Towson Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Towson, 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

What does a typical morning commute look like in Towson?

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

Commute Time Burden in Towson: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Towson spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 185 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 6.1 minutes.

Towson holds about 1.0% of Maryland's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Towson would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,294 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)
Towson	22.2 min	44.4 min	185 hrs/yr	$5,734	3,777
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.

Towson Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.2 minutes to get to work in Towson. That's 1% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 23.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Towson

Commute Mode Trends in Towson, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Towson 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	85.3%	5.7%	5.3%	2.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	85.6%	5.1%	5.4%	2.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	84.6%	5.8%	4.7%	3.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	84.7%	5.4%	4.8%	4.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	83.3%	6.3%	5.4%	3.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	84.1%	6.2%	4.6%	4.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	83.1%	7.2%	4.6%	3.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2016	83.2%	6.7%	5.4%	3.2%	0.6%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2017	82.3%	6.5%	5.6%	4.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	82.4%	6.5%	5.4%	4.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2019	82.6%	6.7%	5.1%	4.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%	0.1%
2020	81.4%	8.5%	5.1%	3.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	78.7%	12.5%	4.1%	3.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	75.9%	16.1%	4.4%	2.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	71.5%	20.7%	4.8%	2.0%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	68.5%	23.0%	5.0%	1.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	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 85.6%. Overall it fell from 85.3% in 2009 to 68.5% in 2024, down 16.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Towson: its share of workers rose from 5.7% in 2009 to 23.0% in 2024, up 17.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.7% to 1.9% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Towson

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Towson?

The bars show when commuters in Towson 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		1.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		6.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		14.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		18.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		10.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Towson is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 18.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.9% across Maryland. Early starts are less common than in Maryland: 5.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Maryland: 51.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.4%) 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 Towson, 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 Towson 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 Towson 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	Towson	Maryland	United States
2009	8:08 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:06 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:08 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:07 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:07 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:04 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:01 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:01 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:03 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:11 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:12 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Towson were on the road by 8:12 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (8:08 AM). Maryland followed the same path, with the typical start moving 4 minutes later. Commuters in Towson now leave 34 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 Towson has moved 11 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Towson in the whole series.

How does Towson's commute time compare?

Metric	Towson	Maryland	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.2 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	23.0%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	5.0%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.9%	4.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Towson is 22.2 minutes, shorter than the 28.3 minutes in Maryland.

1.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 5.0% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Towson, MD Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Towson, MD	60,458	22.2 min #1/2	23.0% #1/2	8:12 AM #2/2
Parkville, MD	30,547	23.3 min	13.4%	7:42 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Towson, Maryland.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Towson, Maryland?

Commuters here spend an estimated 185 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,734 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical Maryland commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Towson, Maryland?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Towson, Maryland. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.