Rochester Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Rochester, 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

What does a typical morning commute look like in Rochester?

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

Commute Time Burden in Rochester: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rochester spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 189 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the New Hampshire average of 22.5 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

Rochester holds about 2.4% of New Hampshire's population and accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Rochester would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,346 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)
Rochester	22.7 min	45.4 min	189 hrs/yr	$5,865	2,072
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.

Rochester Commute Map

On average, it takes 22.7 minutes to get to work in Rochester. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rochester

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Rochester, versus 0.1% in New Hampshire.

Biking is essentially absent in Rochester, versus 0.2% in New Hampshire.

Commute Mode Trends in Rochester, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Rochester 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	93.7%	3.2%	2.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	93.3%	3.6%	1.9%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	93.3%	3.1%	2.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	93.4%	2.8%	2.5%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	93.7%	2.4%	2.2%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	92.5%	2.8%	2.3%	1.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	92.3%	2.8%	2.4%	1.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	91.4%	3.2%	1.8%	2.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	91.0%	2.9%	1.7%	2.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%
2018	90.3%	4.1%	1.5%	2.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%
2019	90.7%	4.6%	1.1%	1.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.4%	0.3%
2020	90.4%	5.2%	0.7%	1.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%
2021	86.7%	8.7%	1.2%	1.0%	1.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2022	85.0%	10.8%	1.2%	1.0%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	83.4%	12.1%	1.6%	1.2%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	84.2%	11.8%	1.5%	1.1%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2023 at 83.4%. Overall it fell from 93.7% in 2009 to 84.2% in 2024, down 9.5 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rochester: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 11.8% in 2024, up 8.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 1.5% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 2.8% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 1.1%.

Commute Start Times in Rochester

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rochester?

The bars show when commuters in Rochester 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		7.6%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.7%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		10.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rochester is 6:30-6:59 AM, when 11.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.3% across New Hampshire. Early starts are more common than in New Hampshire: 20.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New Hampshire: 42.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.6%) 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 Rochester, 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 Rochester 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 Rochester 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	Rochester	New Hampshire	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:25 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:23 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:23 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:25 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rochester were on the road by 7:25 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across New Hampshire, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Rochester now leave 13 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Rochester has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Rochester's commute time compare?

Metric	Rochester	New Hampshire	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.7 min	22.5 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 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	11.8%	16.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Rochester is about the same as in New Hampshire.

1.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in New Hampshire. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.3% in New Hampshire.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Rochester, NH Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Rochester, NH compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Rochester, NH	33,199	22.7 min #2/2	11.8% #2/2	7:25 AM #1/2
Dover, NH	33,330	18.8 min	18.6%	7:47 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Rochester, New Hampshire.

Is living in Rochester, New Hampshire good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 189 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,865 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical New Hampshire commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Rochester, New Hampshire?

Traffic peaks between 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM in Rochester, 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.