Somerset County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Somerset County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Somerset County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 171 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

Somerset County holds about 0.6% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Somerset County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,123 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)
Somerset County	20.5 min	41.1 min	171 hrs/yr	$5,307	697
Pennsylvania	22.4 min	44.7 min	186 hrs/yr	$5,779	1,152
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: Pennsylvania Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 20.5 minutes to get to work in Somerset County. That's 8% shorter 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 working from home. About 8.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Somerset County

• Car: 88.0%
• Worked at Home: 8.5%
• Walked: 2.4%
• Other: 0.8%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%

Public transit is unusually rare in Somerset County: 31.2 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.1% vs 3.6%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Somerset County: 5.6 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Somerset County: 7.4 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Commute Mode Trends in Somerset County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Somerset 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.0%	4.5%	3.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	90.7%	4.5%	3.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	90.7%	4.8%	3.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	91.3%	4.9%	2.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	91.8%	4.8%	2.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	91.4%	4.8%	2.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	92.1%	4.6%	2.2%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	91.9%	4.4%	2.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	91.1%	4.8%	2.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	90.3%	5.4%	3.1%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	90.6%	5.4%	2.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	90.3%	6.0%	2.3%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	89.8%	6.8%	2.2%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	89.6%	7.3%	2.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	89.2%	7.5%	2.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.0%	8.5%	2.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2015 at 92.1%. Overall it fell from 91.0% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, down 3.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Somerset County: its share of workers rose from 4.5% in 2009 to 8.5% in 2024, up 4.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.5% to 2.4% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Somerset County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Somerset County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Somerset County8.2% Pennsylvania5.3%	8.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Somerset County5.4% Pennsylvania3.9%	5.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Somerset County7.5% Pennsylvania5.3%	7.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Somerset County8.2% Pennsylvania8.9%	8.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Somerset County10.9% Pennsylvania10.1%	10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Somerset County15.7% Pennsylvania13.8%	15.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Somerset County13.1% Pennsylvania11.4%	13.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Somerset County6.6% Pennsylvania10.9%	6.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Somerset County4.2% Pennsylvania5.8%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Somerset County4.2% Pennsylvania6.1%	4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Somerset County1.4% Pennsylvania2.7%	1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Somerset County0.9% Pennsylvania1.4%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Somerset County7.8% Pennsylvania7.6%	7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Somerset County5.8% Pennsylvania6.9%	5.8%

Somerset County Pennsylvania Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Somerset County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are more common than in Pennsylvania: 21.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush looks much like Pennsylvania's: 46.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.1%) 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 Somerset 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 Somerset 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 Somerset County next to Pennsylvania 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.

• Somerset County
• Pennsylvania
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Somerset County	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	7:23 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:25 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:22 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:17 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:19 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Somerset County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:23 AM). The shift is sharper than across Pennsylvania, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Somerset County now leave 19 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Somerset County's commute time compare?

Metric	Somerset County	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.5 min	22.4 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	8.5%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Somerset County is 20.5 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 2.4% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau