Washington County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Washington County, 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, 8:40 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Washington County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washington County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 180 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% more time on the road than the Oregon average of 20.1 minutes each way, a difference of 1.4 minutes.

Washington County holds about 14.2% of Oregon's population but accounts for roughly 15.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,227 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)
Washington County	21.5 min	43.1 min	180 hrs/yr	$5,566	2,297
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.

Commute Time Map: Oregon Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Oregon

Lake County (7.7 min)
Harney County (8.6 min)
Baker County (8.9 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Oregon

Columbia County (31.7 min)
Clackamas County (23.9 min)
Polk County (22.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Washington County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.5 minutes to get to work in Washington County. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 83% of counties in Oregon

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 working from home. About 24.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Washington County

Commute Mode Trends in Washington County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Washington 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.

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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	84.2%	5.3%	5.9%	2.7%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	84.1%	5.3%	5.7%	2.9%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2011	84.2%	5.0%	5.6%	3.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2012	84.2%	5.0%	5.6%	3.2%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	84.0%	5.1%	5.8%	3.1%	0.5%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	84.1%	5.1%	6.0%	2.9%	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	83.9%	5.3%	6.3%	2.7%	0.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	83.6%	5.6%	6.5%	2.5%	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	83.3%	6.0%	6.4%	2.4%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	83.2%	6.4%	6.1%	2.5%	0.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.3%
2019	83.0%	6.6%	6.1%	2.4%	0.7%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	80.5%	10.0%	5.4%	2.5%	0.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	76.3%	14.9%	4.8%	2.4%	0.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	73.1%	18.7%	4.1%	2.4%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	70.8%	21.7%	3.6%	2.3%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	68.6%	24.4%	3.1%	2.3%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 84.2% in 2009 to 68.6% in 2024, down 15.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 10 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 5.3% in 2009 to 24.4% in 2024, up 19.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 17.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.9% to 3.1% of workers (down 2.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Washington County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Washington County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		12.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.5%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Washington County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Oregon. Early starts are less common than in Oregon: 13.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Oregon's: 47.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.3% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.9%) 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 Washington County 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	Washington County	Oregon	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 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	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:43 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:45 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:45 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across Oregon, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Washington County now leave 7 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 Washington County has moved 9 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Washington County in the whole series.

How does Washington County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washington County	Oregon	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.5 min	20.1 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	24.4%	19.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	3.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.1%	2.2%	3.2%

The average commute time in Washington County is 21.5 minutes, longer than the 20.1 minutes in Oregon.

3.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.2% in Oregon. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 3.3% in Oregon.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Washington County, OR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Washington County, OR is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 603,920 residents against a local median of 108,598. Where Washington County, OR breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 28% above the local median of 19.1% at 24.4%.

The counties themselves spread 13.8% on work from home, so Washington County, OR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Washington County, OR has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Washington County, OR	603,920	21.5 min #2/6	24.4% #2/6	7:44 AM #5/6
Columbia County, OR	53,499	31.7 min	12.2%	7:11 AM
Yamhill County, OR	108,598	21.6 min	13.9%	7:32 AM
Clark County, WA	516,710	21.7 min	19.1%	7:31 AM
Tillamook County, OR	27,495	13.5 min	19.3%	7:36 AM
Multnomah County, OR	801,042	22.1 min	26.1%	7:57 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Washington County, Oregon.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 180 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,566 at a typical national wage. That's 7% more than the typical Oregon commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Washington County, Oregon. 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.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Oregon?

Among counties in Oregon, the shortest average commutes are in Lake County (7.7 min), Harney County (8.6 min), Baker County (8.9 min). The longest are in Columbia County (31.7 min), Clackamas County (23.9 min), Polk County (22.2 min).