Plymouth County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Plymouth 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, 7:02 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Plymouth County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:02 PM

Commute Time Burden in Plymouth County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Plymouth County spend about 56 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 234 hours, about 9.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% more time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.5 minutes.

Plymouth County holds about 7.6% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 8.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Plymouth County would save about 93 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,896 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)
Plymouth County	28.0 min	56.0 min	234 hrs/yr	$7,239	2,237
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

Nantucket County (12.8 min)
Dukes County (15.4 min)
Berkshire County (16.8 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Massachusetts

Norfolk County (31.0 min)
Suffolk County (30.4 min)
Middlesex County (28.4 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Plymouth County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 28.0 minutes to get to work in Plymouth County. That's 25% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Massachusetts

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Plymouth County

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

Commute Mode Trends in Plymouth County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Plymouth 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	89.0%	3.8%	4.8%	1.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	89.0%	3.6%	5.0%	1.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	88.7%	3.9%	4.9%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	88.8%	3.7%	4.9%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	88.4%	3.9%	5.1%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	88.5%	3.8%	5.1%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	88.3%	3.9%	5.1%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	88.2%	4.0%	5.2%	1.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	87.4%	4.5%	5.7%	1.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	87.1%	4.6%	5.7%	1.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	86.4%	4.9%	5.9%	1.5%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	84.5%	7.3%	5.2%	1.6%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	82.0%	10.4%	4.5%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	80.2%	12.7%	3.9%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	78.8%	14.7%	3.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	77.5%	16.2%	2.9%	1.5%	1.0%	0.5%	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 89.0% in 2009 to 77.5% in 2024, down 11.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Plymouth County: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 16.2% in 2024, up 12.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.8% to 2.9% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Plymouth County

Early BirdThe earliest start among Massachusetts's 14 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:31 AM.
Dawn PatrolThe 2nd-highest share of pre-6 AM departures among Massachusetts's 14 counties: 14.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM.
Rush-Hour DodgersThe 2nd-lowest share of rush-hour departures among Massachusetts's 14 counties: only 47.0% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Plymouth County?

The bars show when commuters in Plymouth 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		4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Plymouth 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: 14.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Massachusetts: 47.0% 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth 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	Plymouth County	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:34 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:35 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:29 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:31 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:32 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:31 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Plymouth County were on the road by 7:31 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:33 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Plymouth County now leave 7 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Plymouth County has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Plymouth County's commute time compare?

Metric	Plymouth County	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.0 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	16.2%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.9%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Plymouth County is 28.0 minutes, longer than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

2.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Plymouth County, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Plymouth County, MA is typical in size for this group, 534,586 residents against a local median of 582,104, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where Plymouth County, MA breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 21% above the local median of 23.2 min at 28.0 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 16.2% against a local median of 19.9%, 19% below it. The counties themselves spread 15.6 min on one-way commute, so Plymouth County, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Plymouth County, MA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Plymouth County, MA	534,586	28.0 min #4/6	16.2% #4/6	7:31 AM #1/6
Bristol County, MA	582,104	23.2 min	11.1%	7:35 AM
Suffolk County, MA	779,263	30.4 min	19.9%	8:03 AM
Norfolk County, MA	729,949	31.0 min	22.8%	7:51 AM
Barnstable County, MA	231,272	18.8 min	16.0%	7:53 AM
Dukes County, MA	20,933	15.4 min	21.6%	7:53 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.

Is living in Plymouth County, Massachusetts good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 234 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,239 at a typical national wage. That's 10% more than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Plymouth County, Massachusetts?

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

How do commute times compare across 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).