Salem Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Salem, Oregon: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:17 PM

Is the commute in Salem longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:17 PM

Commute Time Burden in Salem: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Salem spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 148 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% less time on the road than the Oregon average of 20.1 minutes each way, a difference of 2.4 minutes.

Salem holds about 3.7% of Oregon's population but accounts for roughly 3.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Salem would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,838 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)
Salem	17.8 min	35.6 min	148 hrs/yr	$4,596	2,177
Oregon	20.1 min	40.3 min	168 hrs/yr	$5,203	967
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.

Salem Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.8 minutes to get to work in Salem. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 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 Salem

Commute Mode Trends in Salem, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Salem 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	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.8%	3.8%	4.0%	3.0%	0.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2010	85.7%	4.1%	4.4%	2.9%	0.7%	1.7%	0.1%	0.4%
2011	86.8%	4.1%	4.3%	2.3%	0.8%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	86.0%	4.2%	4.6%	2.3%	0.7%	1.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	85.9%	4.0%	5.2%	2.0%	0.7%	1.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	85.5%	4.2%	5.3%	2.0%	0.7%	1.9%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	86.1%	4.1%	4.9%	2.2%	0.6%	1.7%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	85.8%	4.5%	4.6%	2.6%	0.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	86.5%	4.7%	3.8%	2.8%	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	85.9%	5.1%	3.8%	2.8%	1.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2019	86.4%	5.3%	3.3%	2.8%	0.9%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	83.8%	7.6%	3.4%	2.7%	0.8%	1.3%	0.2%	0.2%
2021	81.2%	10.2%	3.6%	2.5%	0.7%	1.2%	0.3%	0.2%
2022	79.7%	11.9%	3.6%	2.2%	0.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	78.6%	13.7%	3.1%	2.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2024	76.5%	15.6%	3.4%	1.8%	1.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 86.8% in 2009 to 76.5% in 2024, down 10.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Salem: its share of workers rose from 3.8% in 2009 to 15.6% in 2024, up 11.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.8% of workers (down 1.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 5.3% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.4%.

Commute Start Times in Salem

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Salem?

The bars show when commuters in Salem 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 Oregon for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		6.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		14.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.8%

Salem Oregon Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Salem is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Oregon. Early starts are about as common as in Oregon: 14.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Oregon: 48.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.2%) 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 Salem, 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 Salem 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 Salem next to Oregon 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	Salem	Oregon	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:40 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Salem were on the road by 7:37 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:35 AM). Oregon followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes later. Commuters in Salem 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 Salem has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Salem's commute time compare?

Metric	Salem	Oregon	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.8 min	20.1 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.6%	19.0%	15.0%
Walked	3.4%	3.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Salem is 17.8 minutes, shorter than the 20.1 minutes in Oregon.

1.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.2% in Oregon. 3.4% commute by walking, higher than the 3.3% in Oregon.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Salem, OR Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Salem, OR compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Salem, OR	158,986	17.8 min #1/2	15.6% #1/2	7:37 AM #2/2
Keizer, OR	30,546	20.6 min	15.0%	7:32 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Salem, Oregon.

Is living in Salem, Oregon good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 148 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,596 at a typical national wage. That's 12% less than the typical Oregon commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Salem, Oregon?

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