Salem Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Salem, 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, 4:03 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Salem?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:03 PM

Commute Time Burden in Salem: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Salem spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 183 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 3.6 minutes.

Salem holds about 0.6% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Salem would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,265 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)
Salem	21.9 min	43.8 min	183 hrs/yr	$5,664	3,251
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.

Salem Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.9 minutes to get to work in Salem. That's 2% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 21.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Salem

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Salem: 3.4 times more than the Massachusetts average (1.5% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Salem, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Salem 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	80.1%	3.4%	5.5%	9.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%
2010	79.0%	3.2%	6.7%	9.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%
2011	78.1%	2.9%	6.8%	10.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%
2012	77.0%	3.8%	6.6%	10.5%	1.1%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%
2013	75.8%	4.0%	7.0%	11.2%	1.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2014	73.8%	4.7%	6.6%	12.1%	2.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.1%
2015	71.6%	6.3%	6.6%	11.5%	2.8%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%
2016	71.7%	6.7%	7.2%	10.5%	2.5%	0.3%	0.8%	0.2%
2017	72.6%	6.0%	7.2%	10.3%	2.1%	0.5%	1.2%	0.2%
2018	71.6%	6.3%	7.4%	10.5%	2.5%	0.6%	1.1%	0.1%
2019	72.7%	6.6%	7.1%	9.9%	1.7%	0.7%	1.1%	0.1%
2020	71.4%	9.1%	7.3%	8.3%	2.5%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%
2021	70.6%	12.0%	6.3%	7.5%	2.0%	0.8%	0.7%	0.0%
2022	68.7%	15.1%	5.8%	6.6%	2.3%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%
2023	63.9%	19.0%	6.1%	6.2%	2.6%	1.3%	0.8%	0.1%
2024	62.5%	21.0%	6.4%	5.2%	2.5%	1.5%	0.7%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 80.1% in 2009 to 62.5% in 2024, down 17.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Salem: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 21.0% in 2024, up 17.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 9.1% to 5.2% of workers (down 3.9 percentage points).

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

Walking peaked at 7.4% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 6.4%.

Commute Start Times in Salem

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Salem?

The bars show when commuters in Salem 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		2.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		16.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Salem is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 10.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 47.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.1%) 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 Salem, 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 Salem 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 Salem 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	Salem	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:50 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:48 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:47 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:41 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:42 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:44 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:42 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:47 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:53 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:53 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Salem were on the road by 7:53 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (7:41 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Salem now leave 15 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 Salem has moved 12 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Salem in the whole series.

How does Salem's commute time compare?

Metric	Salem	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.9 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	21.0%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	6.4%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.2%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Salem is 21.9 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

5.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 6.4% commute by walking, higher than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Salem, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Salem, MA is the 2nd largest of the 5 cities compared here, 43,365 residents against a local median of 35,343. Where Salem, MA breaks from the cities next to it is one-way commute, sitting 15% below the local median of 25.8 min at 21.9 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The cities themselves spread 8.0 min on one-way commute, so Salem, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Salem, MA has the lowest one-way commute of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Salem, MA	43,365	21.9 min #1/5	21.0% #3/5	7:53 AM #5/5
Marblehead, MA	20,308	30.8 min	34.0%	7:52 AM
Beverly, MA	42,584	23.4 min	22.3%	7:53 AM
Danvers, MA	28,103	22.7 min	19.3%	7:37 AM
Lynn, MA	101,709	28.2 min	7.9%	7:22 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Salem, Massachusetts.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 183 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,664 at a typical national wage. That's 14% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Salem, 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.