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 10.0% in 2024, up 6.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 2.7% of workers (down 1.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2014 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Spanaway

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Spanaway?

The bars show when commuters in Spanaway 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		12.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		7.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		8.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		10.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Spanaway is 12:00-4:59 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.1% across Washington. Early starts are more common than in Washington: 26.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 34.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.2%) 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 Spanaway, 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 Spanaway 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 Spanaway 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	Spanaway	Washington	United States
2009	7:02 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:09 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:08 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:16 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:16 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:13 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:03 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	6:58 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:00 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:07 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:03 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:13 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Spanaway were on the road by 7:23 AM, 20 minutes later than in 2009 (7:02 AM). The shift is sharper than across Washington, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Spanaway now leave 15 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 Spanaway has moved 25 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Spanaway in the whole series.

How does Spanaway's commute time compare?

Metric	Spanaway	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.5 min	22.4 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 AM – 04:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	04:00 PM – 11:59 PM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.0%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	0.3%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.7%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Spanaway is 31.5 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

2.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.4% in Washington. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Spanaway, WA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Spanaway, WA	32,774	31.5 min #2/3	10.0% #1/3	7:23 AM #3/3
Parkland, WA	36,554	25.3 min	7.2%	7:19 AM
Frederickson, WA	25,107	32.4 min	9.9%	7:18 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Spanaway, Washington.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 263 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,138 at a typical national wage. That's 41% more than the typical Washington commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 12:00 AM – 04:59 AM in Spanaway, Washington. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.