Greenville Commute Time Map & Patterns
HelpCommuting in Greenville, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
Commute Time Burden in Greenville: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Greenville spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 127 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 30% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 6.6 minutes.
Greenville holds about 0.7% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Greenville would save about 51 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,576 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenville | 15.3 min | 30.5 min | 127 hrs/yr | $3,941 | 2,614 |
| 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.
Greenville Commute Map
On average, it takes 15.3 minutes to get to work in Greenville. That's 32% 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 13.0% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Greenville
- Car: 80.7%
- Worked at Home: 13.0%
- Walked: 3.7%
- Public Transportation: 1.1%
- Other: 0.9%
- Taxi: 0.3%
- Bicycle: 0.2%
- Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Greenville: 5.5 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.1%).
Commute Mode Trends in Greenville, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Greenville 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.
Show commute mode data by year
| Year | Car | Worked at Home | Walked | Public Transportation | Other | Taxi | Bicycle | Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 89.1% | 2.2% | 3.2% | 1.3% | 3.6% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 2010 | 88.8% | 2.5% | 3.4% | 1.1% | 3.1% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| 2011 | 88.3% | 2.4% | 4.2% | 1.2% | 2.7% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| 2012 | 90.8% | 2.2% | 3.5% | 1.5% | 1.1% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| 2013 | 91.6% | 2.1% | 3.6% | 1.6% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
| 2014 | 90.8% | 2.4% | 3.7% | 1.7% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.2% |
| 2015 | 90.8% | 2.7% | 3.3% | 2.1% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
| 2016 | 90.5% | 3.1% | 3.1% | 2.0% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| 2017 | 90.0% | 3.9% | 2.8% | 2.0% | 0.4% | 0.3% | 0.6% | 0.1% |
| 2018 | 90.5% | 4.1% | 2.3% | 1.8% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| 2019 | 89.5% | 4.9% | 2.2% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.0% |
| 2020 | 86.4% | 7.5% | 3.1% | 1.6% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| 2021 | 84.0% | 9.7% | 3.4% | 1.8% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 2022 | 83.7% | 10.3% | 3.8% | 1.3% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 2023 | 82.0% | 11.9% | 3.7% | 1.2% | 0.7% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% |
| 2024 | 80.7% | 13.0% | 3.7% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 0.3% | 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 2013 at 91.6%. Overall it fell from 89.1% in 2009 to 80.7% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Greenville: its share of workers rose from 2.2% in 2009 to 13.0% in 2024, up 10.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Greenville
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Greenville?
The bars show when commuters in Greenville 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 |
12:00-4:59 AM
Greenville3.5%
North Carolina4.4%
|
3.5% |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00-5:29 AM |
5:00-5:29 AM
Greenville4.5%
North Carolina3.5%
|
4.5% |
| 5:30-5:59 AM |
5:30-5:59 AM
Greenville3.6%
North Carolina4.6%
|
3.6% |
| 6:00-6:29 AM |
6:00-6:29 AM
Greenville5.6%
North Carolina9.0%
|
5.6% |
| 6:30-6:59 AM |
6:30-6:59 AM
Greenville8.7%
North Carolina10.2%
|
8.7% |
| 7:00-7:29 AM |
7:00-7:29 AM
Greenville12.6%
North Carolina15.3%
|
12.6% |
| 7:30-7:59 AM |
7:30-7:59 AM
Greenville15.6%
North Carolina12.8%
|
15.6% |
| 8:00-8:29 AM |
8:00-8:29 AM
Greenville10.4%
North Carolina11.7%
|
10.4% |
| 8:30-8:59 AM |
8:30-8:59 AM
Greenville6.6%
North Carolina5.4%
|
6.6% |
| 9:00-9:59 AM |
9:00-9:59 AM
Greenville5.6%
North Carolina6.4%
|
5.6% |
| 10:00-10:59 AM |
10:00-10:59 AM
Greenville4.2%
North Carolina2.8%
|
4.2% |
| 11:00-11:59 AM |
11:00-11:59 AM
Greenville2.6%
North Carolina1.4%
|
2.6% |
| 12:00-3:59 PM |
12:00-3:59 PM
Greenville7.6%
North Carolina6.3%
|
7.6% |
| 4:00-11:59 PM |
4:00-11:59 PM
Greenville8.9%
North Carolina6.4%
|
8.9% |
Greenville North Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Greenville is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are about as common as in North Carolina: 11.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Carolina: 47.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.0%) 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 Greenville, 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 Greenville 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 Greenville 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.
Show typical departure times by year
| Year | Greenville | North Carolina | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 8:09 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2010 | 8:11 AM | 7:36 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2011 | 8:08 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2012 | 8:04 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2013 | 8:04 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2014 | 8:00 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:39 AM |
| 2015 | 7:58 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2016 | 7:57 AM | 7:38 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2017 | 7:56 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2018 | 7:55 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2019 | 7:54 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2020 | 7:54 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2021 | 7:52 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2022 | 7:51 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:37 AM |
| 2023 | 7:52 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
| 2024 | 7:52 AM | 7:37 AM | 7:38 AM |
In 2024, half of commuters in Greenville were on the road by 7:52 AM, 17 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:09 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Greenville now leave 14 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 Greenville has moved 2 minutes earlier.
How does Greenville's commute time compare?
| Metric | Greenville | North Carolina | US Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. Commute Time | 15.3 min | 21.9 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 | 13.0% | 16.3% | 15.0% |
| Walked | 3.7% | 1.6% | 2.4% |
| Public Transit | 1.1% | 0.7% | 3.2% |
The average commute time in Greenville is 15.3 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.
1.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 3.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about commuting in Greenville, North Carolina.
Is commuting expensive in Greenville, North Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 127 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,941 at a typical national wage. That's 30% less than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Greenville, North Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Greenville, 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.