Medford Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Medford, 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

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Medford?

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

Commute Time Burden in Medford: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Medford spend about 60 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 251 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 4.5 minutes.

Medford holds about 0.8% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Medford would save about 100 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,110 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)
Medford	30.1 min	60.2 min	251 hrs/yr	$7,775	4,258
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.

Medford Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.1 minutes to get to work in Medford. That's 34% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 26.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Medford

Driving is 20% less common in Medford than the Massachusetts average (54.3% vs 68.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Medford: 4.8 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Medford, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Medford 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	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	74.7%	2.6%	16.6%	4.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	73.6%	2.8%	17.1%	4.7%	1.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	72.8%	2.9%	16.8%	5.1%	1.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	72.3%	3.1%	16.7%	5.5%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	72.2%	3.7%	16.7%	5.3%	1.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	72.5%	3.9%	16.5%	5.0%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	71.6%	4.1%	17.1%	5.3%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	69.9%	4.2%	18.8%	5.2%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	68.3%	4.2%	20.1%	5.2%	1.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	68.4%	3.9%	20.7%	4.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2019	66.4%	4.0%	21.6%	5.5%	1.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	63.8%	8.6%	19.2%	5.5%	2.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	60.9%	14.4%	16.5%	5.3%	2.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	59.0%	18.6%	15.2%	4.4%	1.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	56.3%	22.2%	14.1%	4.4%	1.9%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	54.3%	26.8%	11.9%	3.8%	2.1%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 74.7% in 2009 to 54.3% in 2024, down 20.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Medford: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 26.8% in 2024, up 24.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 22.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 16.6% to 11.9% of workers (down 4.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 5.5% in 2012 and has since fallen back to 3.8%.

Commute Start Times in Medford

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Medford?

The bars show when commuters in Medford 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		2.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		15.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		12.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Medford is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.5% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 7.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Massachusetts: 51.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.9%) 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 Medford, 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 Medford 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 Medford 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	Medford	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:54 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:56 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:59 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:02 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:01 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:03 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:01 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:53 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:56 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:54 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:52 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:52 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:57 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:57 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:59 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:02 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Medford were on the road by 8:02 AM, 9 minutes later than in 2009 (7:54 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Medford now leave 24 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 Medford has moved 11 minutes later.

How does Medford's commute time compare?

Metric	Medford	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.1 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	26.8%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.8%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	11.9%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Medford is 30.1 minutes, longer than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

11.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 3.8% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Medford, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Medford, MA is typical in size for this group, 59,237 residents against a local median of 66,048, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Medford, 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 cities turns on things this data does not capture.

The largest of those small differences is work from home, 13% below the local median at 26.8% against 30.7%. Medford, MA has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Medford, MA	59,237	30.1 min #3/6	26.8% #4/6	8:02 AM #3/6
Somerville, MA	81,027	31.2 min	31.4%	8:13 AM
Winchester, MA	23,377	31.2 min	33.9%	7:53 AM
Cambridge, MA	117,266	23.7 min	30.7%	8:32 AM
Malden, MA	66,048	32.4 min	19.8%	8:03 AM
Stoneham, MA	23,334	25.4 min	24.6%	7:49 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Medford, Massachusetts.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Medford, Massachusetts?

Commuters here spend an estimated 251 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,775 at a typical national wage. That's 18% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Medford, Massachusetts?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Medford, Massachusetts. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is Medford, Massachusetts a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 26.8% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Medford would save about 100 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,110 at the same national wage assumption used above.