Worcester County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Worcester County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Worcester County spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 200 hours, about 8.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% less time on the road than the Massachusetts average of 25.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Worcester County holds about 12.3% of Massachusetts's population but accounts for roughly 11.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Worcester County would save about 80 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,475 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)
Worcester County	24.0 min	47.9 min	200 hrs/yr	$6,189	1,614
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

Compare commute times among different counties

N

On average, it takes 24.0 minutes to get to work in Worcester County. That's 7% 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 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Worcester County

• Car: 78.3%
• Worked at Home: 15.6%
• Walked: 2.2%
• Other: 1.7%
• Public Transportation: 1.5% unusually low
• Taxi: 0.5%
• Bicycle: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%

Public transit is unusually rare in Worcester County: 4.3 times less than the Massachusetts average (1.5% vs 6.5%).

Biking is unusually rare in Worcester County: 6.7 times less than the Massachusetts average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Worcester County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Worcester 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	91.1%	3.7%	2.6%	0.5%	1.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	90.8%	3.9%	2.7%	0.5%	1.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	90.6%	4.0%	2.8%	0.6%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	90.5%	4.0%	2.8%	0.6%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	90.4%	4.2%	2.8%	0.5%	1.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	90.7%	4.1%	2.8%	0.5%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	90.4%	4.2%	2.7%	0.6%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	89.7%	4.6%	2.7%	0.8%	1.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	89.1%	5.1%	2.7%	1.0%	1.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	88.7%	5.2%	2.8%	1.2%	1.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	87.7%	5.7%	2.9%	1.3%	2.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	85.4%	8.0%	2.9%	1.2%	1.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	83.2%	10.5%	2.7%	1.3%	1.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	81.2%	12.7%	2.5%	1.4%	1.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	79.5%	14.3%	2.4%	1.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	78.3%	15.6%	2.2%	1.7%	1.5%	0.5%	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 91.1% in 2009 to 78.3% in 2024, down 12.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Worcester County: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 15.6% in 2024, up 11.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Worcester County

• 🐦 Early BirdThe 2nd-earliest start among Massachusetts's 14 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:32 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Worcester County?

The bars show when commuters in Worcester 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	12:00-4:59 AM Worcester County4.8% Massachusetts3.7%	4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Worcester County3.9% Massachusetts3.3%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Worcester County5.4% Massachusetts4.1%	5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Worcester County9.7% Massachusetts8.4%	9.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Worcester County10.6% Massachusetts9.5%	10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Worcester County14.8% Massachusetts14.3%	14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Worcester County11.5% Massachusetts11.7%	11.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Worcester County11.1% Massachusetts13.5%	11.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Worcester County5.6% Massachusetts7.1%	5.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Worcester County6.1% Massachusetts7.7%	6.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Worcester County2.3% Massachusetts3.2%	2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Worcester County1.4% Massachusetts1.5%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Worcester County7.6% Massachusetts7.1%	7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Worcester County5.1% Massachusetts4.9%	5.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Worcester County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Massachusetts. Early starts are more common than in Massachusetts: 14.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 11.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Massachusetts's: 48.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.6%) 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 Worcester 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 Worcester 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 Worcester 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.

• Worcester County
• Massachusetts
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Worcester County	Massachusetts	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:47 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:49 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:40 AM	7:48 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:39 AM	7:48 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:33 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:32 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:31 AM	7:46 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:31 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:47 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Worcester County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:36 AM). Across Massachusetts, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Worcester County now leave 6 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Worcester County's commute time compare?

Metric	Worcester County	Massachusetts	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	24.0 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.6%	18.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	4.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.5%	6.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Worcester County is 24.0 minutes, shorter than the 25.6 minutes in Massachusetts.

1.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 6.5% in Massachusetts. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 4.1% in Massachusetts.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau