Tacoma Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Tacoma, 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 Tacoma?

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

Commute Time Burden in Tacoma: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Tacoma spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 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 0.4 minutes.

Tacoma holds about 2.8% of Washington's population but accounts for roughly 2.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Tacoma would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,360 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)
Tacoma	22.8 min	45.7 min	190 hrs/yr	$5,899	3,110
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.

Tacoma Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.8 minutes to get to work in Tacoma. That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Tacoma

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Tacoma: 5.1 times less than the Washington average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Tacoma, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Tacoma 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	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	87.0%	2.8%	5.5%	2.9%	0.8%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2010	87.0%	3.0%	5.0%	3.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	86.0%	3.1%	5.2%	3.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	85.8%	3.5%	4.8%	3.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	86.3%	3.5%	4.5%	3.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	86.5%	3.3%	4.7%	3.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	86.0%	3.7%	5.1%	3.4%	0.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	86.2%	3.9%	4.8%	3.2%	0.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	85.9%	4.0%	5.5%	3.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	84.7%	4.7%	6.1%	2.7%	0.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	84.4%	5.1%	6.5%	2.3%	0.9%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	82.7%	6.6%	6.3%	2.6%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	80.1%	10.1%	5.8%	2.2%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	78.2%	12.4%	5.3%	2.4%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	77.1%	13.9%	4.6%	2.6%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	75.7%	16.0%	3.8%	2.7%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 87.0% in 2009 to 75.7% in 2024, down 11.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Tacoma: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 16.0% in 2024, up 13.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.5% to 3.8% of workers (down 1.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Tacoma

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Tacoma?

The bars show when commuters in Tacoma 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		7.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Tacoma is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 11.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.0% across Washington. Early starts are about as common as in Washington: 17.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Washington: 40.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 43.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (28.6%) 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 Tacoma, 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 Tacoma 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 Tacoma 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	Tacoma	Washington	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:36 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Tacoma were on the road by 7:38 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:35 AM). Washington followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes later. Commuters in Tacoma now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Tacoma has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Tacoma's commute time compare?

Metric	Tacoma	Washington	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.8 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	16.0%	19.8%	15.0%
Walked	2.7%	3.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.8%	3.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Tacoma is 22.8 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Washington.

3.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 3.4% in Washington. 2.7% commute by walking, lower than the 3.0% in Washington.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Tacoma, Washington.

Is commuting expensive in Tacoma, Washington?

Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,899 at a typical national wage. That's 2% more than the typical Washington commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Tacoma, Washington. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.