St. Mary's County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in St. Mary's 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, 8:22 PM

How much time do drivers in St. Mary's County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:22 PM

Commute Time Burden in St. Mary's County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in St. Mary's County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 189 hours, about 7.9 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 5.5 minutes.

St. Mary's County holds about 1.9% of Maryland's population but accounts for roughly 1.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in St. Mary's County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,347 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)
St. Mary's County	22.7 min	45.4 min	189 hrs/yr	$5,868	1,273
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

Talbot County (17.8 min)
Allegany County (17.8 min)
Wicomico County (18.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Maryland

Charles County (40.0 min)
Calvert County (33.6 min)
Prince George's County (32.5 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

St. Mary's County

Click a county to open it Explore the map →

Average commute time

On average, it takes 22.7 minutes to get to work in St. Mary's County. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 17.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in St. Mary's County

Public transit is unusually rare in St. Mary's County: 4.7 times less than the Maryland average (0.9% vs 4.2%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in St. Mary's County: 5.8 times less than the Maryland average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in St. Mary's County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in St. Mary's 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	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	92.1%	2.4%	2.0%	2.2%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	91.9%	2.8%	2.0%	2.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	92.3%	2.7%	1.9%	2.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	92.3%	2.8%	2.1%	2.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	92.3%	2.9%	2.0%	2.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	92.1%	2.6%	2.2%	2.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2015	92.6%	2.1%	1.9%	2.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	92.3%	2.2%	2.3%	2.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	92.0%	2.5%	2.4%	2.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	92.0%	2.9%	2.2%	1.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2019	91.4%	3.8%	2.0%	1.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	88.3%	7.2%	2.0%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	85.0%	10.7%	1.9%	1.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	82.1%	13.7%	1.9%	1.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	80.4%	15.3%	2.4%	1.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	77.9%	17.5%	2.8%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 92.6%. Overall it fell from 92.1% in 2009 to 77.9% in 2024, down 14.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in St. Mary's County: its share of workers rose from 2.4% in 2009 to 17.5% in 2024, up 15.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.2% to 0.9% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in St. Mary's County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in St. Mary's County?

The bars show when commuters in St. Mary's 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		7.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		11.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.6%

St. Mary's County Maryland Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in St. Mary's County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across Maryland. Early starts are more common than in Maryland: 20.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Maryland's: 46.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.2%) 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 St. Mary's 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 St. Mary's 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 St. Mary's 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	St. Mary's County	Maryland	United States
2009	7:07 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:07 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:08 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:10 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:11 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:11 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:02 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:02 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:06 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:10 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:13 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:14 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in St. Mary's County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:07 AM). The shift is sharper than across Maryland, where the typical start moved 4 minutes later. Commuters in St. Mary's County now leave 23 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 St. Mary's County has moved 13 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for St. Mary's County in the whole series.

How does St. Mary's County's commute time compare?

Metric	St. Mary's County	Maryland	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.7 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	17.5%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.8%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	4.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in St. Mary's County is 22.7 minutes, shorter than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 2.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

St. Mary's County, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

St. Mary's County, MD is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 115,126 residents against a local median of 18,825. St. Mary's County, MD's work from home, at 17.5%, runs 18% above the 14.9% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 11.2% on work from home, so St. Mary's County, MD sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. St. Mary's County, MD has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
St. Mary's County, MD	115,126	22.7 min #2/6	17.5% #2/6	7:14 AM #3/6
Westmoreland County, VA	18,825	33.8 min	13.4%	6:58 AM
Calvert County, MD	94,313	33.6 min	18.5%	7:16 AM
Richmond County, VA	9,095	26.0 min	14.9%	7:19 AM
Northumberland County, VA	12,188	23.6 min	15.2%	7:19 AM
Dorchester County, MD	32,754	21.6 min	7.3%	7:14 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in St. Mary's County, Maryland.

Is living in St. Mary's County, Maryland good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 189 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,868 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in St. Mary's County, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in St. Mary's 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.

How common is public transit use in St. Mary's County, Maryland?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.9% 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).