Winston-Salem Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Winston-Salem, 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, 12:40 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Winston-Salem?

Map AI 9/24/26, 12:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in Winston-Salem: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Winston-Salem spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 149 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 4.0 minutes.

Winston-Salem holds about 2.1% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 1.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Winston-Salem would save about 60 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,845 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)
Winston-Salem	17.9 min	35.7 min	149 hrs/yr	$4,612	2,345
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.

Winston-Salem Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.9 minutes to get to work in Winston-Salem. That's 20% 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 13.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Winston-Salem

Commute Mode Trends in Winston-Salem, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Winston-Salem 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	90.5%	2.7%	2.8%	2.0%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	90.8%	2.6%	2.2%	1.9%	2.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	89.6%	3.4%	2.5%	2.1%	2.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	90.0%	3.4%	2.3%	2.1%	1.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	90.3%	3.8%	2.1%	1.8%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	90.1%	4.0%	2.2%	1.7%	1.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	89.1%	4.6%	2.4%	2.0%	1.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	90.0%	4.4%	2.4%	1.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	89.9%	4.7%	2.5%	1.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	90.3%	4.6%	2.2%	1.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	89.9%	4.7%	2.3%	1.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	88.3%	6.2%	2.5%	1.3%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	86.5%	8.3%	2.3%	1.4%	0.9%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	85.1%	10.0%	2.1%	1.3%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	82.9%	12.0%	2.1%	1.2%	1.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	81.2%	13.9%	2.2%	1.2%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	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 90.8%. Overall it fell from 90.5% in 2009 to 81.2% in 2024, down 9.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Winston-Salem: its share of workers rose from 2.7% in 2009 to 13.9% in 2024, up 11.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 1.2% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2010 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Winston-Salem

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Winston-Salem?

The bars show when commuters in Winston-Salem 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		4.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		12.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Winston-Salem is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 10.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 48.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% 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 Winston-Salem, 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 Winston-Salem 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 Winston-Salem 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	Winston-Salem	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:51 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:50 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:52 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:52 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:50 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:51 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:51 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Winston-Salem were on the road by 7:50 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across North Carolina, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Winston-Salem now leave 12 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Winston-Salem's commute time compare?

Metric	Winston-Salem	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.9 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	13.9%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Winston-Salem is 17.9 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

1.2% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 2.2% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina?

Commuters here spend an estimated 149 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,612 at a typical national wage. That's 18% less than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Winston-Salem, North Carolina?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Winston-Salem, 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.