South Portland Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in South Portland, Maine: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:00 PM

How much time do drivers in South Portland spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in South Portland: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in South Portland spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 129 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Maine average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 5.3 minutes.

South Portland holds about 1.9% of Maine's population but accounts for roughly 1.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in South Portland would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,600 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)
South Portland	15.5 min	31.0 min	129 hrs/yr	$4,001	2,412
Maine	20.8 min	41.6 min	173 hrs/yr	$5,372	1,015
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.

South Portland Commute Map

On average, it takes 15.5 minutes to get to work in South Portland. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 19.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in South Portland

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in South Portland, versus 0.1% in Maine.

Taking a taxi is unusually common in South Portland: 10.3 times more than the Maine average (1.9% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually common in South Portland: 3.4 times more than the Maine average (1.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in South Portland, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in South Portland 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	Taxi	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle
2009	89.7%	4.5%	3.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.4%	1.0%	0.1%
2010	90.4%	3.6%	3.3%	0.1%	0.8%	0.5%	1.1%	0.2%
2011	90.7%	3.3%	3.1%	0.0%	0.9%	0.3%	1.4%	0.3%
2012	90.2%	3.5%	2.7%	0.1%	1.1%	0.7%	1.4%	0.3%
2013	91.0%	3.6%	1.8%	0.3%	0.7%	0.7%	1.6%	0.2%
2014	89.9%	3.9%	2.0%	0.3%	1.3%	0.8%	1.6%	0.2%
2015	89.2%	4.8%	2.1%	0.3%	1.0%	0.8%	1.6%	0.2%
2016	88.3%	4.9%	2.5%	0.4%	1.2%	0.6%	1.9%	0.2%
2017	88.8%	4.2%	2.7%	0.3%	1.2%	0.5%	2.1%	0.2%
2018	85.9%	5.4%	3.0%	0.3%	1.3%	0.7%	3.1%	0.3%
2019	85.0%	5.6%	2.9%	0.4%	0.8%	1.4%	3.5%	0.4%
2020	84.9%	5.8%	2.2%	0.3%	0.7%	2.2%	3.6%	0.3%
2021	80.2%	10.4%	3.0%	0.6%	0.6%	1.8%	3.1%	0.3%
2022	78.6%	13.3%	3.5%	0.4%	0.4%	1.9%	1.7%	0.2%
2023	76.6%	15.8%	3.8%	0.5%	0.5%	1.7%	1.1%	0.0%
2024	71.6%	19.5%	4.5%	1.9%	1.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 91.0%. Overall it fell from 89.7% in 2009 to 71.6% in 2024, down 18.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in South Portland: its share of workers rose from 4.5% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2024, up 15.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.0% to 0.4% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook biking to become the 4th most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in South Portland

What Time Do People Leave for Work in South Portland?

The bars show when commuters in South Portland 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 Maine for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		10.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.4%

South Portland Maine Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in South Portland is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across Maine. Early starts are less common than in Maine: 9.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Maine: 47.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.8%) 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 South Portland, 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 South Portland 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 South Portland next to Maine 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	South Portland	Maine	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:49 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:47 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:52 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:54 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:53 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:56 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:55 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:53 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:51 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:54 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:53 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:53 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in South Portland were on the road by 7:53 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:49 AM). That goes against the trend across Maine, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute earlier than in 2009. Commuters in South Portland now leave 15 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 South Portland has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does South Portland's commute time compare?

Metric	South Portland	Maine	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.5 min	20.8 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	19.5%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	4.5%	3.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in South Portland is 15.5 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Maine.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Maine. 4.5% commute by walking, higher than the 3.4% in Maine.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

South Portland, ME Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How South Portland, ME compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
South Portland, ME	26,562	15.5 min #1/3	19.5% #2/3	7:53 AM #2/3
Westbrook, ME	20,775	18.2 min	17.8%	7:47 AM
Portland, ME	68,646	16.4 min	24.7%	8:02 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in South Portland, Maine.

Is commuting expensive in South Portland, Maine?

Commuters here spend an estimated 129 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,001 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Maine commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in South Portland, Maine?

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