Lowell Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Lowell, 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, 4:02 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Lowell?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:02 PM

Commute Time Burden in Lowell: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lowell spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 219 hours, about 9.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.8 minutes.

Lowell holds about 1.7% of Massachusetts's population and accounts for roughly 1.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lowell would save about 88 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,721 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)
Lowell	26.3 min	52.7 min	219 hrs/yr	$6,802	2,776
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.

Lowell Commute Map

On average, it takes 26.3 minutes to get to work in Lowell. That's 17% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lowell

Public transit is unusually rare in Lowell: 4.0 times less than the Massachusetts average (1.6% vs 6.5%).

Biking is unusually rare in Lowell: 3.4 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Lowell, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lowell 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	90.4%	1.7%	4.0%	2.0%	1.3%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	89.9%	2.0%	3.9%	2.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	89.6%	2.1%	4.2%	2.7%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	88.8%	2.3%	4.7%	3.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	88.0%	2.5%	4.9%	3.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	87.3%	2.8%	5.0%	3.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	86.7%	3.0%	5.4%	3.6%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	85.5%	3.3%	5.7%	3.7%	1.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	85.2%	3.2%	5.8%	3.8%	1.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	85.6%	3.6%	5.5%	3.7%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	85.5%	3.7%	5.4%	3.5%	1.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	84.8%	4.9%	5.3%	3.3%	1.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	84.0%	6.9%	4.6%	2.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	82.8%	8.7%	4.2%	2.3%	1.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	81.6%	10.0%	3.9%	2.0%	1.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	80.9%	10.6%	4.1%	1.6%	1.6%	0.9%	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 90.4% in 2009 to 80.9% in 2024, down 9.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Lowell: its share of workers rose from 1.7% in 2009 to 10.6% in 2024, up 8.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

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

Public transit peaked at 3.8% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 1.6%.

Commute Start Times in Lowell

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lowell?

The bars show when commuters in Lowell 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		3.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		8.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		11.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lowell is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are more common than in Massachusetts: 13.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Massachusetts: 42.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.1%) 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 Lowell, 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 Lowell 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 Lowell 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	Lowell	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:37 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:41 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:42 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:51 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:54 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:40 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:43 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lowell were on the road by 7:43 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:37 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Lowell now leave 5 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 Lowell has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Lowell's commute time compare?

Metric	Lowell	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.3 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	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.6%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	4.1%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.6%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lowell is about the same as in Massachusetts.

1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. The share of commuters using walking is about the same as Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Lowell, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Lowell, MA is the largest of the 4 cities compared here, 118,320 residents against a local median of 53,422. Lowell, MA's one-way commute, at 26.3 min, runs 15% above the 22.8 min typical of the cities around it. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The cities themselves spread 5.9 min on one-way commute, so Lowell, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Lowell, MA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Lowell, MA	118,320	26.3 min #4/4	10.6% #3/4	7:43 AM #4/4
Methuen, MA	53,422	22.8 min	12.2%	7:26 AM
Lawrence, MA	88,771	20.1 min	6.8%	7:28 AM
Wilmington, MA	23,238	26.0 min	19.7%	7:33 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Is commuting expensive in Lowell, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 219 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,802 at a typical national wage. That's 3% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Lowell, Massachusetts. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Lowell, 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.