McLean Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in McLean, 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, 4:27 PM

Is the commute in McLean longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:27 PM

Commute Time Burden in McLean: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in McLean spend about 55 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 230 hours, about 9.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% more time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

McLean holds about 0.6% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in McLean would save about 92 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,849 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)
McLean	27.6 min	55.1 min	230 hrs/yr	$7,123	2,731
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.

McLean Commute Map

On average, it takes 27.6 minutes to get to work in McLean. That's 23% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 38.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in McLean

Driving is 27% less common in McLean than the Virginia average (55.4% vs 75.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in McLean, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in McLean 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	Other	Walked	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	82.9%	8.2%	6.1%	0.6%	1.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	81.1%	9.8%	6.4%	0.4%	1.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%
2011	80.7%	10.0%	6.4%	0.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	79.0%	11.1%	6.7%	0.5%	1.3%	0.8%	0.2%	0.3%
2013	79.3%	10.2%	7.2%	0.6%	1.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2014	78.6%	11.1%	7.0%	0.7%	1.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	79.2%	10.3%	6.9%	1.0%	1.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	80.1%	9.6%	6.6%	1.1%	1.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	79.7%	9.8%	6.9%	1.0%	1.5%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%
2018	79.1%	10.9%	6.5%	0.8%	1.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	78.1%	10.9%	7.4%	0.8%	1.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%
2020	72.7%	17.4%	6.6%	0.9%	1.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	64.8%	26.3%	5.8%	1.0%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	60.8%	31.5%	4.8%	1.2%	1.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	58.2%	34.7%	4.2%	1.2%	1.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	55.4%	38.0%	3.6%	1.4%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 82.9% in 2009 to 55.4% in 2024, down 27.5 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in McLean: its share of workers rose from 8.2% in 2009 to 38.0% in 2024, up 29.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 27.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 6.1% to 3.6% of workers (down 2.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in McLean

What Time Do People Leave for Work in McLean?

The bars show when commuters in McLean 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		1.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		0.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		1.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		4.9%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		22.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		12.6%
9:00-9:59 AM		14.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		2.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in McLean is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 22.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 2.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Virginia: 53.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.3%) 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 McLean, 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 McLean 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 McLean 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	McLean	Virginia	United States
2009	8:07 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:02 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:05 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:06 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:05 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:02 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:03 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:10 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:15 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:16 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:15 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in McLean were on the road by 8:15 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (8:07 AM). The shift is sharper than across Virginia, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in McLean now leave 37 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 McLean has moved 11 minutes later.

How does McLean's commute time compare?

Metric	McLean	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	27.6 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	09:00 AM – 09:59 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	38.0%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.6%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in McLean is 27.6 minutes, longer than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

3.6% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.3% in Virginia. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

McLean, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How McLean, VA compares with the 1 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
McLean, VA	50,555	27.6 min #2/2	38.0% #1/2	8:15 AM #1/2
Tysons, VA	24,552	25.4 min	34.5%	8:26 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in McLean, Virginia.

Is commuting expensive in McLean, Virginia?

Commuters here spend an estimated 230 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,123 at a typical national wage. That's 19% more than the typical Virginia commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in McLean, Virginia?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in McLean, Virginia. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 09:00 AM – 09:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is McLean, Virginia a good location for remote and hybrid workers?

About 38.0% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in McLean would save about 92 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,849 at the same national wage assumption used above.