Washington County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washington 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 23% less time on the road than the Maryland average of 28.3 minutes each way, a difference of 6.6 minutes.

Washington County holds about 2.5% of Maryland's population but accounts for roughly 1.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,237 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)
Washington County	21.6 min	43.3 min	180 hrs/yr	$5,593	1,432
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 21.6 minutes to get to work in Washington County. That's 3% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Washington County

• Car: 83.4%
• Worked at Home: 12.4%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Public Transportation: 1.1% unusually low
• Taxi: 0.8%
• Other: 0.5%
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Washington County: 4.9 times less than the Maryland average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Washington County: 3.8 times less than the Maryland average (1.1% vs 4.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Washington County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Washington 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Other
• Bicycle
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	92.4%	3.0%	1.8%	1.5%	0.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	92.6%	3.1%	1.5%	1.5%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	92.1%	3.2%	1.8%	1.4%	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%
2012	91.9%	3.9%	1.8%	1.1%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	91.4%	4.1%	2.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	91.4%	4.2%	2.0%	1.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	90.9%	4.8%	2.1%	1.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	90.8%	4.8%	2.1%	1.2%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	90.5%	4.8%	2.1%	1.4%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	90.4%	4.7%	2.0%	1.8%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	90.1%	5.3%	1.8%	1.7%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	88.3%	7.4%	1.7%	1.5%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	86.8%	8.6%	1.8%	1.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	85.7%	9.9%	1.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2023	84.9%	11.0%	1.2%	1.0%	0.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2024	83.4%	12.4%	1.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	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 92.6%. Overall it fell from 92.4% in 2009 to 83.4% in 2024, down 9.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 12.4% in 2024, up 9.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Washington County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Washington County?

The bars show when commuters in Washington 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	12:00-4:59 AM Washington County8.1% Maryland5.5%	8.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Washington County5.1% Maryland4.5%	5.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Washington County5.7% Maryland4.8%	5.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Washington County9.3% Maryland9.2%	9.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Washington County9.2% Maryland8.6%	9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Washington County13.9% Maryland14.0%	13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Washington County11.6% Maryland10.8%	11.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Washington County8.6% Maryland11.9%	8.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Washington County4.2% Maryland6.2%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Washington County4.5% Maryland7.9%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Washington County2.5% Maryland3.3%	2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Washington County1.7% Maryland1.5%	1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Washington County8.2% Maryland6.3%	8.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Washington County7.6% Maryland5.5%	7.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Washington County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across Maryland. Early starts are more common than in Maryland: 18.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Maryland: 43.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.5%) 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 Washington 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.

• Washington County
• Maryland
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Washington County	Maryland	United States
2009	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:27 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:26 AM). Across Maryland the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 4 minutes later. Commuters in Washington County now leave 10 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Washington County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washington 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.4%	19.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	4.2%	3.2%

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

1.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 4.2% in Maryland. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Maryland.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau