Morris County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:25 PM

How much time do drivers in Morris County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:25 PM

Commute Time Burden in Morris County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Morris County spend about 52 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 215 hours, about 9.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the New Jersey average of 26.2 minutes each way, a difference of 0.4 minutes.

Morris County holds about 5.5% of New Jersey's population but accounts for roughly 5.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Morris County would save about 86 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,668 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)
Morris County	25.8 min	51.6 min	215 hrs/yr	$6,671	2,217
New Jersey	26.2 min	52.4 min	218 hrs/yr	$6,764	2,109
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.

Commute Time Map: New Jersey Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in New Jersey

Cape May County (18.1 min)
Cumberland County (21.2 min)
Atlantic County (21.6 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in New Jersey

Hudson County (32.7 min)
Sussex County (32.6 min)
Hunterdon County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Morris County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 25.8 minutes to get to work in Morris County. That's 15% longer 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 21.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Morris County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Morris County: 4.1 times less than the New Jersey average (0.0% vs 0.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Morris County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Morris County 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	87.5%	4.6%	4.4%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	87.6%	4.7%	4.4%	2.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	87.2%	4.8%	4.7%	2.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	87.5%	4.9%	4.7%	1.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	87.5%	5.2%	4.6%	1.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	86.9%	5.2%	4.8%	2.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	86.4%	5.5%	5.0%	2.1%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	86.4%	5.4%	5.2%	2.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	86.0%	5.6%	5.4%	2.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	86.0%	5.7%	5.5%	1.9%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	86.2%	5.7%	5.5%	1.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	83.8%	8.8%	4.8%	1.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	79.9%	13.3%	4.2%	1.4%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	76.3%	17.1%	3.7%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	73.9%	19.6%	3.5%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	71.9%	21.8%	3.3%	1.5%	1.1%	0.3%	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 2010 at 87.6%. Overall it fell from 87.5% in 2009 to 71.9% in 2024, down 15.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Morris County: its share of workers rose from 4.6% in 2009 to 21.8% in 2024, up 17.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 3.3% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Morris County

Rush-Hour RegularsThe 3rd-highest share of rush-hour departures among New Jersey's 21 counties: 52.6% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Morris County?

The bars show when commuters in Morris County 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 Jersey for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		15.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.2%

Morris County New Jersey Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Morris County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New Jersey. Early starts are less common than in New Jersey: 8.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Jersey: 52.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.8%) 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 Morris County, 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 Morris County 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 Morris County next to New Jersey 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	Morris County	New Jersey	United States
2009	7:50 AM	7:48 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:50 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:49 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:50 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:50 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:52 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:52 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:51 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:50 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:52 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:53 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:54 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Morris County were on the road by 7:54 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:50 AM). New Jersey followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes later. Commuters in Morris County now leave 16 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 Morris County has moved 4 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Morris County in the whole series.

How does Morris County's commute time compare?

Metric	Morris County	New Jersey	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	25.8 min	26.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	21.8%	16.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.3%	8.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Morris County is about the same as in New Jersey.

3.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 8.1% in New Jersey. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in New Jersey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Morris County, NJ Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Morris County, NJ is typical in size for this group, 514,287 residents against a local median of 520,457, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Morris County, NJ's work from home, at 21.8%, runs 46% above the 14.9% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 11.2% on work from home, so Morris County, NJ sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Morris County, NJ has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Morris County, NJ	514,287	25.8 min #2/6	21.8% #2/6	7:54 AM #5/6
Passaic County, NJ	520,457	22.5 min	11.5%	7:41 AM
Essex County, NJ	861,155	30.3 min	16.1%	7:52 AM
Somerset County, NJ	349,714	26.9 min	22.7%	7:54 AM
Union County, NJ	578,268	26.1 min	14.3%	7:37 AM
Sussex County, NJ	145,409	32.6 min	14.9%	7:27 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Morris County, New Jersey.

Is living in Morris County, New Jersey good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 215 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,671 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical New Jersey commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Morris County, New Jersey?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Morris County, New Jersey. 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 do commute times compare across counties in New Jersey?

Among counties in New Jersey, the shortest average commutes are in Cape May County (18.1 min), Cumberland County (21.2 min), Atlantic County (21.6 min). The longest are in Hudson County (32.7 min), Sussex County (32.6 min), Hunterdon County (31.0 min).