Dover Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:09 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:09 PM

Commute Time Burden in Dover: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dover spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 157 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 16% less time on the road than the New Hampshire average of 22.5 minutes each way, a difference of 3.7 minutes.

Dover holds about 2.4% of New Hampshire's population but accounts for roughly 2.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Dover would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,944 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)
Dover	18.8 min	37.6 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,860	2,155
New Hampshire	22.5 min	45.0 min	188 hrs/yr	$5,813	1,232
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.

Dover Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.8 minutes to get to work in Dover. That's 16% 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 18.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dover

Public transit is unusually common in Dover: 5.3 times more than the New Hampshire average (2.8% vs 0.5%).

Biking is unusually rare in Dover: 190742.4 times less than the New Hampshire average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Dover, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dover 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	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	89.6%	3.7%	3.6%	2.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	89.0%	4.7%	3.0%	2.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	87.5%	4.8%	4.0%	2.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%
2012	87.5%	5.0%	4.0%	2.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2013	87.7%	4.8%	3.4%	2.3%	1.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2014	87.7%	4.6%	3.4%	2.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	88.3%	4.3%	3.2%	2.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
2016	89.0%	3.7%	3.1%	2.5%	1.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	89.2%	3.7%	2.9%	2.4%	1.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	89.8%	4.2%	2.9%	2.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2019	89.5%	5.3%	2.5%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2020	86.7%	7.5%	2.3%	2.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
2021	82.1%	12.1%	1.9%	2.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2022	80.4%	14.7%	1.8%	2.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2023	76.5%	17.6%	2.2%	2.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	74.1%	18.6%	3.1%	2.8%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2018 at 89.8%. Overall it fell from 89.6% in 2009 to 74.1% in 2024, down 15.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dover: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 18.6% in 2024, up 14.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 3.1% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Dover

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dover?

The bars show when commuters in Dover 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 New Hampshire for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.2%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		6.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.7%

Dover New Hampshire Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Dover is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.9% across New Hampshire. Early starts are less common than in New Hampshire: 11.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Hampshire: 52.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.9%) 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 Dover, 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 Dover 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 Dover next to New Hampshire 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	Dover	New Hampshire	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:48 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:44 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:47 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:44 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:45 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:47 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:45 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:49 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:49 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:47 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dover were on the road by 7:47 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:43 AM). That goes against the trend across New Hampshire, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Dover now leave 9 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Dover's commute time compare?

Metric	Dover	New Hampshire	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.8 min	22.5 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	18.6%	16.8%	15.0%
Walked	3.1%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.8%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Dover is 18.8 minutes, shorter than the 22.5 minutes in New Hampshire.

2.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in New Hampshire. 3.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in New Hampshire.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dover, New Hampshire.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Dover, New Hampshire?

Commuters here spend an estimated 157 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,860 at a typical national wage. That's 16% less than the typical New Hampshire commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Dover, New Hampshire?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Dover, New Hampshire. 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Dover, New Hampshire?

Public transit usage is notably higher here than typical: about 2.8% of commuters use it versus 0.5% in New Hampshire, making it a realistic option for many workers.