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Hampden County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Hampden 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, 8:07 PM
How much time do drivers in Hampden County spend on the road daily?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:07 PM

Commute Time Burden in Hampden County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hampden 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 171 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.

Hampden County holds about 6.6% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 5.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hampden County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,116 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)
Hampden County 20.5 min 41.0 min 171 hrs/yr $5,289 1,708
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
  1. Nantucket County (12.8 min)
  2. Dukes County (15.4 min)
  3. Berkshire County (16.8 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Massachusetts
  1. Norfolk County (31.0 min)
  2. Suffolk County (30.4 min)
  3. Middlesex County (28.4 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Hampden County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.5 minutes to get to work in Hampden County. That's 9% shorter 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 10.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hampden County

  • Car: 83.9% unusually high
  • Worked at Home: 10.5%
  • Walked: 2.3%
  • Public Transportation: 1.6% unusually low
  • Other: 1.2%
  • Bicycle: 0.3%
  • Taxi: 0.2%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1%

Driving is 23% more common in Hampden County than the Massachusetts average (83.9% vs 68.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Hampden County: 4.2 times less than the Massachusetts average (1.6% vs 6.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Hampden County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hampden 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 Taxi Motorcycle
2009 92.3% 2.6% 2.4% 1.9% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2010 92.1% 2.7% 2.4% 1.9% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2011 91.9% 2.9% 2.3% 2.0% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2012 91.7% 3.0% 2.4% 2.1% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2013 91.5% 3.3% 2.2% 2.2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2014 91.1% 3.3% 2.4% 2.2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2015 90.8% 3.4% 2.6% 2.2% 0.8% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2016 90.4% 3.5% 2.9% 2.0% 0.9% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2017 90.1% 3.6% 3.0% 2.0% 0.9% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2018 90.1% 3.6% 3.1% 1.9% 1.0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2019 89.8% 3.9% 2.8% 2.0% 1.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2020 88.7% 5.5% 2.4% 1.9% 1.0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2021 87.1% 7.4% 2.2% 2.0% 1.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
2022 86.2% 8.6% 1.9% 1.9% 1.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2023 85.4% 9.4% 1.9% 1.8% 1.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2024 83.9% 10.5% 2.3% 1.6% 1.2% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 83.9% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Hampden County: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 10.5% in 2024, up 7.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Hampden County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hampden County?

The bars show when commuters in Hampden 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
3.8%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.9%
5:30-5:59 AM
5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM
11.5%
7:00-7:29 AM
14.4%
7:30-7:59 AM
12.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
12.0%
8:30-8:59 AM
6.2%
9:00-9:59 AM
5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
6.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hampden County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are more common than in Massachusetts: 12.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 50.4% 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 Hampden 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 Hampden 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 Hampden 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 Hampden County Massachusetts United States
2009 7:42 AM 7:47 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:42 AM 7:48 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:44 AM 7:48 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:43 AM 7:49 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:42 AM 7:49 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:43 AM 7:48 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:44 AM 7:48 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:44 AM 7:47 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:43 AM 7:47 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:43 AM 7:46 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:43 AM 7:45 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:40 AM 7:46 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:40 AM 7:45 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:39 AM 7:46 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:39 AM 7:47 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:39 AM 7:47 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hampden County were on the road by 7:39 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Hampden County now leave 1 minute 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 Hampden County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Hampden County's commute time compare?

Metric Hampden County Massachusetts US Average
Avg. Commute Time 20.5 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 10.5% 18.6% 15.0%
Walked 2.3% 4.1% 2.4%
Public Transit 1.6% 6.5% 3.2%

The average commute time in Hampden County is 20.5 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Hampden County, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Hampden County, MA is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 462,481 residents against a local median of 129,358. Where Hampden County, MA breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 32% below the local median of 15.4% at 10.5%.

The counties themselves spread 4.2% on work from home, so Hampden County, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Hampden 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
Hampden County, MA 462,481 20.5 min #3/6 10.5% #6/6 7:39 AM #2/6
Hampshire County, MA 161,946 21.3 min 18.4% 7:59 AM
Capitol Planning Region, CT 920,648 21.4 min 17.1% 7:48 AM
Franklin County, MA 70,937 20.4 min 15.1% 7:55 AM
Berkshire County, MA 129,358 16.8 min 14.2% 7:51 AM
Northwest Hills Planning Region, CT 104,183 21.9 min 15.4% 7:38 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Hampden County, Massachusetts.

Is commuting expensive in Hampden County, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 171 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,289 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Hampden 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 Hampden County, Massachusetts?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 1.6% 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).