Bristol County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Bristol County, 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, 8:08 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Bristol County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:08 PM

Commute Time Burden in Bristol County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bristol County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 193 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.4 minutes.

Bristol County holds about 8.3% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 7.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bristol County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,398 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)
Bristol County	23.2 min	46.4 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,994	2,420
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.

Commute Time Map: Massachusetts Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Massachusetts

Nantucket County (12.8 min)
Dukes County (15.4 min)
Berkshire County (16.8 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Massachusetts

Norfolk County (31.0 min)
Suffolk County (30.4 min)
Middlesex County (28.4 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Bristol County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 23.2 minutes to get to work in Bristol County. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bristol County

Driving is 23% more common in Bristol County than the Massachusetts average (83.6% vs 68.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Bristol County: 3.5 times less than the Massachusetts average (1.9% vs 6.5%).

Biking is unusually rare in Bristol County: 4.5 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Bristol County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bristol County 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	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	91.3%	2.9%	2.2%	2.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	91.3%	2.9%	2.2%	2.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	91.5%	2.8%	2.3%	2.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	91.5%	2.8%	2.4%	2.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	91.4%	3.0%	2.3%	2.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	91.5%	3.0%	2.2%	2.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	91.1%	3.1%	2.3%	2.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	90.9%	3.1%	2.5%	2.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	90.4%	3.4%	2.5%	2.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	90.2%	3.5%	2.7%	2.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	90.3%	3.5%	2.6%	2.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	88.6%	5.4%	2.6%	2.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	87.3%	7.3%	2.2%	2.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	86.5%	8.7%	1.9%	1.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	85.1%	9.8%	2.0%	1.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	83.6%	11.1%	2.0%	1.9%	0.9%	0.2%	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 2011 at 91.5%. Overall it fell from 91.3% in 2009 to 83.6% in 2024, down 7.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bristol County: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 11.1% in 2024, up 8.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.7% to 1.9% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Bristol County

Dawn PatrolThe highest share of pre-6 AM departures among Massachusetts's 14 counties: 14.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bristol County?

The bars show when commuters in Bristol County 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		5.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Bristol County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are more common than in Massachusetts: 14.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 48.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.8%) 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 Bristol County, 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 Bristol County 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 Bristol County 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	Bristol County	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:36 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:35 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:34 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:32 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:32 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:34 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bristol County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:33 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Bristol County now leave 3 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 Bristol County has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Bristol County's commute time compare?

Metric	Bristol County	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.2 min	25.6 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.1%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.0%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.9%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bristol County is 23.2 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

1.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.0% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Bristol County, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Bristol County, MA is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 582,104 residents against a local median of 171,061. Where Bristol County, MA breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 29% below the local median of 15.7% at 11.1%.

The counties themselves spread 10.9% on work from home, so Bristol County, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Bristol County, MA has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Bristol County, MA	582,104	23.2 min #3/6	11.1% #6/6	7:35 AM #2/6
Bristol County, RI	50,443	23.2 min	15.6%	7:48 AM
Newport County, RI	84,657	17.9 min	15.7%	7:55 AM
Plymouth County, MA	534,586	28.0 min	16.2%	7:31 AM
Norfolk County, MA	729,949	31.0 min	22.8%	7:51 AM
Kent County, RI	171,061	22.5 min	11.9%	7:44 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Bristol County, Massachusetts.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Bristol County, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 193 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,994 at a typical national wage. That's 9% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Bristol County, Massachusetts?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Bristol County, Massachusetts. 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.

How common is public transit use in Bristol County, Massachusetts?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.9% of commuters use it versus 6.5% in Massachusetts, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Massachusetts have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Massachusetts, the shortest average commutes are in Nantucket County (12.8 min), Dukes County (15.4 min), Berkshire County (16.8 min). The longest are in Norfolk County (31.0 min), Suffolk County (30.4 min), Middlesex County (28.4 min).