Frederick Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Frederick, 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

Is the commute in Frederick longer than the national average?

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

Commute Time Burden in Frederick: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Frederick spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 175 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.2 minutes.

Frederick holds about 1.2% of Maryland's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Frederick would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,173 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)
Frederick	21.0 min	42.1 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,432	2,392
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.

Frederick Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.0 minutes to get to work in Frederick. That's 6% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Frederick

Commute Mode Trends in Frederick, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Frederick 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	88.6%	3.8%	4.0%	2.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%
2010	89.2%	3.5%	3.6%	2.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%
2011	88.1%	4.6%	3.5%	3.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	86.4%	5.4%	4.1%	3.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	85.0%	5.4%	4.4%	3.9%	0.1%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%
2014	84.5%	5.7%	4.5%	4.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%
2015	84.5%	5.6%	4.4%	4.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%
2016	84.9%	5.0%	4.2%	3.9%	0.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%
2017	85.7%	4.4%	3.8%	4.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.8%	0.1%
2018	86.3%	4.6%	3.4%	3.8%	0.6%	0.4%	0.8%	0.1%
2019	86.0%	5.3%	3.1%	3.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%
2020	83.9%	7.6%	3.6%	2.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%
2021	82.2%	10.4%	3.4%	2.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%
2022	80.5%	12.8%	2.8%	1.8%	1.1%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%
2023	78.0%	15.0%	2.9%	1.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2024	75.5%	17.6%	3.2%	1.8%	0.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 89.2%. Overall it fell from 88.6% in 2009 to 75.5% in 2024, down 13.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Frederick: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 17.6% in 2024, up 13.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.6% to 1.8% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2011 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Frederick

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Frederick?

The bars show when commuters in Frederick 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		7.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Frederick is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.8% across Maryland. Early starts are more common than in Maryland: 20.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Maryland: 43.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.5%) 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 Frederick, 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 Frederick 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 Frederick 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	Frederick	Maryland	United States
2009	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:31 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Frederick were on the road by 7:31 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:37 AM). That goes against the trend across Maryland, where the typical commuter now leaves 4 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Frederick now leave 7 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 Frederick has moved 8 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Frederick in the whole series.

How does Frederick's commute time compare?

Metric	Frederick	Maryland	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.0 min	28.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	17.6%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	3.2%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	4.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Frederick is 21.0 minutes, shorter than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

1.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 3.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frederick, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Frederick, MD	76,727	21.0 min #1/2	17.6% #2/2	7:31 AM #1/2
Ballenger Creek, MD	22,962	30.0 min	20.8%	7:43 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Frederick, Maryland.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Frederick, Maryland?

Commuters here spend an estimated 175 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,432 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Frederick, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Frederick, Maryland. 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.