Fitchburg Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Fitchburg, 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 Fitchburg?

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

Commute Time Burden in Fitchburg: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Fitchburg spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 179 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 4.1 minutes.

Fitchburg holds about 0.6% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Fitchburg would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,218 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)
Fitchburg	21.5 min	42.9 min	179 hrs/yr	$5,544	1,723
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.

Fitchburg Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.5 minutes to get to work in Fitchburg. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Fitchburg

Driving is 21% more common in Fitchburg than the Massachusetts average (82.5% vs 68.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Fitchburg: 27.6 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.0% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Fitchburg, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Fitchburg 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	89.8%	3.1%	3.9%	1.7%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	89.1%	3.2%	4.4%	2.0%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	88.7%	3.0%	4.6%	2.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	88.3%	3.2%	4.4%	2.8%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	89.1%	3.3%	4.5%	2.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	90.2%	2.9%	4.4%	1.7%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	90.4%	2.7%	3.7%	1.7%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	89.1%	2.6%	3.3%	2.4%	1.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	87.9%	3.0%	3.7%	2.5%	1.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.7%
2018	87.4%	3.2%	3.4%	2.3%	2.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.7%
2019	86.3%	3.8%	3.3%	2.6%	2.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.7%
2020	84.5%	5.6%	4.7%	2.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.7%
2021	84.6%	7.3%	4.7%	1.6%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.6%
2022	83.5%	8.7%	4.3%	1.5%	1.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	83.7%	9.3%	3.4%	2.3%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	82.5%	10.3%	3.1%	2.7%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 90.4%. Overall it fell from 89.8% in 2009 to 82.5% in 2024, down 7.3 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Fitchburg: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 10.3% in 2024, up 7.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.9% to 3.1% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Fitchburg

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fitchburg?

The bars show when commuters in Fitchburg 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		5.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Fitchburg is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 11.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.7% across Massachusetts. Early starts are more common than in Massachusetts: 18.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Massachusetts: 41.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.6%) 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 Fitchburg, 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 Fitchburg 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 Fitchburg 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	Fitchburg	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:37 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:41 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:34 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:25 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:29 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:40 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:37 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Fitchburg were on the road by 7:37 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved either. Commuters in Fitchburg now leave 1 minute 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 Fitchburg has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Fitchburg's commute time compare?

Metric	Fitchburg	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.5 min	25.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	10.3%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.1%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.7%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Fitchburg is 21.5 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

2.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 3.1% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Fitchburg, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Fitchburg, MA	41,780	21.5 min #1/2	10.3% #2/2	7:37 AM #2/2
Leominster, MA	43,909	21.8 min	10.9%	7:23 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Fitchburg, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 179 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,544 at a typical national wage. That's 16% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Fitchburg, Massachusetts?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Fitchburg, 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.