Belmont Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Belmont, 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, 4:04 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Belmont?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:04 PM

Commute Time Burden in Belmont: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Belmont spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 256 hours, about 10.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 5.1 minutes.

Belmont holds about 0.4% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Belmont would save about 102 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,170 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)
Belmont	30.7 min	61.4 min	256 hrs/yr	$7,925	3,484
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.

Belmont Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.7 minutes to get to work in Belmont. That's 37% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 31.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Belmont

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Belmont: 2492.3 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Driving is 23% less common in Belmont than the Massachusetts average (52.4% vs 68.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Belmont: 4.1 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Biking is unusually common in Belmont: 4.2 times more than the Massachusetts average (3.4% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Belmont, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Belmont 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Walked	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	76.6%	7.9%	11.3%	1.3%	2.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	73.9%	7.7%	13.2%	1.7%	2.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%
2011	72.2%	7.8%	13.6%	1.9%	3.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	72.4%	8.6%	13.6%	1.4%	2.7%	0.8%	0.2%	0.4%
2013	73.2%	8.2%	13.6%	1.9%	2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%
2014	70.9%	9.2%	14.6%	1.6%	2.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%
2015	71.7%	9.0%	14.2%	1.9%	2.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	70.4%	9.5%	15.1%	1.7%	2.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2017	69.4%	9.2%	15.9%	1.9%	2.4%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2018	67.9%	9.3%	16.9%	1.6%	2.8%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%
2019	69.2%	7.8%	17.3%	1.8%	2.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%
2020	66.2%	12.4%	16.1%	1.9%	2.3%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	60.7%	19.7%	13.9%	2.3%	2.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	57.2%	24.8%	12.2%	2.3%	2.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	54.6%	28.4%	11.1%	3.1%	2.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	52.4%	31.5%	9.3%	3.4%	2.2%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 76.6% in 2009 to 52.4% in 2024, down 24.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Belmont: its share of workers rose from 7.9% in 2009 to 31.5% in 2024, up 23.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 23.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 11.3% to 9.3% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

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

Commute Start Times in Belmont

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Belmont?

The bars show when commuters in Belmont 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		1.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		2.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		4.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		19.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		12.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		14.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		2.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Belmont is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 19.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.5% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 4.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Massachusetts: 51.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (28.6%) 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 Belmont, 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 Belmont 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 Belmont 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	Belmont	Massachusetts	United States
2009	8:05 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:05 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:04 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:05 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:06 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:04 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:05 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:03 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:03 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:01 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:02 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:01 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:03 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:05 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:10 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:17 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Belmont were on the road by 8:17 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (8:05 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Belmont now leave 39 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 Belmont has moved 15 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Belmont in the whole series.

How does Belmont's commute time compare?

Metric	Belmont	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.7 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	31.5%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	9.3%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Belmont is 30.7 minutes, longer than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

9.3% commute by public transit, higher than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Belmont, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Belmont, MA is the 5th largest of the 6 cities compared here, 27,165 residents against a local median of 46,270. Where Belmont, MA breaks from the cities next to it is one-way commute, sitting 17% above the local median of 26.2 min at 30.7 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The cities themselves spread 9.2 min on one-way commute, so Belmont, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Belmont, MA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Belmont, MA	27,165	30.7 min #4/6	31.5% #3/6	8:17 AM #5/6
Watertown, MA	35,594	26.2 min	29.1%	8:05 AM
Arlington, MA	46,270	31.5 min	34.5%	8:07 AM
Waltham, MA	64,842	22.3 min	24.2%	8:05 AM
Cambridge, MA	117,266	23.7 min	30.7%	8:32 AM
Winchester, MA	23,377	31.2 min	33.9%	7:53 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Is commuting expensive in Belmont, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 256 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,925 at a typical national wage. That's 20% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Belmont, Massachusetts?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Belmont, Massachusetts. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is Belmont, Massachusetts a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 31.5% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Belmont would save about 102 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,170 at the same national wage assumption used above.