West Islip Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in West Islip: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in West Islip spend about 47 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 195 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the New York average of 28.7 minutes each way, a difference of 5.3 minutes.

West Islip 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 Islip would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,419 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 Islip	23.4 min	46.8 min	195 hrs/yr	$6,049	2,986
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 Islip Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.4 minutes to get to work in West Islip. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in West Islip

• Car: 81.0% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 12.9%
• Public Transportation: 4.6% unusually low
• Other: 0.7%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Walked: 0.2% unusually low
• Taxi: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 47% more common in West Islip than the New York average (81.0% vs 55.0%).

Walking is unusually rare in West Islip: 27.9 times less than the New York average (0.2% vs 5.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in West Islip: 4.7 times less than the New York average (4.6% vs 21.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in West Islip: 5.8 times less than the New York average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Few people walk or bike to work in West Islip: just 0.7%, 9.7 times below the New York average of 6.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in West Islip, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in West Islip 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
• Other
• Bicycle
• Walked
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Walked	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	87.4%	4.1%	7.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	87.3%	4.4%	7.1%	0.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	87.8%	3.9%	7.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	88.2%	4.1%	6.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	89.1%	4.5%	5.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	87.6%	4.4%	6.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	87.5%	3.9%	7.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	87.6%	3.7%	6.8%	0.4%	0.0%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	87.8%	3.1%	7.3%	0.5%	0.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	87.2%	3.4%	7.7%	0.4%	0.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	88.2%	3.3%	7.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	86.1%	6.1%	6.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	82.8%	9.7%	6.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	80.9%	11.4%	6.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	80.9%	12.3%	5.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	81.0%	12.9%	4.6%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2013 at 89.1% and lowest in 2022 at 80.9%. Overall it fell from 87.4% in 2009 to 81.0% in 2024, down 6.4 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in West Islip: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 12.9% in 2024, up 8.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.2% to 4.6% of workers (down 2.6 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 West Islip

What Time Do People Leave for Work in West Islip?

The bars show when commuters in West Islip 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 Islip5.0% New York3.9%	5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM West Islip3.9% New York2.9%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM West Islip3.6% New York3.7%	3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM West Islip6.1% New York7.5%	6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM West Islip11.0% New York8.1%	11.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM West Islip10.5% New York13.9%	10.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM West Islip10.0% New York11.1%	10.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM West Islip15.3% New York14.0%	15.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM West Islip8.4% New York7.7%	8.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM West Islip6.9% New York9.5%	6.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM West Islip2.5% New York3.7%	2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM West Islip2.3% New York1.7%	2.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM West Islip6.4% New York6.9%	6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM West Islip8.0% New York5.3%	8.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in West Islip is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.0% across New York. Early starts are more common than in New York: 12.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.6% there. The morning rush looks much like New York's: 46.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.2%) 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 Islip, 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 Islip 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 Islip 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 Islip
• New York
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	West Islip	New York	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:54 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:45 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:46 AM	7:54 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:51 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	7:53 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:52 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:47 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:47 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:47 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:50 AM	7:55 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:56 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:00 AM	7:57 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in West Islip were on the road by 8:00 AM, 19 minutes later than in 2009 (7:40 AM). The shift is sharper than across New York, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in West Islip now leave 22 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in West Islip has moved 12 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for West Islip in the whole series.

How does West Islip's commute time compare?

Metric	West Islip	New York	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.4 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.9%	15.0%	15.0%
Walked	0.2%	5.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	4.6%	21.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in West Islip is 23.4 minutes, shorter than the 28.7 minutes in New York.

4.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 21.7% in New York. 0.2% commute by walking, lower than the 5.6% in New York.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau