Commuting in Georgia: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 11:43 AM
How much time do drivers in Georgia spend on the road daily?
Map AI9/24/26, 11:43 AM
Commute Time Burden in Georgia: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Georgia spend about 47 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 197 hours, about 8.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% more time on the road than the US average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 1.2 minutes.
Georgia holds about 3.2% of US's population but accounts for roughly 3.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Georgia would save about 79 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,444 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)
Georgia
23.6 min
47.3 min
197 hrs/yr
$6,109
1,447
US
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.
On average, it takes
23.6
minutes to get to work in
Georgia.
That's 6% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 88% of states in US
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 15.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Georgia
Car:
79.8%
Worked at Home:
15.9%
Walked:
1.3%
Other:
1.2%
Public Transportation:
1.1%
Taxi:
0.4%
Bicycle:
0.2%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Commute Mode Trends in Georgia, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Georgia 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
Other
Public Transportation
Taxi
Bicycle
Motorcycle
2009
89.7%
4.4%
1.7%
1.3%
2.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2010
89.9%
4.5%
1.6%
1.3%
2.3%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2011
89.9%
4.6%
1.6%
1.2%
2.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2012
89.9%
4.7%
1.6%
1.1%
2.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2013
90.0%
4.7%
1.6%
1.1%
2.1%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
2014
89.9%
4.8%
1.6%
1.1%
2.1%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
2015
89.9%
4.9%
1.6%
1.0%
2.1%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
89.7%
5.1%
1.6%
1.1%
2.1%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
89.5%
5.2%
1.5%
1.1%
2.1%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
2018
89.2%
5.5%
1.5%
1.1%
2.1%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
2019
88.8%
5.8%
1.5%
1.1%
2.1%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
2020
87.0%
7.8%
1.5%
1.1%
1.9%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2021
85.0%
10.1%
1.4%
1.1%
1.7%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2022
83.1%
12.3%
1.3%
1.2%
1.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2023
81.3%
14.2%
1.3%
1.2%
1.3%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2024
79.8%
15.9%
1.3%
1.2%
1.1%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 90.0%. Overall it fell from 89.7% in 2009 to 79.8% in 2024, down 9.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 9 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Georgia: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 15.9% in 2024, up 11.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.4% to 1.1% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Georgia
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Georgia?
The bars show when commuters in Georgia 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 the U.S. for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMGeorgia5.2%The U.S.5.5%
5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMGeorgia3.9%The U.S.4.0%
3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMGeorgia4.6%The U.S.4.9%
4.6%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMGeorgia9.4%The U.S.8.7%
9.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMGeorgia9.6%The U.S.9.4%
9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMGeorgia14.9%The U.S.14.4%
14.9%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMGeorgia11.5%The U.S.11.9%
11.5%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMGeorgia11.6%The U.S.11.5%
11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMGeorgia5.1%The U.S.5.5%
5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMGeorgia6.7%The U.S.6.8%
6.7%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMGeorgia3.1%The U.S.3.1%
3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMGeorgia1.4%The U.S.1.5%
1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMGeorgia6.4%The U.S.6.8%
6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMGeorgia6.7%The U.S.6.1%
6.7%
GeorgiaThe U.S.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Georgia is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.4% across the U.S.. Early starts are about as common as in the U.S.: 13.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush looks much like the U.S.'s: 47.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.3%) 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 Georgia, 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 Georgia 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 Georgia next to 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
Georgia
United States
2009
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Georgia were on the road by 7:36 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Commuters in Georgia now leave 2 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Georgia has moved 2 minutes later.
How does Georgia's commute time compare?
Metric
Georgia
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
23.6 min
22.4 min
Work From Home
15.9%
15.0%
Walked
1.3%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.1%
3.2%
The average commute time in Georgia is 23.6 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in US.
1.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.2% in US. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in US.
Georgia is the 2nd largest of the 6 states compared here, 10,939,918 residents against a local median of 7,058,506. Where Georgia breaks from the states next to it is work from home, sitting 24% above the local median of 12.9% at 15.9%.
The states themselves spread 7.5% on work from home, so Georgia sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Georgia has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Is living in Georgia good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 197 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,109 at a typical national wage. That's 6% more than the typical US commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Georgia?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Georgia. 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.
Which counties in Georgia have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in Georgia, the shortest average commutes are in Chattahoochee County (8.6 min), Ben Hill County (12.7 min), Tift County (15.8 min). The longest are in Talbot County (40.8 min), McIntosh County (37.7 min), Paulding County (36.4 min).