Hempstead Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Hempstead, 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 long is the round-trip commute in Hempstead?

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

Commute Time Burden in Hempstead: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hempstead spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 253 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% more time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.

Hempstead holds about 0.3% of New York's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hempstead would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,139 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)
Hempstead	30.4 min	60.8 min	253 hrs/yr	$7,848	5,122
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.

Hempstead Commute Map

On average, it takes 30.4 minutes to get to work in Hempstead. That's 36% 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 public transit. About 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hempstead

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

Driving is 26% more common in Hempstead than the New York average (69.0% vs 55.0%).

Walking is unusually rare in Hempstead: 3.4 times less than the New York average (1.7% vs 5.6%).

Biking is unusually rare in Hempstead: 6.2 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Hempstead: just 1.8%, 3.6 times below the New York average of 6.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in Hempstead, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hempstead 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	Public Transportation	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	67.0%	23.0%	1.3%	5.2%	1.5%	1.3%	0.6%	0.0%
2010	66.2%	23.4%	1.5%	5.3%	1.0%	1.8%	0.7%	0.0%
2011	66.6%	23.7%	1.6%	4.8%	1.1%	1.4%	0.8%	0.0%
2012	67.1%	23.3%	1.5%	5.0%	0.8%	1.2%	1.0%	0.0%
2013	67.6%	23.8%	1.5%	5.0%	0.8%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	66.0%	24.9%	2.4%	4.7%	0.7%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	66.4%	24.5%	2.1%	4.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.7%	0.0%
2016	67.8%	24.2%	1.8%	4.3%	0.4%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%
2017	68.5%	23.3%	2.1%	4.0%	0.5%	0.8%	0.8%	0.0%
2018	69.5%	22.5%	2.2%	3.7%	0.3%	0.9%	0.9%	0.0%
2019	70.8%	21.7%	1.8%	3.9%	0.4%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%
2020	71.4%	20.5%	3.0%	3.3%	0.5%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	71.5%	18.9%	4.7%	3.1%	0.4%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	70.8%	18.4%	6.1%	2.4%	0.8%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%
2023	70.8%	18.6%	6.5%	2.3%	0.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	69.0%	19.2%	7.3%	1.7%	1.5%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2021 at 71.5% and lowest in 2014 at 66.0%. Overall it rose from 67.0% in 2009 to 69.0% in 2024, up 2.0 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Hempstead: its share of workers rose from 1.3% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 6.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 23.0% to 19.2% of workers (down 3.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Hempstead

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hempstead?

The bars show when commuters in Hempstead 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		4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		22.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		6.4%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		3.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		4.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Hempstead is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 11.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New York: 49.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.6%) 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 Hempstead, 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 Hempstead 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 Hempstead 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	Hempstead	New York	United States
2009	7:52 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:55 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:54 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:44 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:44 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:01 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:05 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:06 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:08 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:04 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:48 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:31 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:25 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hempstead were on the road by 7:25 AM, 27 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:52 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Hempstead 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 Hempstead has moved 43 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Hempstead in the whole series.

How does Hempstead's commute time compare?

Metric	Hempstead	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.4 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	7.3%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	19.2%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hempstead is 30.4 minutes, longer than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

19.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 1.7% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Hempstead, NY Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Hempstead, NY is the largest of the 4 cities compared here, 58,804 residents against a local median of 23,057. Where Hempstead, NY breaks from the cities next to it is work from home, sitting 53% below the local median of 15.6% at 7.3%.

The cities themselves spread 18.9% on work from home, so Hempstead, NY sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Hempstead, NY has the 4th highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Hempstead, NY	58,804	30.4 min #2/4	7.3% #4/4	7:25 AM #1/4
Uniondale, NY	33,148	27.3 min	8.7%	7:45 AM
West Hempstead, NY	20,645	31.4 min	15.6%	7:53 AM
Garden City, NY	23,057	30.9 min	27.6%	7:55 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Hempstead, New York.

Is living in Hempstead, New York good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 253 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,848 at a typical national wage. That's 6% more than the typical New York commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Hempstead, New York?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Hempstead, 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.