Valley Stream Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Valley Stream, 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, 4:11 PM

Is the commute in Valley Stream longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:11 PM

Commute Time Burden in Valley Stream: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Valley Stream spend about 71 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 294 hours, about 12.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% more time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 6.6 minutes.

Valley Stream holds about 0.2% of New York's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Valley Stream would save about 118 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,646 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)
Valley Stream	35.3 min	70.6 min	294 hrs/yr	$9,115	3,581
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.

Valley Stream Commute Map

On average, it takes 35.3 minutes to get to work in Valley Stream. That's 57% longer 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 public transit. About 12.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Valley Stream

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Valley Stream: 3.9 times more than the New York average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Valley Stream, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Valley Stream 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	73.6%	19.9%	1.6%	3.2%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	75.1%	18.3%	1.5%	3.1%	1.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	77.5%	16.3%	1.3%	3.0%	1.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	78.7%	15.7%	1.2%	2.8%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	78.8%	16.9%	0.7%	2.2%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	76.2%	19.0%	1.1%	2.0%	0.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	74.0%	21.2%	1.6%	2.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	70.0%	24.6%	2.1%	2.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	70.0%	24.9%	2.2%	1.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	71.2%	23.2%	3.1%	1.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	70.5%	23.3%	3.1%	1.7%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	69.1%	20.9%	5.8%	2.7%	0.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	65.5%	20.9%	9.3%	2.5%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	62.8%	21.2%	10.9%	2.9%	1.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	63.0%	20.5%	11.2%	2.7%	1.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	62.9%	19.7%	12.4%	2.7%	0.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.3%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2013 at 78.8% and lowest in 2022 at 62.8%. Overall it fell from 73.6% in 2009 to 62.9% in 2024, down 10.7 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Valley Stream: its share of workers rose from 1.6% in 2009 to 12.4% in 2024, up 10.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.2% to 2.7% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 24.9% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 19.7%.

Commute Start Times in Valley Stream

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Valley Stream?

The bars show when commuters in Valley Stream 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		4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		16.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		8.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Valley Stream is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.9% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 15.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush looks much like New York's: 46.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.9%) 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 Valley Stream, 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 Valley Stream 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 Valley Stream 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	Valley Stream	New York	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:43 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:38 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:38 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:38 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:42 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:42 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:46 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:37 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:39 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Valley Stream were on the road by 7:39 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). That goes against the trend across New York, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Valley Stream now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Valley Stream has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Valley Stream's commute time compare?

Metric	Valley Stream	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	35.3 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	12.4%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.7%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	19.7%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Valley Stream is 35.3 minutes, longer than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

19.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 2.7% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Valley Stream, NY Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Valley Stream, NY compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Valley Stream, NY	40,315	35.3 min #2/2	12.4% #2/2	7:38 AM #1/2
Lynbrook, NY	20,100	30.2 min	17.0%	8:04 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Valley Stream, New York.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Valley Stream, New York?

Commuters here spend an estimated 294 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $9,115 at a typical national wage. That's 23% more than the typical New York commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Valley Stream, New York?

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