James City County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in James City 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, 7:54 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in James City County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:54 PM

Commute Time Burden in James City County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in James City County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 178 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

James City County holds about 0.9% of Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in James City County would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,205 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)
James City County	21.3 min	42.7 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,512	1,395
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

James City County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.3 minutes to get to work in James City County. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in James City County

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in James City County, versus 0.1% in Virginia.

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in James City County: 39.9 times less than the Virginia average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in James City County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in James City 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.1%	5.6%	1.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	91.4%	5.4%	1.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	91.3%	5.6%	1.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	91.5%	5.4%	1.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	91.2%	5.5%	0.9%	1.1%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	91.2%	5.4%	0.7%	1.0%	0.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	90.7%	5.7%	0.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	90.8%	6.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	90.5%	6.3%	0.8%	1.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	90.7%	6.4%	0.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	90.7%	6.8%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	88.4%	9.3%	0.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	85.1%	12.4%	0.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	83.3%	14.1%	0.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	81.8%	15.7%	0.6%	1.3%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	78.9%	17.4%	1.5%	1.2%	0.6%	0.5%	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 2012 at 91.5%. Overall it fell from 91.1% in 2009 to 78.9% in 2024, down 12.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in James City County: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 17.4% in 2024, up 11.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in James City County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in James City County?

The bars show when commuters in James City 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		4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.2%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		8.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in James City County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 11.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Virginia: 50.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.4%) 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 James City 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 James City 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 James City 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	James City County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:50 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:48 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:50 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:45 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:45 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:46 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:51 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in James City County were on the road by 7:51 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:43 AM). The shift is sharper than across Virginia, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in James City County now leave 13 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 James City County has moved 6 minutes later.

How does James City County's commute time compare?

Metric	James City County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.3 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	17.4%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.5%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in James City County is 21.3 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

1.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

James City County, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

James City County, VA is the largest of the 5 counties compared here, 81,013 residents against a local median of 15,863. Where James City County, VA breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 69% above the local median of 10.3% at 17.4%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 21.3 min against a local median of 32.8 min, 35% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 35% below the local median it puts James City County, VA at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 11.2% on work from home, so James City County, VA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. James City County, VA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 5 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
James City County, VA	81,013	21.3 min #1/5	17.4% #2/5	7:51 AM #5/5
Surry County, VA	6,549	40.5 min	6.7%	7:05 AM
Gloucester County, VA	39,526	32.2 min	10.9%	7:25 AM
Charles City County, VA	6,627	33.3 min	9.7%	7:06 AM
New Kent County, VA	25,099	31.4 min	17.9%	7:23 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in James City County, Virginia.

What is the financial impact of commuting in James City County, Virginia?

Commuters here spend an estimated 178 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,512 at a typical national wage. That's 8% less than the typical Virginia commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in James City County, Virginia?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in James City County, Virginia. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among 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).