Newark Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/21/26, 7:57 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Newark?

Map AI 10/21/26, 7:57 PM

Commute Time Burden in Newark: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Newark spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 136 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Delaware average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 5.8 minutes.

Newark holds about 2.9% of Delaware's population but accounts for roughly 2.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Newark would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,686 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)
Newark	16.3 min	32.6 min	136 hrs/yr	$4,215	2,587
Delaware	22.1 min	44.2 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,703	1,341
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.

Newark Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.3 minutes to get to work in Newark. That's 27% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 18.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Newark

Driving is 23% less common in Newark than the Delaware average (61.3% vs 79.5%).

Walking is unusually common in Newark: 7.3 times more than the Delaware average (14.5% vs 2.0%).

Biking is unusually common in Newark: 8.3 times more than the Delaware average (2.7% vs 0.3%).

Newark stands out for active commuting: 17.2% of workers walk or bike to work, 7.4 times the Delaware average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Newark, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Newark 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	71.0%	3.8%	16.7%	4.6%	3.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	71.3%	3.4%	17.2%	4.2%	3.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	72.2%	3.9%	15.1%	4.4%	4.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	74.3%	4.5%	14.4%	2.7%	3.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	74.1%	4.4%	14.6%	2.3%	4.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	73.8%	3.4%	15.1%	2.5%	4.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	74.2%	3.1%	14.9%	2.2%	5.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	73.3%	4.1%	15.5%	2.6%	4.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	72.1%	4.2%	14.8%	3.3%	5.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	74.2%	4.7%	13.7%	2.6%	4.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	74.3%	4.7%	14.4%	2.9%	3.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	70.0%	9.3%	14.4%	2.7%	3.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	68.1%	13.4%	12.4%	2.9%	2.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	64.2%	16.8%	14.5%	2.3%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	63.5%	17.4%	14.0%	2.1%	2.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	61.3%	18.6%	14.5%	2.7%	2.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2012 at 74.3%. Overall it fell from 71.0% in 2009 to 61.3% in 2024, down 9.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Newark: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 18.6% in 2024, up 14.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 16.7% to 14.5% of workers (down 2.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 5.1% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 2.1%.

Commute Start Times in Newark

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Newark?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		4.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		9.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		11.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.0%

Newark Delaware Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Newark is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 13.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 6.9% across Delaware. Early starts are less common than in Delaware: 8.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Delaware: 36.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (40.7%) 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 Newark, 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 Newark 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 Newark next to Delaware 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	Newark	Delaware	United States
2009	8:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:21 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:12 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:11 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:11 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:34 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Newark were on the road by 8:31 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (8:30 AM). Across Delaware, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Newark now leave 53 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 Newark has moved 13 minutes later.

How does Newark's commute time compare?

Metric	Newark	Delaware	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.3 min	22.1 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	18.6%	15.1%	15.0%
Walked	14.5%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.1%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Newark is 16.3 minutes, shorter than the 22.1 minutes in Delaware.

2.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.8% in Delaware. 14.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Delaware.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Newark, Delaware.

Is commuting expensive in Newark, Delaware?

Commuters here spend an estimated 136 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,215 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Delaware commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Newark, Delaware?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Newark, Delaware. 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.