East Meadow Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 4:12 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in East Meadow?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:12 PM

Commute Time Burden in East Meadow: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in East Meadow spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 237 hours, about 9.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.

East Meadow holds about 0.2% of New York's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in East Meadow would save about 95 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,938 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)
East Meadow	28.4 min	56.9 min	237 hrs/yr	$7,346	3,853
New York	28.7 min	57.4 min	239 hrs/yr	$7,414	1,586
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.

East Meadow Commute Map

On average, it takes 28.4 minutes to get to work in East Meadow. That's 27% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in East Meadow

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in East Meadow, versus 0.1% in New York.

Driving is 33% more common in East Meadow than the New York average (73.2% vs 55.0%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in East Meadow: 10.3 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Biking is unusually rare in East Meadow: 17.7 times less than the New York average (0.0% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in East Meadow, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in East Meadow 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	85.6%	2.6%	8.9%	2.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	83.8%	3.5%	10.0%	1.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	83.2%	4.4%	10.0%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	83.6%	4.3%	9.4%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	83.6%	4.7%	9.2%	1.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	82.9%	4.8%	9.6%	1.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	85.5%	3.5%	8.7%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	86.4%	3.3%	8.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	87.5%	3.2%	8.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	86.8%	3.1%	8.9%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	85.2%	2.9%	10.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	80.3%	6.4%	11.5%	1.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	78.8%	8.1%	10.5%	1.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	76.2%	10.8%	10.1%	1.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	75.2%	12.1%	9.6%	2.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	73.2%	14.5%	8.4%	2.2%	1.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 87.5%. Overall it fell from 85.6% in 2009 to 73.2% in 2024, down 12.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in East Meadow: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 14.5% in 2024, up 11.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 8.9% to 8.4% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in East Meadow

What Time Do People Leave for Work in East Meadow?

The bars show when commuters in East Meadow 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 York for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		2.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		12.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.4%

East Meadow New York Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in East Meadow is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 12.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New York: 51.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.4%) 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 East Meadow, 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 East Meadow 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 East Meadow next to New York 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	East Meadow	New York	United States
2009	8:02 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:00 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:58 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:55 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:49 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:49 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:53 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:50 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:44 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:45 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:45 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:44 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:40 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:41 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in East Meadow were on the road by 7:41 AM, 21 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:02 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in East Meadow now leave 3 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 East Meadow has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does East Meadow's commute time compare?

Metric	East Meadow	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.4 min	28.7 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.5%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	8.4%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in East Meadow is 28.4 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

8.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

East Meadow, NY Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How East Meadow, NY compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
East Meadow, NY	39,652	28.4 min #2/3	14.5% #2/3	7:41 AM #2/3
Uniondale, NY	33,148	27.3 min	8.7%	7:45 AM
North Bellmore, NY	20,689	28.7 min	19.2%	7:38 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in East Meadow, New York.

Is commuting expensive in East Meadow, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 237 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,346 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical New York commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in East Meadow, New York?

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