Savannah Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 1:26 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 1:26 PM

Commute Time Burden in Savannah: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Savannah spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 153 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% less time on the road than the Georgia average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 5.3 minutes.

Savannah holds about 1.3% of Georgia's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Savannah would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,897 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)
Savannah	18.4 min	36.7 min	153 hrs/yr	$4,742	2,630
Georgia	23.6 min	47.3 min	197 hrs/yr	$6,109	1,447
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.

Savannah Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.4 minutes to get to work in Savannah. That's 18% 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 11.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Savannah

Biking is unusually common in Savannah: 9.4 times more than the Georgia average (1.4% vs 0.2%).

Savannah stands out for active commuting: 4.7% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.3 times the Georgia average of 1.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in Savannah, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Savannah 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	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	88.4%	2.5%	3.1%	4.1%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.4%
2010	87.9%	2.6%	3.4%	4.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	88.0%	3.0%	3.1%	3.8%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	87.2%	3.3%	3.5%	3.9%	1.1%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	87.4%	3.5%	3.3%	3.5%	1.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	86.1%	3.7%	3.6%	3.6%	1.6%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	85.2%	3.4%	3.7%	4.0%	2.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.3%
2016	84.6%	3.6%	4.1%	4.1%	2.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	84.0%	3.8%	4.1%	4.1%	2.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.3%
2018	84.0%	3.7%	4.3%	4.1%	1.9%	1.2%	0.5%	0.3%
2019	83.2%	4.3%	4.7%	4.3%	1.7%	1.1%	0.6%	0.2%
2020	82.0%	6.3%	4.7%	3.9%	1.3%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%
2021	82.6%	7.3%	4.2%	3.0%	1.1%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2022	81.5%	9.1%	3.8%	2.7%	1.3%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	80.8%	10.1%	3.8%	2.4%	1.4%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	79.5%	11.7%	3.3%	2.3%	1.4%	1.3%	0.5%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 88.4% in 2009 to 79.5% in 2024, down 8.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Savannah: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 11.7% in 2024, up 9.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.1% to 2.3% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 4.7% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 3.3%.

Commute Start Times in Savannah

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Savannah?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.7%

Savannah Georgia Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Savannah is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 11.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.9% across Georgia. Early starts are less common than in Georgia: 12.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Georgia: 42.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.9%) 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 Savannah, 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 Savannah 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 Savannah next to Georgia 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	Savannah	Georgia	United States
2009	7:53 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:51 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:48 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:52 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:55 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:53 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:52 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:53 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:50 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:50 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:54 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Savannah were on the road by 7:54 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:53 AM). Across Georgia, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Savannah 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 Savannah has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Savannah's commute time compare?

Metric	Savannah	Georgia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.4 min	23.6 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	11.7%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.3%	1.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.3%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Savannah is 18.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Georgia.

2.3% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.1% in Georgia. 3.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.3% in Georgia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Savannah, GA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Savannah, GA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Savannah, GA	145,402	18.4 min #1/2	11.7% #2/2	7:54 AM #2/2
Pooler, GA	24,713	21.7 min	14.6%	7:26 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Savannah, Georgia.

Is living in Savannah, Georgia good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 153 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,742 at a typical national wage. That's 22% less than the typical Georgia commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Savannah, Georgia?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Savannah, 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.