Potomac Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Potomac, 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, 4:02 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Potomac?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:02 PM

Commute Time Burden in Potomac: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Potomac spend about 58 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 242 hours, about 10.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% more time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 0.7 minutes.

Potomac holds about 0.7% of Maryland's population and accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Potomac would save about 97 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,995 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)
Potomac	29.0 min	58.0 min	242 hrs/yr	$7,487	3,190
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.

Potomac Commute Map

On average, it takes 29.0 minutes to get to work in Potomac. That's 29% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 37.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Potomac

Driving is 22% less common in Potomac than the Maryland average (56.3% vs 72.4%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Potomac: 49.3 times less than the Maryland average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Potomac, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Potomac 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	Public Transportation	Other	Walked	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	82.4%	9.4%	5.9%	0.4%	1.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	81.5%	10.3%	5.9%	0.5%	1.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	80.4%	11.4%	6.1%	0.5%	1.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	79.7%	12.0%	6.2%	0.6%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	79.9%	11.4%	6.9%	0.4%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	79.1%	10.9%	7.8%	0.8%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	78.4%	10.3%	8.9%	1.0%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	79.3%	9.8%	8.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	79.6%	9.9%	8.2%	0.7%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	79.5%	10.6%	7.6%	0.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	79.4%	10.7%	7.8%	0.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	74.5%	16.8%	6.0%	1.1%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	69.0%	22.8%	5.0%	1.4%	1.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	64.3%	27.4%	4.8%	1.9%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	59.5%	33.0%	4.1%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	56.3%	37.8%	2.3%	1.9%	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 82.4% in 2009 to 56.3% in 2024, down 26.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Potomac: its share of workers rose from 9.4% in 2009 to 37.8% in 2024, up 28.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 27.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.9% to 2.3% of workers (down 3.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Potomac

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Potomac?

The bars show when commuters in Potomac 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		0.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		2.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		19.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		16.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		7.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		1.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Potomac is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 19.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.9% across Maryland. Early starts are less common than in Maryland: 3.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Maryland: 53.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (32.1%) 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 Potomac, 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 Potomac 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 Potomac 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	Potomac	Maryland	United States
2009	8:10 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:08 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:08 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:07 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:08 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:10 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:10 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:12 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:13 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:17 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Potomac were on the road by 8:17 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (8:10 AM). The shift is sharper than across Maryland, where the typical start moved 4 minutes later. Commuters in Potomac now leave 39 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 Potomac has moved 8 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Potomac in the whole series.

How does Potomac's commute time compare?

Metric	Potomac	Maryland	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	29.0 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	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	37.8%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.3%	4.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Potomac is 29.0 minutes, longer than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

2.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Potomac, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Potomac, MD compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Potomac, MD	43,455	29.0 min #3/3	37.8% #2/3	8:17 AM #3/3
McLean, VA	50,555	27.6 min	38.0%	8:15 AM
North Bethesda, MD	50,620	27.5 min	37.1%	8:13 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Potomac, Maryland.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 242 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,487 at a typical national wage. That's 3% more than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Potomac, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Potomac, Maryland. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is Potomac, Maryland a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 37.8% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Potomac would save about 97 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,995 at the same national wage assumption used above.