Commuting in Franklin County, Massachusetts: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:40 PM
Is the commute in Franklin County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:40 PM
Commute Time Burden in Franklin County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Franklin County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 5.1 minutes.
Franklin County holds about 1.0% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Franklin County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,111 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)
Franklin County
20.4 min
40.9 min
170 hrs/yr
$5,279
666
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.
On average, it takes
20.4
minutes to get to work in
Franklin County.
That's 9% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Among the top 5 fastest counties in Massachusetts
The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.1% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Franklin County
Car:
79.4%
Worked at Home:
15.1%
Walked:
3.4%
Public Transportation:
1.0%unusually low
Other:
0.6%
Bicycle:
0.3%
Motorcycle:
0.1%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Franklin County: 6.2 times less than the Massachusetts average (1.0% vs 6.5%).
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Franklin County: 9.1 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.0% vs 0.4%).
Commute Mode Trends in Franklin County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Franklin 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
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
88.7%
5.0%
3.8%
1.2%
0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
2010
87.8%
5.8%
3.8%
1.4%
0.4%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
2011
86.9%
5.6%
4.7%
1.4%
0.5%
0.6%
0.3%
0.1%
2012
86.6%
5.5%
4.9%
1.5%
0.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
2013
86.7%
5.8%
4.6%
1.5%
0.6%
0.6%
0.1%
0.0%
2014
86.6%
5.5%
5.2%
1.4%
0.5%
0.7%
0.1%
0.0%
2015
86.2%
6.0%
4.7%
1.6%
0.6%
0.7%
0.1%
0.0%
2016
86.6%
6.1%
4.4%
1.6%
0.6%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
86.3%
6.6%
4.2%
1.8%
0.5%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
2018
86.4%
6.7%
4.0%
1.9%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2019
85.5%
7.6%
3.7%
2.2%
0.5%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
84.1%
9.5%
4.2%
1.4%
0.3%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
2021
81.9%
12.0%
3.9%
1.2%
0.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2022
80.2%
13.7%
4.0%
1.0%
0.6%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2023
79.0%
14.7%
4.0%
1.2%
0.6%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
2024
79.4%
15.1%
3.4%
1.0%
0.6%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2023 at 79.0%. Overall it fell from 88.7% in 2009 to 79.4% in 2024, down 9.3 percentage points.
Working from home gained the most ground in Franklin County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 15.1% in 2024, up 10.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking peaked at 5.2% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.4%.
Commute Start Times in Franklin County
🛌Hitting SnoozeThe biggest shift to later mornings among Massachusetts's 14 counties: the typical start is 15 minutes later than in 2009.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Franklin County?
The bars show when commuters in Franklin 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.
Franklin CountyMassachusettsSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Franklin County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.5% across Massachusetts. Early starts are about as common as in Massachusetts: 11.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 48.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.1%) 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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
Franklin County
Massachusetts
United States
2009
7:40 AM
7:47 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:40 AM
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:42 AM
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:45 AM
7:49 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:45 AM
7:49 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:47 AM
7:48 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:46 AM
7:48 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:46 AM
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:47 AM
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:45 AM
7:46 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:43 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:45 AM
7:46 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:45 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:47 AM
7:46 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:50 AM
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:55 AM
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Franklin County were on the road by 7:55 AM, 15 minutes later than in 2009 (7:40 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Franklin County now leave 17 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 Franklin County has moved 12 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Franklin County in the whole series.
How does Franklin County's commute time compare?
Metric
Franklin County
Massachusetts
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
20.4 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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
08:00 AM – 08:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
15.1%
18.6%
15.0%
Walked
3.4%
4.1%
2.4%
Public Transit
1.0%
6.5%
3.2%
The average commute time in Franklin County is 20.4 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.
1.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 3.4% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.
Franklin County, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Franklin County, MA is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 70,937 residents against a local median of 129,358. Franklin County, MA sits close to the middle of its own neighbourhood. No measure below is more than 15% off the local median, so the choice between these counties turns on things this data does not capture.
The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 10% above the local median at 20.4 min against 18.6 min. Franklin County, MA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Franklin County, Massachusetts.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Franklin County, Massachusetts?
Commuters here spend an estimated 170 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,279 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Franklin County, Massachusetts?
Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Franklin 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.
Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Franklin County, Massachusetts?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.0% of commuters use it versus 6.5% in Massachusetts, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Massachusetts?
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).