South Central Connecticut Planning Region Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

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What does a typical morning commute look like in South Central Connecticut Planning Region?

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Commute Time Burden in South Central Connecticut Planning Region: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in South Central Connecticut Planning Region spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 174 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 5% less time on the road than the Connecticut average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 1.2 minutes.

South Central Connecticut Planning Region holds about 15.4% of Connecticut's population but accounts for roughly 14.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in South Central Connecticut Planning Region would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,158 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)
South Central Connecticut Planning Region	20.9 min	41.8 min	174 hrs/yr	$5,396	1,984
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.

Commute Time Map: Connecticut Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Connecticut

Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region (20.6 min)
South Central Connecticut Planning Region (20.9 min)
Capitol Planning Region (21.4 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Connecticut

Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region (26.0 min)
Greater Bridgeport Planning Region (23.9 min)
Naugatuck Valley Planning Region (23.5 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

South Central Connecticut Planning Region

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.9 minutes to get to work in South Central Connecticut Planning Region. That's 7% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in South Central Connecticut Planning Region

Commute Mode Trends in South Central Connecticut Planning Region, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in South Central Connecticut Planning Region 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.7%	3.2%	4.1%	4.2%	1.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	86.6%	3.4%	3.9%	4.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	86.4%	3.4%	4.0%	4.5%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	86.0%	3.5%	4.0%	5.0%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	85.8%	3.7%	4.2%	4.9%	0.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	85.8%	3.7%	4.1%	4.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	85.2%	3.8%	4.4%	5.1%	0.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	84.8%	4.2%	4.3%	5.2%	0.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	84.7%	4.5%	4.4%	4.9%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	84.3%	4.7%	4.5%	4.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	84.8%	4.8%	4.1%	4.5%	0.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	82.8%	6.8%	4.4%	4.1%	0.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	80.7%	9.2%	4.4%	3.7%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	80.1%	11.2%	3.8%	3.2%	0.9%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	79.2%	12.8%	3.4%	3.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	77.4%	14.3%	3.8%	3.0%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 86.7% in 2009 to 77.4% in 2024, down 9.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in South Central Connecticut Planning Region: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 14.3% in 2024, up 11.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.2% to 3.0% of workers (down 1.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in South Central Connecticut Planning Region

Night OwlThe 2nd-latest start among Connecticut's 9 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:54 AM.
Sleeping InThe 2nd-highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among Connecticut's 9 counties: 26.0% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in South Central Connecticut Planning Region?

The bars show when commuters in South Central Connecticut Planning Region 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		3.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.9%

South Central Connecticut Planning Region Connecticut Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in South Central Connecticut Planning Region is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across Connecticut. Early starts are about as common as in Connecticut: 10.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Connecticut's: 49.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.0%) 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 South Central Connecticut Planning Region, 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 South Central Connecticut Planning Region 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 South Central Connecticut Planning Region 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	South Central Connecticut Planning Region	Connecticut	United States
2009	7:52 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:51 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:52 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:52 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:46 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:46 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:48 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:49 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:53 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:52 AM	7:46 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:54 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in South Central Connecticut Planning Region were on the road by 7:54 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:52 AM). Connecticut followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes later. Commuters in South Central Connecticut Planning Region now leave 16 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 South Central Connecticut Planning Region has moved 4 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for South Central Connecticut Planning Region in the whole series.

How does South Central Connecticut Planning Region's commute time compare?

Metric	South Central Connecticut Planning Region	Connecticut	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.9 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.3%	16.2%	15.0%
Walked	3.8%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.0%	3.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in South Central Connecticut Planning Region is 20.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.1 minutes in Connecticut.

3.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.2% in Connecticut. 3.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Connecticut.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 516,000 residents against a local median of 439,566. Nothing separates South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT sharply from the counties around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 11% below the local median at 20.9 min against 23.5 min. South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT	516,000	20.9 min #1/6	14.3% #4/6	7:54 AM #6/6
Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, CT	439,566	23.5 min	12.6%	7:38 AM
Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, CT	163,295	22.8 min	16.9%	7:44 AM
Suffolk County, NY	1,451,500	25.5 min	12.5%	7:49 AM
Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, CT	308,890	23.9 min	15.0%	7:50 AM
Capitol Planning Region, CT	920,648	21.4 min	17.1%	7:48 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut.

How much does the average commute cost workers in South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut?

Commuters here spend an estimated 174 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,396 at a typical national wage. That's 5% less than the typical Connecticut commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut. 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.

How do commute times compare across counties in Connecticut?

Among counties in Connecticut, the shortest average commutes are in Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region (20.6 min), South Central Connecticut Planning Region (20.9 min), Capitol Planning Region (21.4 min). The longest are in Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region (26.0 min), Greater Bridgeport Planning Region (23.9 min), Naugatuck Valley Planning Region (23.5 min).