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Oswego County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Oswego County, 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, 7:14 PM
How much time do drivers in Oswego County spend on the road daily?
Map AI 9/24/26, 7:14 PM

Commute Time Burden in Oswego County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Oswego County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 189 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 6.1 minutes.

Oswego County holds about 0.6% of New York's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Oswego County would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,338 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)
Oswego County 22.6 min 45.2 min 189 hrs/yr $5,845 1,264
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.

Commute Time Map: New York Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in New York
  1. Hamilton County (13.6 min)
  2. Chautauqua County (15.4 min)
  3. Franklin County (16.4 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in New York
  1. Bronx County (43.2 min)
  2. Queens County (41.8 min)
  3. Kings County (41.6 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Oswego County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 22.6 minutes to get to work in Oswego County. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 74% of counties in New York

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Oswego County

  • Car: 86.3% unusually high
  • Worked at Home: 8.3%
  • Walked: 2.9%
  • Other: 1.4%
  • Public Transportation: 0.6% unusually low
  • Taxi: 0.3%
  • Motorcycle: 0.1%
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Driving is 57% more common in Oswego County than the New York average (86.3% vs 55.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Oswego County: 37.5 times less than the New York average (0.6% vs 21.7%).

Biking is unusually rare in Oswego County: 17.3 times less than the New York average (0.0% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Oswego County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Oswego 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 Taxi Motorcycle Bicycle
2009 90.5% 3.4% 4.0% 0.8% 0.9% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
2010 90.3% 3.2% 4.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.1% 0.1% 0.2%
2011 90.2% 3.4% 4.5% 0.8% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2%
2012 90.5% 3.1% 4.8% 0.7% 0.6% 0.0% 0.1% 0.3%
2013 90.2% 3.5% 4.6% 0.7% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2014 90.5% 3.2% 4.6% 0.6% 0.7% 0.0% 0.1% 0.2%
2015 90.5% 3.7% 4.0% 0.5% 0.8% 0.0% 0.3% 0.2%
2016 90.4% 3.6% 4.2% 0.4% 0.8% 0.1% 0.3% 0.2%
2017 90.3% 3.4% 4.1% 0.4% 0.9% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1%
2018 90.7% 3.2% 4.0% 0.4% 0.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2%
2019 90.2% 3.5% 3.9% 0.6% 0.8% 0.5% 0.2% 0.2%
2020 89.1% 4.5% 3.5% 1.4% 0.8% 0.5% 0.1% 0.1%
2021 87.9% 5.6% 3.3% 1.7% 0.8% 0.5% 0.1% 0.1%
2022 87.3% 6.6% 3.1% 1.8% 0.8% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%
2023 86.3% 7.8% 3.1% 1.8% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0%
2024 86.3% 8.3% 2.9% 1.4% 0.6% 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 2018 at 90.7%. Overall it fell from 90.5% in 2009 to 86.3% in 2024, down 4.2 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Oswego County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 8.3% in 2024, up 4.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.0% to 2.9% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Oswego County

  • Early BirdThe 3rd-earliest start among New York's 62 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:16 AM.
  • Dawn PatrolThe 3rd-highest share of pre-6 AM departures among New York's 62 counties: 21.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Oswego County?

The bars show when commuters in Oswego 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
7.5%
5:00-5:29 AM
6.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
9.7%
6:30-6:59 AM
11.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
13.6%
7:30-7:59 AM
9.5%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM
5.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.5%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Oswego County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 21.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in New York: 44.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.4%) 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 Oswego 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 Oswego 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 Oswego 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 Oswego County New York United States
2009 7:28 AM 7:54 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:27 AM 7:54 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:27 AM 7:54 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:29 AM 7:55 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:30 AM 7:56 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:31 AM 7:56 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:34 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 7:25 AM 7:55 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:26 AM 7:55 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:23 AM 7:55 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:23 AM 7:55 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:20 AM 7:56 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:19 AM 7:56 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:16 AM 7:57 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Oswego County were on the road by 7:16 AM, 11 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:28 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Oswego County now leave 21 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 Oswego County has moved 10 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Oswego County in the whole series.

How does Oswego County's commute time compare?

Metric Oswego County New York US Average
Avg. Commute Time 22.6 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 8.3% 15.0% 15.0%
Walked 2.9% 5.6% 2.4%
Public Transit 0.6% 21.7% 3.2%

The average commute time in Oswego County is 22.6 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

0.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 2.9% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Oswego County, NY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Oswego County, NY is typical in size for this group, 117,951 residents against a local median of 115,039, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. The measure that sets Oswego County, NY apart most is one-way commute: 22.6 min, 25% above the local median of 18.1 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 8.3% against a local median of 10.4%, 20% below it. The counties themselves spread 4.7 min on one-way commute, so Oswego County, NY sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Oswego County, NY has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Oswego County, NY 117,951 22.6 min #6/6 8.3% #4/6 7:16 AM #1/6
Onondaga County, NY 470,361 18.1 min 13.1% 7:48 AM
Jefferson County, NY 115,039 16.7 min 7.7% 7:17 AM
Cayuga County, NY 75,102 18.6 min 7.7% 7:29 AM
Madison County, NY 67,325 21.5 min 10.4% 7:35 AM
Oneida County, NY 229,092 17.1 min 10.8% 7:45 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Oswego County, New York.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Oswego County, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 189 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,845 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical New York commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Oswego County, New York?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Oswego County, New York. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Oswego County, New York?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.6% 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).