Waltham Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Waltham, 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 Waltham?

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

Commute Time Burden in Waltham: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Waltham spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 186 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 13% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 3.3 minutes.

Waltham holds about 0.9% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Waltham would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,304 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)
Waltham	22.3 min	44.6 min	186 hrs/yr	$5,760	3,492
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.

Waltham Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.3 minutes to get to work in Waltham. That's 1% 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 24.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Waltham

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

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Waltham: 6.5 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Waltham, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Waltham 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	79.7%	4.3%	7.0%	6.3%	0.5%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	77.5%	4.6%	8.4%	6.7%	0.9%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	78.6%	4.6%	7.5%	6.6%	0.9%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	79.5%	4.1%	7.8%	6.6%	0.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2013	79.3%	4.5%	8.1%	6.7%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	77.8%	5.3%	7.9%	7.7%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	77.9%	4.5%	8.5%	8.0%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	78.1%	4.8%	8.6%	7.3%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	78.3%	5.0%	8.0%	7.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	78.3%	5.1%	8.1%	7.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2019	78.2%	4.6%	8.0%	7.5%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	77.2%	7.4%	7.2%	6.1%	1.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	71.4%	13.8%	7.1%	5.4%	1.6%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	67.9%	18.7%	6.1%	5.0%	1.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	65.8%	20.0%	6.2%	5.4%	1.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	62.5%	24.2%	6.2%	4.5%	1.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 79.7% in 2009 to 62.5% in 2024, down 17.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Waltham: its share of workers rose from 4.3% in 2009 to 24.2% in 2024, up 19.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 19.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 6.3% to 4.5% of workers (down 1.8 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 8.6% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 6.2%.

Commute Start Times in Waltham

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Waltham?

The bars show when commuters in Waltham 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		2.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		12.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		5.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Waltham is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are less common than in Massachusetts: 5.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 50.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.5%) 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 Waltham, 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 Waltham 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 Waltham 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	Waltham	Massachusetts	United States
2009	8:03 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:05 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:04 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:04 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:04 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:03 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:06 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:06 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:08 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:06 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:06 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:04 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:07 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:04 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:06 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:05 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Waltham were on the road by 8:05 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (8:03 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Waltham now leave 27 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 Waltham has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Waltham's commute time compare?

Metric	Waltham	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.3 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	24.2%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	6.2%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.5%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Waltham is 22.3 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

4.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 6.2% commute by walking, higher than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Waltham, MA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Waltham, MA is the 2nd largest of the 5 cities compared here, 64,842 residents against a local median of 34,950. The measure that sets Waltham, MA apart most is work from home: 24.2%, 24% below the local median of 31.8%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 22.3 min against a local median of 28.2 min, 21% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 21% below the local median it puts Waltham, MA at the better end of the local range. The cities themselves spread 7.6% on work from home, so Waltham, MA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Waltham, MA has the 5th highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Waltham, MA	64,842	22.3 min #1/5	24.2% #5/5	8:05 AM #1/5
Lexington, MA	34,306	30.2 min	36.7%	8:12 AM
Belmont, MA	27,165	30.7 min	31.5%	8:17 AM
Newton, MA	88,909	25.1 min	32.2%	8:14 AM
Watertown, MA	35,594	26.2 min	29.1%	8:05 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Waltham, Massachusetts.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 186 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,760 at a typical national wage. That's 13% less than the typical Massachusetts commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Waltham, 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 much time do residents in Waltham, Massachusetts save by working from home?

About 24.2% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Waltham would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,304 at the same national wage assumption used above.