Needham Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Needham, 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, 3:11 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:11 PM

Commute Time Burden in Needham: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Needham spend about 55 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 230 hours, about 9.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.0 minutes.

Needham holds about 0.5% of Massachusetts's population and accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Needham would save about 92 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,852 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)
Needham	27.6 min	55.2 min	230 hrs/yr	$7,130	2,715
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.

Needham Commute Map

On average, it takes 27.6 minutes to get to work in Needham. That's 23% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 32.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Needham

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Needham, versus 0.1% in Massachusetts.

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Needham: 34.5 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.0% vs 0.4%).

Biking is unusually rare in Needham: 5.7 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Needham, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Needham 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	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	77.9%	7.2%	10.9%	2.7%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	79.1%	7.3%	9.2%	3.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	78.3%	7.5%	9.8%	3.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	78.0%	7.9%	10.3%	2.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	79.0%	7.5%	10.3%	2.3%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	79.0%	7.7%	10.6%	1.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	78.4%	7.9%	11.0%	1.9%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	78.2%	8.3%	10.9%	1.7%	0.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	77.4%	8.7%	10.6%	2.5%	0.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	75.9%	8.2%	11.7%	2.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	74.0%	8.8%	12.8%	3.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	70.6%	12.7%	12.8%	2.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	66.5%	19.4%	10.6%	2.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	63.0%	25.4%	8.7%	2.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	61.4%	28.8%	7.5%	1.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	57.1%	32.4%	7.6%	2.2%	0.6%	0.1%	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 2010 at 79.1%. Overall it fell from 77.9% in 2009 to 57.1% in 2024, down 20.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Needham: its share of workers rose from 7.2% in 2009 to 32.4% in 2024, up 25.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 23.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 10.9% to 7.6% of workers (down 3.3 percentage points).

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

Commute Start Times in Needham

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Needham?

The bars show when commuters in Needham 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		2.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		14.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		24.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		10.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		10.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		1.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Needham is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 24.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.5% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 4.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Massachusetts: 57.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.3%) 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 Needham, 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 Needham 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 Needham 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	Needham	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:57 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:59 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:57 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:59 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:57 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:58 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:54 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:54 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:50 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:53 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:53 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:57 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:04 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:05 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:10 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Needham were on the road by 8:10 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (7:57 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Needham now leave 32 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 Needham has moved 19 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Needham in the whole series.

How does Needham's commute time compare?

Metric	Needham	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	27.6 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	32.4%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	7.6%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Needham is 27.6 minutes, longer than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

7.6% commute by public transit, higher than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Needham, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Needham, MA is typical in size for this group, 32,445 residents against a local median of 30,956, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where Needham, MA breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 25% above the local median of 26.0% at 32.4%.

The cities themselves spread 16.1% on work from home, so Needham, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Needham, MA has the highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Needham, MA	32,445	27.6 min #3/5	32.4% #1/5	8:10 AM #3/5
Wellesley, MA	30,372	25.8 min	32.0%	8:16 AM
Newton, MA	88,909	25.1 min	32.2%	8:14 AM
Dedham, MA	25,193	28.7 min	20.0%	7:52 AM
Norwood, MA	31,539	30.2 min	16.1%	7:51 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Needham, Massachusetts.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 230 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,130 at a typical national wage. That's 8% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Needham, 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 much money can remote workers save in Needham, Massachusetts?

About 32.4% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Needham would save about 92 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,852 at the same national wage assumption used above.