Bristol Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Bristol: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Bristol spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 154 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% less time on the road than the Tennessee average of 22.4 minutes each way, a difference of 3.9 minutes.

Bristol holds about 0.4% of Tennessee's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Bristol would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,913 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)
Bristol	18.5 min	37.0 min	154 hrs/yr	$4,781	1,313
Tennessee	22.4 min	44.8 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,785	1,225
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.

Bristol Commute Map

On average, it takes 18.5 minutes to get to work in Bristol. That's 17% 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 11.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Bristol

• Car: 86.6%
• Worked at Home: 11.5%
• Walked: 1.3%
• Other: 0.6%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Bristol: 5.0 times less than the Tennessee average (0.0% vs 0.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Bristol: 6.9 times less than the Tennessee average (0.1% vs 0.4%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Bristol, versus 0.1% in Tennessee.

Biking is essentially absent in Bristol, versus 0.1% in Tennessee.

Commute Mode Trends in Bristol, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Bristol 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	94.5%	2.3%	1.9%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	94.5%	1.7%	2.2%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	96.2%	1.2%	1.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	95.3%	1.6%	1.5%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	95.0%	1.9%	1.2%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	94.6%	2.4%	1.1%	1.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	94.9%	2.7%	1.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	94.6%	2.9%	0.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	94.8%	2.8%	0.8%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	94.7%	2.9%	0.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2019	93.7%	3.6%	1.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	93.7%	3.9%	0.9%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	92.4%	4.9%	1.3%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	89.6%	7.6%	1.4%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	87.8%	9.9%	1.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.6%	11.5%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	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 2011 at 96.2%. Overall it fell from 94.5% in 2009 to 86.6% in 2024, down 7.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Bristol: its share of workers rose from 2.3% in 2009 to 11.5% in 2024, up 9.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 1.3% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Bristol

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Bristol?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Bristol5.5% Tennessee5.8%	5.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Bristol3.2% Tennessee4.4%	3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Bristol7.0% Tennessee5.5%	7.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Bristol7.3% Tennessee9.9%	7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Bristol5.8% Tennessee10.1%	5.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Bristol12.0% Tennessee14.7%	12.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Bristol14.8% Tennessee11.5%	14.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Bristol10.9% Tennessee10.1%	10.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Bristol7.4% Tennessee4.5%	7.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Bristol5.6% Tennessee5.7%	5.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Bristol4.2% Tennessee2.5%	4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Bristol1.2% Tennessee1.2%	1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Bristol7.6% Tennessee6.8%	7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Bristol7.5% Tennessee7.4%	7.5%

Bristol Tennessee Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Bristol is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.5% across Tennessee. Early starts are about as common as in Tennessee: 15.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Tennessee: 43.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.4% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.2%) 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 Bristol, 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 Bristol 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 Bristol next to Tennessee 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.

• Bristol
• Tennessee
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Bristol	Tennessee	United States
2009	7:41 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:48 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:48 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:50 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:50 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:45 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:51 AM	7:29 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:49 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Bristol were on the road by 7:49 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:41 AM). Across Tennessee, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Bristol now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Bristol's commute time compare?

Metric	Bristol	Tennessee	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.5 min	22.4 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	11.5%	12.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	1.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Bristol is 18.5 minutes, shorter than the 22.4 minutes in Tennessee.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Tennessee. 1.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.2% in Tennessee.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau