Suffolk County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Suffolk County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Suffolk County spend about 51 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 213 hours, about 8.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 3.2 minutes.

Suffolk County holds about 7.3% of New York's population but accounts for roughly 6.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Suffolk County would save about 85 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,639 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)
Suffolk County	25.5 min	51.1 min	213 hrs/yr	$6,596	2,434
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 25.5 minutes to get to work in Suffolk County. That's 14% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 85% of counties in New York

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Suffolk County

• Car: 79.5% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 12.5%
• Public Transportation: 4.8% unusually low
• Walked: 1.4% unusually low
• Other: 1.1%
• Taxi: 0.4%
• Bicycle: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%

Driving is 45% more common in Suffolk County than the New York average (79.5% vs 55.0%).

Walking is unusually rare in Suffolk County: 4.0 times less than the New York average (1.4% vs 5.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Suffolk County: 4.5 times less than the New York average (4.8% vs 21.7%).

Biking is unusually rare in Suffolk County: 3.7 times less than the New York average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Suffolk County: just 1.6%, 4.0 times below the New York average of 6.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in Suffolk County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Suffolk 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Public Transportation
• Walked
• Other
• Taxi
• Bicycle
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	87.9%	3.5%	6.1%	1.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	88.0%	3.5%	6.0%	1.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	87.7%	3.5%	6.1%	1.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	87.5%	3.6%	6.2%	1.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	87.5%	3.6%	6.2%	1.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	87.2%	3.6%	6.4%	1.5%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	87.2%	3.5%	6.5%	1.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	87.3%	3.6%	6.5%	1.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	87.4%	3.6%	6.4%	1.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	87.3%	3.7%	6.4%	1.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	87.4%	3.8%	6.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	85.8%	5.5%	6.1%	1.2%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	83.9%	7.7%	5.6%	1.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	82.3%	9.4%	5.3%	1.3%	0.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	80.8%	11.1%	5.2%	1.3%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	79.5%	12.5%	4.8%	1.4%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 88.0%. Overall it fell from 87.9% in 2009 to 79.5% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Suffolk County: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 12.5% in 2024, up 9.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 6.1% to 4.8% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Suffolk County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Suffolk County?

The bars show when commuters in Suffolk 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 AM Suffolk County4.4% New York3.9%	4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Suffolk County3.7% New York2.9%	3.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Suffolk County3.9% New York3.7%	3.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Suffolk County8.8% New York7.5%	8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Suffolk County9.1% New York8.1%	9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Suffolk County13.4% New York13.9%	13.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Suffolk County10.4% New York11.1%	10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Suffolk County13.6% New York14.0%	13.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Suffolk County8.2% New York7.7%	8.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Suffolk County8.5% New York9.5%	8.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Suffolk County3.5% New York3.7%	3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Suffolk County1.5% New York1.7%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Suffolk County5.9% New York6.9%	5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Suffolk County5.1% New York5.3%	5.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Suffolk County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 12.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush looks much like New York's: 46.5% 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 Suffolk 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 Suffolk 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 Suffolk 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.

• Suffolk County
• New York
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Suffolk County	New York	United States
2009	7:50 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:49 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:50 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:50 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:50 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:48 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:48 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:51 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:52 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:52 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Suffolk County were on the road by 7:49 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across New York, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Suffolk County now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Suffolk County's commute time compare?

Metric	Suffolk County	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	25.5 min	28.7 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.5%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.8%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Suffolk County is 25.5 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

4.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau