Summit Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Summit, 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, 4:10 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Summit?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:10 PM

Commute Time Burden in Summit: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Summit spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 221 hours, about 9.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the New Jersey average of 26.2 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.

Summit holds about 0.2% of New Jersey's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Summit would save about 88 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,739 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)
Summit	26.5 min	53.0 min	221 hrs/yr	$6,846	2,266
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.

Summit Commute Map

On average, it takes 26.5 minutes to get to work in Summit. That's 18% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 23.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Summit

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Summit: 3.6 times more than the New Jersey average (0.1% vs 0.0%).

Driving is 29% less common in Summit than the New Jersey average (49.4% vs 69.9%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Summit: 10.9 times less than the New Jersey average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

Biking is unusually rare in Summit: 4.4 times less than the New Jersey average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Summit, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Summit 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	68.3%	5.2%	16.8%	7.7%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	67.5%	6.0%	17.2%	7.2%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	67.5%	5.3%	20.7%	5.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	66.9%	5.6%	19.4%	6.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.5%
2013	68.6%	5.8%	20.9%	3.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.6%
2014	67.6%	7.6%	20.5%	3.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.5%
2015	66.7%	7.4%	21.0%	3.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.5%
2016	67.3%	7.7%	20.4%	3.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2017	67.3%	7.9%	21.1%	2.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	63.0%	8.6%	23.1%	4.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	61.3%	7.7%	24.6%	3.8%	2.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	61.1%	8.8%	22.5%	6.1%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	56.4%	14.4%	19.5%	5.9%	3.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	52.2%	17.9%	18.6%	6.8%	4.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	51.0%	20.1%	18.4%	5.6%	4.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	49.4%	23.8%	17.6%	6.0%	3.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 68.6%. Overall it fell from 68.3% in 2009 to 49.4% in 2024, down 18.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Summit: its share of workers rose from 5.2% in 2009 to 23.8% in 2024, up 18.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 16.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.7% to 6.0% of workers (down 1.7 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 24.6% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 17.6%.

Commute Start Times in Summit

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Summit?

The bars show when commuters in Summit 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		2.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		18.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		10.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		1.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Summit is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New Jersey. Early starts are less common than in New Jersey: 6.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New Jersey: 56.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.6%) 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 Summit, 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 Summit 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 Summit 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	Summit	New Jersey	United States
2009	7:47 AM	7:48 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:49 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:44 AM	7:51 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:49 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:51 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:53 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:54 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:56 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:57 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:57 AM	7:49 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:04 AM	7:50 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:01 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:56 AM	7:50 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Summit were on the road by 7:56 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:47 AM). The shift is sharper than across New Jersey, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Summit now leave 18 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Summit's commute time compare?

Metric	Summit	New Jersey	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.5 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	23.8%	16.8%	15.0%
Walked	6.0%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	17.6%	8.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Summit is 26.5 minutes, longer than the 26.2 minutes in New Jersey.

17.6% commute by public transit, higher than the 8.1% in New Jersey. 6.0% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in New Jersey.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Summit, New Jersey.

Is commuting expensive in Summit, New Jersey?

Commuters here spend an estimated 221 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,846 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical New Jersey commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Summit, New Jersey?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Summit, New Jersey. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is Summit, New Jersey a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 23.8% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Summit would save about 88 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,739 at the same national wage assumption used above.