Dedham Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Dedham, 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

What does a typical morning commute look like in Dedham?

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

Commute Time Burden in Dedham: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dedham spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 239 hours, about 10.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Dedham holds about 0.4% of Massachusetts's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Dedham would save about 96 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,961 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)
Dedham	28.7 min	57.3 min	239 hrs/yr	$7,403	3,175
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.

Dedham Commute Map

On average, it takes 28.7 minutes to get to work in Dedham. That's 28% longer 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 20.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dedham

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

Biking is unusually rare in Dedham: 4.0 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Dedham, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dedham 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	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	81.7%	2.9%	11.0%	2.5%	1.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	81.4%	3.0%	10.9%	3.1%	1.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	82.5%	3.5%	9.9%	2.8%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2012	83.0%	3.7%	9.5%	2.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.1%
2013	83.5%	3.9%	8.5%	3.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	84.4%	4.5%	7.8%	2.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2015	83.6%	4.8%	8.1%	2.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	81.7%	5.1%	9.7%	3.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	79.1%	5.8%	10.8%	3.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	78.8%	5.4%	11.2%	3.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	78.1%	5.6%	11.0%	2.9%	2.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	78.3%	6.7%	9.6%	2.3%	2.6%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	74.5%	11.3%	8.4%	3.2%	2.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	72.9%	15.6%	6.6%	3.1%	1.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	72.1%	18.6%	5.4%	2.6%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2024	71.1%	20.0%	5.6%	2.1%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 84.4%. Overall it fell from 81.7% in 2009 to 71.1% in 2024, down 10.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dedham: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 20.0% in 2024, up 17.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 11.0% to 5.6% of workers (down 5.4 percentage points).

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

Walking peaked at 3.6% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 2.1%.

Commute Start Times in Dedham

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dedham?

The bars show when commuters in Dedham 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		1.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		18.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		16.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		2.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Dedham is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 5.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Massachusetts: 57.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.2%) 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 Dedham, 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 Dedham 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 Dedham 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	Dedham	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:40 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:47 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:47 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:44 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:40 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:40 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:41 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:44 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:52 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:52 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dedham were on the road by 7:52 AM, 16 minutes later than in 2009 (7:36 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Dedham now leave 14 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 Dedham has moved 11 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Dedham in the whole series.

How does Dedham's commute time compare?

Metric	Dedham	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.7 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	20.0%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.6%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Dedham is 28.7 minutes, longer than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

5.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Dedham, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Dedham, MA is the smallest of the 6 cities compared here, 25,193 residents against a local median of 32,445. Where Dedham, MA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 34% below the local median of 30.1% at 20.0%.

The cities themselves spread 16.3% on work from home, so Dedham, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Dedham, MA has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Dedham, MA	25,193	28.7 min #4/6	20.0% #5/6	7:52 AM #2/6
Norwood, MA	31,539	30.2 min	16.1%	7:51 AM
Needham, MA	32,445	27.6 min	32.4%	8:10 AM
Brookline, MA	63,198	27.0 min	30.1%	8:15 AM
Newton, MA	88,909	25.1 min	32.2%	8:14 AM
Milton, MA	28,602	30.4 min	29.7%	7:57 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Is commuting expensive in Dedham, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 239 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,403 at a typical national wage. That's 12% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

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