Distances from Cedar Rapids, IA to nearby and major US cities
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Cedar Rapids, IA to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Cedar Rapids, IA sits in Iowa, on Chicago time, at 42.01° north and 91.64° west. The nearest place of any size is Coralville, IA, about 28 miles away — roughly 45 min of driving. 2 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 45 are within three hours' driving of Cedar Rapids, IA and 315 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is Milwaukee, WI, about 236 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Cedar Rapids, IA
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Cedar Rapids, IA. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 11 of 45 — lies to the southeast, with 9 to the east. Only 1 sit to the southwest. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
20 of those places are in Iowa and 25 are across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does. Speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are all set state by state, so a drive of the same length can be governed by two sets of rules or by one. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Milwaukee, WI is about 236 miles out, roughly 3 hr 56 min of driving, while Los Angeles, CA is around 1,787 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day. 1 of the 10 routes below have a page of their own, with the towns along the way and how flying compares.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Cedar Rapids, IA, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Cedar Rapids, IA
- Coralville, IA 28 mi · 45 min
- Iowa City, IA 30 mi · 48 min
- Waterloo, IA 57 mi · 1 hr 8 min
- Muscatine, IA 59 mi · 1 hr 11 min
- Cedar Falls, IA 63 mi · 1 hr 16 min
- Dubuque, IA 70 mi · 1 hr 24 min
- Davenport, IA 75 mi · 1 hr 30 min
- Rock Island, IL 75 mi · 1 hr 30 min
- Marshalltown, IA 75 mi · 1 hr 30 min
- Bettendorf, IA 78 mi · 1 hr 33 min
Major cities from Cedar Rapids, IA
- Milwaukee, WI 236 mi · 3 hr 56 min
- Chicago, IL 238 mi · 3 hr 58 min
- Philadelphia, PA 1009 mi · 16 hr 1 min
- Houston, TX 1010 mi · 16 hr 2 min
- New York City, NY 1079 mi · 17 hr 8 min
- Manhattan, NY 1081 mi · 17 hr 10 min
- Brooklyn, NY 1084 mi · 17 hr 12 min
- Queens, NY 1090 mi · 17 hr 18 min
- Phoenix, AZ 1460 mi · 23 hr 11 min
- Los Angeles, CA 1787 mi · 28 hr 22 min