Meriden Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Meriden, Connecticut: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 10/21/26, 7:56 PM

Is the commute in Meriden longer than the national average?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:56 PM

Commute Time Burden in Meriden: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Meriden spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 178 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Connecticut average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 0.7 minutes.

Meriden holds about 1.6% of Connecticut's population but accounts for roughly 1.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Meriden would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,211 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)
Meriden	21.4 min	42.8 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,528	2,076
Connecticut	22.1 min	44.2 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,704	1,748
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.

Meriden Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.4 minutes to get to work in Meriden. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Meriden

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Meriden, versus 0.1% in Connecticut.

Commute Mode Trends in Meriden, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Meriden 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	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	89.8%	1.9%	1.8%	1.7%	4.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	90.4%	1.4%	1.6%	1.5%	5.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	90.6%	1.8%	2.0%	1.3%	4.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	91.3%	2.1%	2.1%	1.4%	2.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	91.4%	2.2%	2.4%	1.5%	2.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	92.3%	2.1%	2.7%	1.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	90.8%	2.6%	3.9%	1.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	91.1%	2.4%	3.7%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	89.2%	3.7%	4.2%	1.7%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	88.0%	3.8%	4.6%	2.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	88.3%	4.1%	3.9%	2.0%	1.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2020	86.7%	5.4%	3.0%	2.9%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	85.5%	6.3%	3.1%	3.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%
2022	86.8%	7.2%	2.1%	2.0%	1.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2023	87.3%	7.7%	1.7%	1.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	85.0%	8.9%	2.2%	2.0%	1.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 92.3%. Overall it fell from 89.8% in 2009 to 85.0% in 2024, down 4.8 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Meriden: its share of workers rose from 1.9% in 2009 to 8.9% in 2024, up 7.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 4.6% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 2.2%.

Commute Start Times in Meriden

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Meriden?

The bars show when commuters in Meriden 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 Connecticut for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.8%

Meriden Connecticut Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Meriden is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across Connecticut. Early starts are more common than in Connecticut: 12.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Connecticut's: 49.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.7%) 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 Meriden, 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 Meriden 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 Meriden next to Connecticut 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	Meriden	Connecticut	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:39 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:46 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:46 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:29 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:42 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Meriden were on the road by 7:39 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:41 AM). That goes against the trend across Connecticut, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Meriden 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 Meriden has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Meriden's commute time compare?

Metric	Meriden	Connecticut	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.4 min	22.1 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.9%	16.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.0%	3.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Meriden is 21.4 minutes, shorter than the 22.1 minutes in Connecticut.

2.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.2% in Connecticut. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.3% in Connecticut.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Meriden, Connecticut.

Is commuting expensive in Meriden, Connecticut?

Commuters here spend an estimated 178 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,528 at a typical national wage. That's 3% less than the typical Connecticut commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Meriden, Connecticut?

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