Madison County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Madison 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, 8:05 PM

How much time do drivers in Madison County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:05 PM

Commute Time Burden in Madison County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Madison 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 194 hours, about 8.1 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way.

Madison County holds about 0.2% of Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Madison County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,400 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)
Madison County	23.2 min	46.5 min	194 hrs/yr	$6,001	372
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

Madison County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 23.2 minutes to get to work in Madison County. That's 4% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Madison County

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Madison County: 3.3 times less than the Virginia average (0.7% vs 2.3%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Madison County, versus 0.2% in Virginia.

Commute Mode Trends in Madison County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Madison 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	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	89.3%	8.2%	1.1%	1.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	92.2%	5.7%	1.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	91.3%	5.6%	1.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.8%	2.9%	1.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	93.5%	4.0%	1.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	90.9%	6.8%	1.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	90.3%	6.1%	1.9%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2016	91.1%	5.6%	1.3%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2017	90.1%	5.1%	2.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	1.6%
2018	87.7%	7.5%	1.8%	0.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	1.7%
2019	87.8%	6.5%	2.6%	0.6%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%
2020	86.3%	9.1%	1.6%	0.9%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2021	82.0%	13.6%	1.7%	0.5%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2022	80.6%	14.5%	2.5%	0.8%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	81.9%	13.4%	2.4%	1.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	83.1%	11.7%	2.2%	2.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2012 at 94.8% and lowest in 2022 at 80.6%. Overall it fell from 89.3% in 2009 to 83.1% in 2024, down 6.2 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Madison County: its share of workers rose from 8.2% in 2009 to 11.7% in 2024, up 3.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit overtook biking to become the 5th most common choice in the 2012 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 14.5% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 11.7%.

Commute Start Times in Madison County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Madison County?

The bars show when commuters in Madison 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		9.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		13.7%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Madison County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.2% across Virginia. Early starts are more common than in Virginia: 15.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Virginia: 53.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison 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	Madison County	Virginia	United States
2009	7:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:17 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:20 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:21 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:13 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:11 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:12 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:14 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:22 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Madison County were on the road by 7:25 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:26 AM). That goes against the trend across Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Madison County now leave 13 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 Madison County has moved 12 minutes later.

How does Madison County's commute time compare?

Metric	Madison County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.2 min	23.2 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.7%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Madison County is about the same as in Virginia.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 2.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Madison County, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Madison County, VA is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 14,044 residents against a local median of 23,667. The measure that sets Madison County, VA apart most is one-way commute: 23.2 min, 25% below the local median of 30.8 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 11.7% against a local median of 14.0%, 16% below it. The counties themselves spread 4.6 min on one-way commute, so Madison County, VA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Madison County, VA has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Madison County, VA	14,044	23.2 min #1/6	11.7% #4/6	7:25 AM #5/6
Greene County, VA	21,143	30.0 min	17.5%	7:25 AM
Page County, VA	23,667	30.8 min	5.8%	7:14 AM
Rappahannock County, VA	7,424	32.3 min	17.2%	7:13 AM
Orange County, VA	37,817	31.8 min	14.0%	7:11 AM
Culpeper County, VA	54,397	27.6 min	11.3%	7:15 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Madison County, Virginia.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 194 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,001 at a typical national wage.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Madison County, Virginia. 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Madison County, Virginia?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.7% of commuters use it versus 2.3% in Virginia, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

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).