Commuting in Dorchester County, South Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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What does a typical morning commute look like in Dorchester County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:01 PM
Commute Time Burden in Dorchester County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Dorchester County spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 252 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 36% more time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 8.0 minutes.
Dorchester County holds about 3.1% of South Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 4.3% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Dorchester County would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,127 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)
Dorchester County
30.3 min
60.5 min
252 hrs/yr
$7,817
2,401
South Carolina
22.3 min
44.5 min
186 hrs/yr
$5,753
1,499
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.
On average, it takes
30.3
minutes to get to work in
Dorchester County.
That's 35% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 87% of counties in South Carolina
The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.2% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Dorchester County
Car:
86.0%
Worked at Home:
11.2%
Other:
1.2%
Walked:
0.8%
Bicycle:
0.3%
Public Transportation:
0.2%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Dorchester County: 6.4 times less than the South Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Dorchester County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Dorchester 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
Other
Walked
Bicycle
Public Transportation
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
94.0%
3.7%
0.5%
1.0%
0.2%
0.3%
0.3%
0.1%
2010
93.7%
3.8%
0.4%
1.1%
0.3%
0.2%
0.3%
0.1%
2011
94.2%
4.0%
0.3%
0.8%
0.3%
0.1%
0.3%
0.0%
2012
93.8%
3.8%
0.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.2%
0.2%
0.0%
2013
93.5%
4.0%
0.5%
1.0%
0.3%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
2014
93.5%
3.9%
0.6%
1.1%
0.3%
0.5%
0.2%
0.0%
2015
93.5%
3.8%
0.7%
0.9%
0.2%
0.6%
0.2%
0.0%
2016
93.7%
3.7%
0.6%
1.0%
0.2%
0.6%
0.2%
0.0%
2017
93.3%
4.2%
0.9%
0.8%
0.1%
0.6%
0.2%
0.0%
2018
93.2%
4.2%
0.8%
0.8%
0.2%
0.4%
0.1%
0.3%
2019
93.1%
4.5%
0.8%
0.6%
0.3%
0.3%
0.1%
0.3%
2020
92.3%
5.2%
0.9%
0.6%
0.5%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
2021
90.7%
6.7%
1.2%
0.6%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2022
90.1%
7.5%
1.0%
0.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2023
88.0%
9.6%
1.2%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
0.0%
2024
86.0%
11.2%
1.2%
0.8%
0.3%
0.2%
0.2%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2011 at 94.2%. Overall it fell from 94.0% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2024, down 8.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Dorchester County: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 11.2% in 2024, up 7.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Commute Start Times in Dorchester County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dorchester County?
The bars show when commuters in Dorchester 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 South Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
Dorchester CountySouth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Dorchester County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.1% across South Carolina. Early starts are more common than in South Carolina: 19.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in South Carolina: 43.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% 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 Dorchester 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 Dorchester 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 Dorchester County next to South Carolina 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
Dorchester County
South Carolina
United States
2009
7:18 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:17 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:19 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:17 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:18 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:19 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:20 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:18 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:18 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:17 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:14 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:11 AM
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:12 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:13 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:12 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:12 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Dorchester County were on the road by 7:12 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:18 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Carolina, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Dorchester County now leave 26 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Dorchester County has moved 2 minutes earlier.
How does Dorchester County's commute time compare?
Metric
Dorchester County
South Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
30.3 min
22.3 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
06:00 AM – 06:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
06:30 AM – 06:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
11.2%
11.5%
15.0%
Walked
0.8%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.2%
0.4%
3.2%
The average commute time in Dorchester County is 30.3 minutes, longer than the 22.3 minutes in South Carolina.
0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in South Carolina.
Dorchester County, SC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Dorchester County, SC is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 166,443 residents against a local median of 83,253. Dorchester County, SC's work from home, at 11.2%, runs 68% above the 6.7% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves spread 11.4% on work from home, so Dorchester County, SC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Dorchester County, SC has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Dorchester County, South Carolina.
Is commuting expensive in Dorchester County, South Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 252 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,817 at a typical national wage. That's 36% more than the typical South Carolina commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Dorchester County, South Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM in Dorchester County, South Carolina. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How do commute times compare across counties in South Carolina?
Among counties in South Carolina, the shortest average commutes are in Greenwood County (16.5 min), Sumter County (18.2 min), Florence County (18.3 min). The longest are in McCormick County (33.9 min), Fairfield County (30.8 min), Chester County (30.6 min).