Montgomery County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Montgomery County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Montgomery County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 133 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 31% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 7.2 minutes.

Montgomery County holds about 1.1% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Montgomery County would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,654 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)
Montgomery County	16.0 min	32.0 min	133 hrs/yr	$4,136	1,180
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 16.0 minutes to get to work in Montgomery County. That's 29% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 91% of counties in Virginia

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 14.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Montgomery County

• Car: 74.5%
• Worked at Home: 14.0%
• Walked: 5.7%
• Public Transportation: 3.0%
• Bicycle: 1.6% unusually high
• Other: 1.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Montgomery County: 8.5 times less than the Virginia average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually common in Montgomery County: 5.5 times more than the Virginia average (1.6% vs 0.3%).

Montgomery County stands out for active commuting: 7.3% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.1 times the Virginia average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Montgomery County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Montgomery 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Other
• Motorcycle
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	85.7%	5.4%	4.7%	2.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	85.6%	5.5%	4.4%	2.9%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	84.8%	6.0%	4.4%	3.1%	1.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	83.8%	5.7%	4.5%	4.0%	1.3%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	84.0%	5.5%	4.3%	3.9%	1.2%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	84.0%	4.8%	4.6%	4.3%	1.2%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	83.6%	4.3%	4.3%	5.2%	1.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	84.1%	3.4%	5.0%	5.0%	1.3%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	83.7%	4.1%	4.8%	4.9%	1.5%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	83.7%	4.4%	5.1%	4.8%	1.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	83.8%	4.6%	5.4%	4.3%	1.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	83.6%	6.2%	5.8%	2.7%	0.9%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	81.6%	9.2%	4.4%	2.9%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	79.6%	10.1%	4.5%	3.3%	1.1%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	76.7%	12.4%	5.1%	3.3%	1.2%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	74.5%	14.0%	5.7%	3.0%	1.6%	1.2%	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 85.7% in 2009 to 74.5% in 2024, down 11.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Montgomery County: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 14.0% in 2024, up 8.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 5.2% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 3.0%.

Commute Start Times in Montgomery County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Montgomery County?

The bars show when commuters in Montgomery 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	12:00-4:59 AM Montgomery County2.8% Virginia5.0%	2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Montgomery County1.9% Virginia4.0%	1.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Montgomery County3.2% Virginia5.0%	3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Montgomery County4.9% Virginia8.7%	4.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Montgomery County6.2% Virginia9.2%	6.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Montgomery County12.3% Virginia14.2%	12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Montgomery County14.6% Virginia12.1%	14.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Montgomery County12.9% Virginia12.1%	12.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Montgomery County11.8% Virginia6.4%	11.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Montgomery County8.5% Virginia7.2%	8.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Montgomery County3.6% Virginia3.0%	3.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Montgomery County1.4% Virginia1.4%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Montgomery County8.8% Virginia6.0%	8.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Montgomery County7.1% Virginia5.7%	7.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Montgomery County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 7.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Virginia's: 45.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (29.5%) 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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery 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.

• Montgomery County
• Virginia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Montgomery County	Virginia	United States
2009	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:01 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:02 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:02 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:02 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:03 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:06 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:07 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:09 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:10 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:09 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:11 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:09 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:10 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Montgomery County were on the road by 8:10 AM, 9 minutes later than in 2009 (8:01 AM). The shift is sharper than across Virginia, where the typical start moved 3 minutes later. Commuters in Montgomery County now leave 32 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Montgomery County's commute time compare?

Metric	Montgomery County	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.0 min	23.2 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	14.0%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	5.7%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	3.0%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Montgomery County is 16.0 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

3.0% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.3% in Virginia. 5.7% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau