Albemarle County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Albemarle County, Virginia: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:22 PM

Is the commute in Albemarle County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:22 PM

Commute Time Burden in Albemarle County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Albemarle 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 11% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 2.6 minutes.

Albemarle County holds about 1.3% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 1.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Albemarle County would save about 69 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,125 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)
Albemarle County	20.6 min	41.1 min	171 hrs/yr	$5,312	962
Virginia	23.2 min	46.3 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,986	1,531
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: Virginia Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Virginia

Lexington city (10.6 min)
Covington city (12.2 min)
Norton city (13.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Virginia

Amelia County (43.7 min)
Craig County (41.3 min)
Buckingham County (41.3 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Albemarle County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.6 minutes to get to work in Albemarle County. That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 73% of counties in Virginia

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 21.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Albemarle County

Commute Mode Trends in Albemarle County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Albemarle 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	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	88.1%	6.6%	2.0%	2.3%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	87.4%	7.1%	1.7%	2.5%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	86.9%	7.3%	2.3%	2.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	86.7%	7.3%	2.6%	2.2%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	86.8%	7.4%	2.6%	1.9%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	86.4%	7.3%	3.2%	1.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	85.6%	7.2%	3.8%	2.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	85.6%	7.3%	3.4%	2.0%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	85.4%	7.6%	3.4%	1.8%	0.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	85.4%	7.5%	3.1%	2.3%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	84.6%	8.5%	2.5%	2.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	81.8%	11.8%	2.4%	2.3%	0.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	78.6%	15.5%	2.6%	1.9%	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	75.9%	18.0%	2.5%	2.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	73.9%	20.2%	2.6%	1.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	72.7%	21.7%	2.8%	1.2%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 88.1% in 2009 to 72.7% in 2024, down 15.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Albemarle County: its share of workers rose from 6.6% in 2009 to 21.7% in 2024, up 15.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 3.8% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 2.8%.

Commute Start Times in Albemarle County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Albemarle County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		15.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		9.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.7%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.4%

Albemarle County Virginia Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Albemarle County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 7.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Virginia: 52.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.0%) 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 Albemarle 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 Albemarle 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 Albemarle County next to Virginia 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	Albemarle County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:55 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:58 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:58 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:59 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:55 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:55 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:58 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:59 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:03 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:05 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:02 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:01 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Albemarle County were on the road by 8:01 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:53 AM). The shift is sharper than across Virginia, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in Albemarle County now leave 23 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 Albemarle County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Albemarle County's commute time compare?

Metric	Albemarle County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.6 min	23.2 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	21.7%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.8%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Albemarle County is 20.6 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

1.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 2.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Albemarle County, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Albemarle County, VA is the largest of the 4 counties compared here, 114,898 residents against a local median of 21,143. Albemarle County, VA's one-way commute, at 20.6 min, runs 34% below the 31.3 min typical of the counties around it. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 21.7% against a local median of 17.5%, 24% above it. The counties themselves sit within 1.9 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Albemarle County, VA, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Albemarle County, VA has the lowest one-way commute of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Albemarle County, VA	114,898	20.6 min #1/4	21.7% #1/4	8:01 AM #4/4
Greene County, VA	21,143	30.0 min	17.5%	7:25 AM
Fluvanna County, VA	28,092	31.9 min	16.5%	7:28 AM
Nelson County, VA	14,732	31.3 min	19.1%	7:23 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Albemarle County, Virginia.

Is living in Albemarle County, Virginia good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 171 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,312 at a typical national wage. That's 11% less than the typical Virginia commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Albemarle County, Virginia?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Albemarle County, Virginia. 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.

How do commute times compare across counties in Virginia?

Among counties in Virginia, the shortest average commutes are in Lexington city (10.6 min), Covington city (12.2 min), Norton city (13.1 min). The longest are in Amelia County (43.7 min), Craig County (41.3 min), Buckingham County (41.3 min).