Amherst Town Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:03 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Amherst Town?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:03 PM

Commute Time Burden in Amherst Town: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Amherst Town spend about 30 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 127 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 40% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 10.3 minutes.

Amherst Town holds about 0.5% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Amherst Town would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,572 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)
Amherst Town	15.2 min	30.4 min	127 hrs/yr	$3,931	1,374
Massachusetts	25.6 min	51.1 min	213 hrs/yr	$6,603	2,164
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.

Amherst Town Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.2 minutes to get to work in Amherst Town. That's 32% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 21.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Amherst Town

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Amherst Town, versus 0.1% in Massachusetts.

Driving is 31% less common in Amherst Town than the Massachusetts average (46.9% vs 68.2%).

Walking is unusually common in Amherst Town: 5.0 times more than the Massachusetts average (20.4% vs 4.1%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Amherst Town, versus 0.4% in Massachusetts.

Amherst Town stands out for active commuting: 22.6% of workers walk or bike to work, 4.6 times the Massachusetts average of 4.9%.

Commute Mode Trends in Amherst Town, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Amherst Town 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	56.6%	7.4%	27.2%	6.7%	1.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	56.1%	11.5%	23.2%	7.4%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	53.9%	16.2%	20.4%	7.9%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	54.8%	14.6%	20.2%	8.7%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	55.4%	14.3%	18.0%	10.1%	2.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	52.8%	17.1%	17.6%	10.3%	1.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	52.8%	12.9%	21.6%	9.7%	2.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	55.0%	9.9%	23.1%	8.4%	2.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	54.7%	9.7%	22.2%	9.6%	2.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	53.3%	10.4%	22.9%	9.6%	2.9%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	53.5%	9.1%	23.4%	9.4%	3.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	49.1%	11.3%	23.1%	11.6%	3.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	47.2%	15.8%	21.8%	10.5%	3.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	48.4%	16.7%	22.6%	8.7%	2.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	47.8%	19.3%	21.8%	8.2%	2.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	46.9%	21.0%	20.4%	8.4%	2.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 56.6% in 2009 to 46.9% in 2024, down 9.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Amherst Town: its share of workers rose from 7.4% in 2009 to 21.0% in 2024, up 13.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 27.2% to 20.4% of workers (down 6.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 11.6% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 8.4%.

Commute Start Times in Amherst Town

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Amherst Town?

The bars show when commuters in Amherst Town 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 Massachusetts for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		3.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		7.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		7.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		11.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		11.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		13.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		11.4%

Amherst Town Massachusetts Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Amherst Town is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.5% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 6.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Massachusetts: 35.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (43.4%) 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 Amherst Town, 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 Amherst Town 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 Amherst Town next to Massachusetts 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	Amherst Town	Massachusetts	United States
2009	9:05 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	9:01 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	9:04 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	9:04 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	9:03 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	9:01 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	9:19 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	9:23 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	9:14 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	9:16 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	9:15 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:54 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:57 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:47 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:42 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Amherst Town were on the road by 8:42 AM, 22 minutes earlier than in 2009 (9:05 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Amherst Town now leave 65 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 Amherst Town has moved 33 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Amherst Town in the whole series.

How does Amherst Town's commute time compare?

Metric	Amherst Town	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.2 min	25.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	21.0%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	20.4%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	8.4%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Amherst Town is 15.2 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

8.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 20.4% commute by walking, higher than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Amherst Town, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Amherst Town, MA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Amherst Town, MA	38,191	15.2 min #1/2	21.0% #2/2	8:42 AM #2/2
Northampton, MA	30,986	18.2 min	24.1%	8:11 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Amherst Town, Massachusetts.

Is living in Amherst Town, Massachusetts good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 127 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,931 at a typical national wage. That's 40% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Amherst Town, Massachusetts?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Amherst Town, Massachusetts. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.