Washington County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washington County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 193 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% more time on the road than the Pennsylvania average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 0.8 minutes.

Washington County holds about 1.6% of Pennsylvania's population but accounts for roughly 1.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,397 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	23.2 min	46.4 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,994	1,336
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 23.2 minutes to get to work in Washington County. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 74% of counties in Pennsylvania

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 15.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Washington County

• Car: 81.2%
• Worked at Home: 15.0%
• Walked: 1.8%
• Other: 0.9%
• Public Transportation: 0.7% unusually low
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Taxi: 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Washington County: 5.1 times less than the Pennsylvania average (0.7% vs 3.6%).

Biking is essentially absent in Washington County, versus 0.4% in Pennsylvania.

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.

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	91.8%	3.0%	3.0%	0.5%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	91.1%	3.2%	3.2%	0.6%	1.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2011	90.8%	3.4%	3.1%	0.6%	1.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	90.9%	3.5%	3.1%	0.6%	1.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	91.0%	3.8%	2.9%	0.5%	1.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	90.9%	4.2%	2.8%	0.4%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	91.1%	4.0%	2.6%	0.5%	1.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	91.1%	4.2%	2.5%	0.5%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	90.7%	4.4%	2.7%	0.4%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	90.4%	4.5%	2.9%	0.4%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	89.9%	4.9%	3.0%	0.5%	1.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	88.4%	7.1%	2.5%	0.5%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	85.4%	10.0%	2.4%	0.6%	1.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	83.6%	12.0%	2.3%	0.6%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	82.1%	13.8%	2.1%	0.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	81.2%	15.0%	1.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.1%	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 91.8% in 2009 to 81.2% in 2024, down 10.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 15.0% in 2024, up 12.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

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

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 Pennsylvania for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Washington County5.3% Pennsylvania5.3%	5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Washington County4.3% Pennsylvania3.9%	4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Washington County5.9% Pennsylvania5.3%	5.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Washington County10.2% Pennsylvania8.9%	10.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Washington County10.0% Pennsylvania10.1%	10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Washington County14.3% Pennsylvania13.8%	14.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Washington County10.0% Pennsylvania11.4%	10.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Washington County11.3% Pennsylvania10.9%	11.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Washington County4.9% Pennsylvania5.8%	4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Washington County5.1% Pennsylvania6.1%	5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Washington County2.8% Pennsylvania2.7%	2.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Washington County1.5% Pennsylvania1.4%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Washington County8.3% Pennsylvania7.6%	8.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Washington County6.0% Pennsylvania6.9%	6.0%

Washington County Pennsylvania 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 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Pennsylvania. Early starts are more common than in Pennsylvania: 15.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush looks much like Pennsylvania's: 45.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.7%) 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 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.

• Washington County
• Pennsylvania
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Washington County	Pennsylvania	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:40 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across Pennsylvania, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Washington County now leave 8 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Washington County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washington County	Pennsylvania	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.0%	15.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	3.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Washington County is 23.2 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in Pennsylvania.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.6% in Pennsylvania. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in Pennsylvania.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau