College Park Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in College Park, Maryland: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:01 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in College Park?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:01 PM

Commute Time Burden in College Park: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in College Park spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 188 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 5.7 minutes.

College Park holds about 0.5% of Maryland's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in College Park would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,333 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)
College Park	22.6 min	45.1 min	188 hrs/yr	$5,832	4,187
Maryland	28.3 min	56.5 min	236 hrs/yr	$7,301	2,353
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.

College Park Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.6 minutes to get to work in College Park. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in College Park

Driving is 24% less common in College Park than the Maryland average (55.1% vs 72.4%).

Walking is unusually common in College Park: 7.0 times more than the Maryland average (14.3% vs 2.0%).

Biking is unusually common in College Park: 14.6 times more than the Maryland average (3.9% vs 0.3%).

College Park stands out for active commuting: 18.2% of workers walk or bike to work, 7.9 times the Maryland average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in College Park, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in College Park 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Other	Motorcycle
2009	59.1%	5.4%	20.9%	11.5%	2.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.7%
2010	61.2%	4.3%	20.2%	11.1%	2.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.7%
2011	59.8%	4.0%	20.9%	12.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.6%
2012	58.6%	4.2%	21.3%	12.4%	2.7%	0.0%	0.6%	0.2%
2013	57.4%	5.3%	20.8%	13.2%	2.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2014	58.4%	6.0%	19.7%	12.5%	2.3%	0.1%	0.8%	0.3%
2015	56.4%	5.1%	22.4%	12.8%	2.2%	0.1%	0.8%	0.1%
2016	58.4%	5.1%	20.0%	13.1%	2.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%
2017	57.7%	4.5%	19.4%	14.3%	2.2%	0.4%	1.4%	0.1%
2018	57.3%	3.5%	18.7%	16.0%	2.6%	0.2%	1.5%	0.1%
2019	55.5%	4.1%	19.6%	16.2%	2.1%	0.5%	1.9%	0.1%
2020	57.6%	6.9%	15.9%	14.5%	2.5%	0.5%	1.9%	0.1%
2021	56.6%	11.4%	14.6%	12.0%	2.8%	0.7%	1.8%	0.2%
2022	57.0%	13.7%	15.2%	9.1%	3.0%	0.7%	1.0%	0.3%
2023	56.9%	14.5%	15.1%	7.3%	3.8%	1.0%	1.0%	0.3%
2024	55.1%	15.8%	14.3%	8.9%	3.9%	1.0%	0.8%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 61.2%. Overall it fell from 59.1% in 2009 to 55.1% in 2024, down 4.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in College Park: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2024, up 10.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 20.9% to 14.3% of workers (down 6.6 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 16.2% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 8.9%.

Commute Start Times in College Park

What Time Do People Leave for Work in College Park?

The bars show when commuters in College Park 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 Maryland for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		4.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		8.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		7.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		12.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		4.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		14.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.9%

College Park Maryland Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in College Park is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 14.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.9% across Maryland. Early starts are less common than in Maryland: 7.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Maryland: 34.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 2 commuters (42.6%) 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 College Park, 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 College Park 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 College Park next to Maryland 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	College Park	Maryland	United States
2009	8:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:14 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:20 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:30 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in College Park were on the road by 8:32 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (8:19 AM). The shift is sharper than across Maryland, where the typical start moved 4 minutes later. Commuters in College Park now leave 54 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 College Park has moved 17 minutes later.

How does College Park's commute time compare?

Metric	College Park	Maryland	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.6 min	28.3 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	12:00 PM – 03:59 PM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.8%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	14.3%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	8.9%	4.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in College Park is 22.6 minutes, shorter than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

8.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 4.2% in Maryland. 14.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

College Park, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How College Park, MD compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
College Park, MD	31,178	22.6 min #1/2	15.8% #2/2	8:32 AM #2/2
Hyattsville, MD	22,604	32.9 min	23.7%	7:37 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in College Park, Maryland.

Is commuting expensive in College Park, Maryland?

Commuters here spend an estimated 188 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,832 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in College Park, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in College Park, Maryland. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM also sees a secondary bump.