Pricing
Map Drive-Time Zone10-min drive time • PDF report

Dorchester County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Dorchester County, 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, 8:06 PM
How much time do drivers in Dorchester County spend on the road daily?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:06 PM

Commute Time Burden in Dorchester County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dorchester County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 180 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 24% less time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 6.7 minutes.

Dorchester County 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 Dorchester County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,231 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)
Dorchester County 21.6 min 43.2 min 180 hrs/yr $5,579 770
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.

Commute Time Map: Maryland Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Maryland
  1. Talbot County (17.8 min)
  2. Allegany County (17.8 min)
  3. Wicomico County (18.1 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Maryland
  1. Charles County (40.0 min)
  2. Calvert County (33.6 min)
  3. Prince George's County (32.5 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Dorchester County
Click a county to open it Explore the map →
Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.6 minutes to get to work in Dorchester County. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties in Maryland

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dorchester County

  • Car: 89.1% unusually high
  • Worked at Home: 7.3%
  • Walked: 1.9%
  • Other: 0.9%
  • Taxi: 0.5%
  • Bicycle: 0.4%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Dorchester County, versus 0.1% in Maryland.

Driving is 23% more common in Dorchester County than the Maryland average (89.1% vs 72.4%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Dorchester County: 203.7 times less than the Maryland average (0.0% vs 4.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Dorchester County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dorchester 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 Walked Other Taxi Bicycle Public Transportation Motorcycle
2009 92.3% 2.9% 2.1% 0.6% 0.4% 0.5% 0.9% 0.4%
2010 92.4% 2.8% 2.2% 0.5% 0.0% 0.6% 1.1% 0.4%
2011 92.1% 3.0% 2.1% 0.6% 0.1% 0.7% 0.9% 0.5%
2012 90.9% 4.0% 2.2% 1.0% 0.3% 0.3% 0.9% 0.5%
2013 91.4% 3.7% 2.6% 0.8% 0.6% 0.2% 0.6% 0.2%
2014 92.2% 3.5% 2.2% 0.8% 0.5% 0.1% 0.5% 0.1%
2015 92.6% 3.2% 1.8% 0.8% 0.5% 0.6% 0.5% 0.0%
2016 92.4% 3.1% 2.3% 0.6% 0.4% 0.7% 0.5% 0.1%
2017 93.3% 2.6% 2.1% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6% 0.8% 0.0%
2018 92.5% 3.0% 2.0% 0.2% 0.7% 0.7% 1.0% 0.0%
2019 91.1% 3.8% 2.7% 0.1% 0.7% 0.8% 0.8% 0.0%
2020 90.7% 5.6% 2.1% 0.2% 0.7% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0%
2021 90.8% 6.7% 1.0% 0.2% 0.4% 0.3% 0.6% 0.0%
2022 90.8% 6.8% 1.1% 0.2% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.0%
2023 90.7% 6.7% 1.4% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0%
2024 89.1% 7.3% 1.9% 0.9% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 93.3%. Overall it fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 89.1% in 2024, down 3.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dorchester County: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 4.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.9% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Dorchester County

  • Rush-Hour RegularsThe 2nd-highest share of rush-hour departures among Maryland's 24 counties: 51.7% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.
  • Earlier AlarmsThe 2nd-biggest shift to earlier mornings among Maryland's 24 counties: the typical start is 13 minutes earlier than in 2009.
  • Early BirdThe 3rd-earliest start among Maryland's 24 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:14 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dorchester County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM
10.4%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
4.9%
6:00-6:29 AM
10.0%
6:30-6:59 AM
13.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
13.1%
8:00-8:29 AM
10.9%
8:30-8:59 AM
3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
5.1%
4:00-11:59 PM
3.6%

Dorchester County Maryland Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Dorchester County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across Maryland. Early starts are more common than in Maryland: 19.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Maryland: 51.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.0%) 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 Dorchester 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 Dorchester 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 Dorchester County 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 Dorchester County Maryland United States
2009 7:27 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:25 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:25 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:26 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:25 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:23 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:25 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:25 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:26 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:26 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:28 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:24 AM 7:36 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:21 AM 7:37 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:24 AM 7:38 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:17 AM 7:39 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:14 AM 7:39 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dorchester County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 13 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:27 AM). That goes against the trend across Maryland, where the typical commuter now leaves 4 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Dorchester County now leave 24 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 Dorchester County has moved 15 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Dorchester County in the whole series.

How does Dorchester County's commute time compare?

Metric Dorchester County Maryland US Average
Avg. Commute Time 21.6 min 28.3 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 7.3% 19.3% 15.0%
Walked 1.9% 2.0% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 4.2% 3.2%

The average commute time in Dorchester County is 21.6 minutes, shorter than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Dorchester County, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Dorchester County, MD is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 32,754 residents against a local median of 94,313. Where Dorchester County, MD breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 52% below the local median of 15.1% at 7.3%.

The counties themselves spread 10.6% on work from home, so Dorchester County, MD sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Dorchester County, MD has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Dorchester County, MD 32,754 21.6 min #4/6 7.3% #6/6 7:14 AM #1/6
Talbot County, MD 37,917 17.8 min 15.1% 7:42 AM
Somerset County, MD 24,822 21.0 min 9.2% 7:29 AM
Wicomico County, MD 104,905 18.1 min 7.9% 7:45 AM
Calvert County, MD 94,313 33.6 min 18.5% 7:16 AM
St. Mary's County, MD 115,126 22.7 min 17.5% 7:14 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dorchester County, Maryland.

Is commuting expensive in Dorchester County, Maryland?

Commuters here spend an estimated 180 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,579 at a typical national wage. That's 24% less than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Dorchester County, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Dorchester County, Maryland. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Dorchester County, Maryland?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 4.2% in Maryland, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Maryland?

Among counties in Maryland, the shortest average commutes are in Talbot County (17.8 min), Allegany County (17.8 min), Wicomico County (18.1 min). The longest are in Charles County (40.0 min), Calvert County (33.6 min), Prince George's County (32.5 min).