West Hempstead Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in West Hempstead: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in West Hempstead spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 262 hours, about 10.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% more time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

West Hempstead holds about 0.1% of New York's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in West Hempstead would save about 105 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,248 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)
West Hempstead	31.4 min	62.9 min	262 hrs/yr	$8,121	5,246
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.

West Hempstead Commute Map

On average, it takes 31.4 minutes to get to work in West Hempstead. That's 40% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in West Hempstead

• Car: 70.6% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 15.6%
• Public Transportation: 8.9%
• Walked: 1.9%
• Other: 1.8%
• Taxi: 0.9%
• Bicycle: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 28% more common in West Hempstead than the New York average (70.6% vs 55.0%).

Biking is unusually rare in West Hempstead: 5.9 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Few people walk or bike to work in West Hempstead: just 2.1%, 3.1 times below the New York average of 6.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in West Hempstead, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in West 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.

• 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	80.2%	3.0%	14.8%	1.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	78.1%	4.0%	15.2%	1.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	77.6%	3.6%	15.0%	2.0%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2012	76.2%	4.1%	15.3%	2.7%	1.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	77.1%	3.5%	15.5%	2.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	79.6%	3.2%	13.5%	2.1%	1.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	79.2%	4.0%	13.3%	1.9%	1.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	78.2%	3.8%	14.3%	2.4%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	80.0%	3.7%	13.2%	1.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2018	79.2%	4.4%	13.3%	1.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2019	79.6%	4.5%	13.0%	1.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2020	76.4%	7.7%	12.0%	2.4%	0.4%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	74.7%	10.1%	11.7%	1.7%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2022	72.8%	12.4%	11.1%	1.8%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2023	70.8%	14.4%	11.2%	1.7%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	70.6%	15.6%	8.9%	1.9%	1.8%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 80.2% in 2009 to 70.6% in 2024, down 9.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in West Hempstead: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 15.6% in 2024, up 12.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 14.8% to 8.9% of workers (down 5.9 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in West Hempstead

What Time Do People Leave for Work in West Hempstead?

The bars show when commuters in West 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	12:00-4:59 AM West Hempstead3.5% New York3.9%	3.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM West Hempstead4.1% New York2.9%	4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM West Hempstead4.8% New York3.7%	4.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM West Hempstead9.1% New York7.5%	9.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM West Hempstead9.1% New York8.1%	9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM West Hempstead10.1% New York13.9%	10.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM West Hempstead12.2% New York11.1%	12.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM West Hempstead15.0% New York14.0%	15.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM West Hempstead5.8% New York7.7%	5.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM West Hempstead13.8% New York9.5%	13.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM West Hempstead3.4% New York3.7%	3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM West Hempstead1.9% New York1.7%	1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM West Hempstead4.0% New York6.9%	4.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM West Hempstead3.2% New York5.3%	3.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in West Hempstead is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 12.3% 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 (26.3%) 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 West 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 West 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 West 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.

• West Hempstead
• New York
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	West 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	7:55 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:55 AM	7:55 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:54 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:56 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:58 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:56 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:59 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:54 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:51 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:51 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:44 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:53 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:53 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in West Hempstead were on the road by 7:53 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:52 AM). Across New York the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 3 minutes later. Commuters in West Hempstead now leave 15 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does West Hempstead's commute time compare?

Metric	West Hempstead	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.4 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	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.6%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	1.9%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	8.9%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in West Hempstead is 31.4 minutes, longer than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

8.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau