Washington County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washington County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 141 hours, about 5.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Maine average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.9 minutes.

Washington County holds about 2.3% of Maine's population but accounts for roughly 1.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,743 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	16.9 min	33.7 min	141 hrs/yr	$4,358	460
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.

Commute Time Map: Maine Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 16.9 minutes to get to work in Washington County. That's 25% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 5 fastest counties in Maine

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 9.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Washington County

• Car: 84.8%
• Worked at Home: 9.7%
• Walked: 4.2%
• Other: 0.7%
• Public Transportation: 0.5%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Washington County, versus 0.1% in Maine.

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Washington County: 22.6 times less than the Maine average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Washington County: 4.3 times less than the Maine average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

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
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.3%	6.2%	5.6%	1.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	86.4%	6.5%	5.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	86.1%	7.5%	4.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	87.7%	6.7%	4.4%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	87.0%	6.3%	5.2%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	87.1%	6.3%	5.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	86.6%	7.0%	5.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	87.1%	5.7%	5.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	86.8%	6.3%	5.1%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	87.3%	6.6%	4.4%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	88.0%	6.8%	3.9%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	87.7%	7.0%	4.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.2%	7.5%	3.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	87.7%	8.4%	3.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	85.5%	10.0%	3.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.8%	9.7%	4.2%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2021 at 88.2%. Overall it fell from 86.3% in 2009 to 84.8% in 2024, down 1.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 6.2% in 2009 to 9.7% in 2024, up 3.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.6% to 4.2% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

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 Maine for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Washington County11.3% Maine6.3%	11.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Washington County4.8% Maine4.1%	4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Washington County7.4% Maine5.7%	7.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Washington County8.9% Maine9.3%	8.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Washington County11.0% Maine11.4%	11.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Washington County17.8% Maine15.8%	17.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Washington County13.4% Maine12.8%	13.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Washington County6.7% Maine9.9%	6.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Washington County3.4% Maine4.7%	3.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Washington County4.5% Maine5.3%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Washington County1.6% Maine2.4%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Washington County0.8% Maine1.4%	0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Washington County4.8% Maine6.3%	4.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Washington County3.7% Maine4.6%	3.7%

Washington County Maine 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 17.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.8% across Maine. Early starts are more common than in Maine: 23.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Maine's: 48.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.9% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.5%) 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 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.

• Washington County
• Maine
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Washington County	Maine	United States
2009	7:16 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:17 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:17 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:17 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:16 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:16 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:13 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:11 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:08 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:11 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:14 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:13 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:14 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:11 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:11 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:16 AM). The shift is sharper than across Maine, where the typical start moved 1 minute earlier. Commuters in Washington County now leave 27 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Washington County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washington County	Maine	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.9 min	20.8 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.7%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	4.2%	3.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Washington County is 16.9 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Maine.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as Maine. 4.2% commute by walking, higher than the 3.4% in Maine.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau