Durham Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:14 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Durham?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:14 PM

Commute Time Burden in Durham: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Durham spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 169 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Durham holds about 2.3% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 2.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Durham would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,092 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)
Durham	20.2 min	40.5 min	169 hrs/yr	$5,231	2,919
North Carolina	21.9 min	43.7 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,645	1,609
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.

Durham Commute Map

On average, it takes 20.2 minutes to get to work in Durham. That's 10% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 22.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Durham

Public transit is unusually common in Durham: 3.2 times more than the North Carolina average (2.1% vs 0.7%).

Biking is unusually common in Durham: 3.9 times more than the North Carolina average (0.7% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Durham, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Durham 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.9%	4.1%	3.4%	4.1%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	87.4%	3.8%	3.6%	3.8%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	87.0%	4.1%	3.2%	3.8%	0.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	86.5%	4.2%	3.3%	3.8%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	85.7%	4.3%	3.5%	4.3%	0.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2014	85.5%	4.3%	3.5%	4.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	85.0%	4.8%	3.2%	4.6%	1.0%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	85.2%	4.8%	3.1%	4.9%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	85.7%	5.0%	2.9%	4.4%	0.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	85.7%	5.1%	2.9%	4.0%	1.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2019	85.6%	5.6%	2.8%	3.9%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	82.6%	9.2%	2.6%	3.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	78.6%	14.2%	2.6%	2.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	74.7%	17.6%	3.0%	2.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	73.0%	20.2%	2.5%	2.4%	0.9%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%
2024	70.4%	22.9%	2.4%	2.1%	0.9%	0.7%	0.5%	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 87.4%. Overall it fell from 86.9% in 2009 to 70.4% in 2024, down 16.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Durham: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 22.9% in 2024, up 18.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 17.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.1% to 2.1% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Durham

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Durham?

The bars show when commuters in Durham 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 North Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.9%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.3%

Durham North Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Durham is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 14.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.7% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 8.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Carolina: 47.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.0%) 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 Durham, 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 Durham 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 Durham next to North Carolina 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	Durham	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:55 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:56 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:58 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:00 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:59 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:59 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:59 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:02 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:00 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:02 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:57 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Durham were on the road by 7:59 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:55 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Durham now leave 21 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 Durham has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Durham's commute time compare?

Metric	Durham	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.2 min	21.9 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	22.9%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Durham is 20.2 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

2.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 2.4% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Durham, NC Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Durham, NC compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Durham, NC	249,652	20.2 min #3/3	22.9% #3/3	7:59 AM #1/3
Chapel Hill, NC	57,175	17.4 min	28.7%	8:32 AM
Morrisville, NC	22,339	20.1 min	39.6%	8:08 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Durham, North Carolina.

Is commuting expensive in Durham, North Carolina?

Commuters here spend an estimated 169 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,231 at a typical national wage. That's 7% less than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Durham, North Carolina?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Durham, North Carolina. 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.

How common is public transit use in Durham, North Carolina?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 2.1% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in North Carolina, making it a realistic option for many workers.

Is Durham, North Carolina a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 22.9% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Durham would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,092 at the same national wage assumption used above.