Commuting in Madison County, New York: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:09 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Madison County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:09 PM
Commute Time Burden in Madison County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Madison County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 179 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 7.2 minutes.
Madison County 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 Madison County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,217 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)
Madison County
21.5 min
42.9 min
179 hrs/yr
$5,542
1,507
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.
On average, it takes
21.5
minutes to get to work in
Madison County.
That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Madison County
Car:
81.4%unusually high
Worked at Home:
10.4%
Walked:
6.4%
Other:
0.7%
Public Transportation:
0.5%unusually low
Bicycle:
0.4%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Driving is 48% more common in Madison County than the New York average (81.4% vs 55.0%).
Public transit is unusually rare in Madison County: 41.2 times less than the New York average (0.5% vs 21.7%).
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Madison County: 11.3 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.7%).
Commute Mode Trends in Madison County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Madison 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
Walked
Other
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
86.4%
5.2%
5.5%
1.3%
0.6%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
2010
87.3%
5.0%
5.1%
1.1%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.4%
2011
88.4%
4.5%
5.0%
0.8%
0.5%
0.4%
0.1%
0.4%
2012
89.1%
3.9%
5.3%
0.4%
0.6%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
2013
89.3%
3.6%
5.9%
0.4%
0.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2014
88.6%
3.6%
5.9%
0.6%
0.4%
0.4%
0.2%
0.2%
2015
88.2%
3.9%
6.1%
0.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.2%
0.2%
2016
87.8%
4.2%
6.2%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.1%
0.2%
2017
88.0%
4.7%
5.4%
0.8%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2018
87.5%
5.5%
5.2%
0.7%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
2019
88.1%
6.2%
4.3%
0.7%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
87.6%
6.1%
4.9%
0.6%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2021
85.2%
7.8%
5.4%
0.6%
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2022
84.0%
8.7%
6.0%
0.5%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2023
83.1%
9.7%
5.7%
0.7%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2024
81.4%
10.4%
6.4%
0.7%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
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 89.3%. Overall it fell from 86.4% in 2009 to 81.4% in 2024, down 5.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Madison County: its share of workers rose from 5.2% in 2009 to 10.4% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Madison County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Madison County?
The bars show when commuters in Madison 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 York for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMMadison County4.0%New York3.9%
4.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMMadison County4.0%New York2.9%
4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMMadison County5.2%New York3.7%
5.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMMadison County7.8%New York7.5%
7.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMMadison County9.7%New York8.1%
9.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMMadison County16.8%New York13.9%
16.8%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMMadison County14.7%New York11.1%
14.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMMadison County8.7%New York14.0%
8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMMadison County4.5%New York7.7%
4.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMMadison County4.3%New York9.5%
4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMMadison County3.1%New York3.7%
3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMMadison County1.3%New York1.7%
1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMMadison County8.6%New York6.9%
8.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMMadison County7.3%New York5.3%
7.3%
Madison CountyNew YorkSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Madison County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 13.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in New York: 49.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.5%) 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 Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison County 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
Madison County
New York
United States
2009
7:33 AM
7:54 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:33 AM
7:54 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:34 AM
7:54 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:33 AM
7:55 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:31 AM
7:56 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:31 AM
7:56 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:30 AM
7:56 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:29 AM
7:56 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:28 AM
7:56 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:30 AM
7:55 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:29 AM
7:55 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:32 AM
7:55 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:33 AM
7:55 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:32 AM
7:56 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:33 AM
7:56 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:35 AM
7:57 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Madison County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:33 AM). New York followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes later. Commuters in Madison County now leave 3 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 Madison County has moved 6 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Madison County in the whole series.
How does Madison County's commute time compare?
Metric
Madison County
New York
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
21.5 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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
10.4%
15.0%
15.0%
Walked
6.4%
5.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
21.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Madison County is 21.5 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.
0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 6.4% commute by walking, higher than the 5.6% in New York.
Madison County, NY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Madison County, NY is typical in size for this group, 67,325 residents against a local median of 60,108, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. The measure that sets Madison County, NY apart most is one-way commute: 21.5 min, 18% above the local median of 18.2 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.
The counties themselves sit within 1.7 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Madison County, NY, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Madison County, NY has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Madison County, New York.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Madison County, New York?
Commuters here spend an estimated 179 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,542 at a typical national wage. That's 25% less than the typical New York commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Madison County, New York?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Madison County, New York. 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 public transportation a realistic commute option in Madison County, New York?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.5% of commuters use it versus 21.7% in New York, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in New York?
Among counties in New York, the shortest average commutes are in Hamilton County (13.6 min), Chautauqua County (15.4 min), Franklin County (16.4 min). The longest are in Bronx County (43.2 min), Queens County (41.8 min), Kings County (41.6 min).