Portsmouth Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Portsmouth, 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, 3:49 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 3:49 PM

Commute Time Burden in Portsmouth: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Portsmouth spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 181 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 1.4 minutes.

Portsmouth holds about 1.1% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 1.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Portsmouth would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,247 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)
Portsmouth	21.7 min	43.5 min	181 hrs/yr	$5,618	2,483
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.

Portsmouth Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.7 minutes to get to work in Portsmouth. That's 3% shorter 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 8.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Portsmouth

Commute Mode Trends in Portsmouth, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Portsmouth 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	88.2%	5.8%	3.4%	0.4%	1.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	88.4%	5.2%	3.3%	0.7%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	86.5%	7.1%	3.0%	0.8%	2.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	86.7%	5.3%	3.8%	0.8%	2.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	89.0%	3.9%	3.4%	1.0%	2.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	89.7%	2.9%	3.3%	1.1%	2.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	90.0%	2.2%	3.7%	1.1%	2.2%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2016	89.1%	2.4%	4.0%	1.0%	2.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	90.1%	2.1%	3.7%	1.3%	2.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	89.7%	2.4%	3.8%	1.4%	1.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	89.8%	2.7%	3.4%	1.5%	1.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	88.3%	3.2%	3.1%	2.6%	2.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	87.2%	5.1%	2.9%	2.4%	1.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	85.7%	6.6%	3.0%	2.4%	1.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2023	85.0%	7.9%	3.1%	2.0%	1.3%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	83.4%	8.7%	3.2%	2.3%	1.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 90.1%. Overall it fell from 88.2% in 2009 to 83.4% in 2024, down 4.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Portsmouth: its share of workers rose from 5.8% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2024, up 2.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 2.7% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 1.6%.

Commute Start Times in Portsmouth

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Portsmouth?

The bars show when commuters in Portsmouth 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		6.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		8.8%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		13.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		9.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Portsmouth is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.2% across Virginia. Early starts are more common than in Virginia: 19.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Virginia: 43.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.9%) 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 Portsmouth, 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 Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth 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	Portsmouth	Virginia	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:19 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	7:13 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:11 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:12 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:16 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:18 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Portsmouth were on the road by 7:18 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). That goes against the trend across Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Portsmouth now leave 20 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 Portsmouth has moved 7 minutes later.

How does Portsmouth's commute time compare?

Metric	Portsmouth	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.7 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	8.7%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	3.2%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.6%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Portsmouth is 21.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 3.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Portsmouth, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

Portsmouth, VA is the smallest of the 4 cities compared here, 97,157 residents against a local median of 233,287. Portsmouth, VA's work from home, at 8.7%, runs 16% below the 10.4% typical of the cities around it.

The cities themselves spread 2.9% on work from home, so Portsmouth, VA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Portsmouth, VA has the 4th highest work from home of the 4 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Portsmouth, VA	97,157	21.7 min #3/4	8.7% #4/4	7:18 AM #1/4
Norfolk, VA	233,287	20.9 min	10.2%	7:29 AM
Chesapeake, VA	252,549	23.6 min	13.1%	7:23 AM
Hampton, VA	137,557	18.5 min	10.4%	7:31 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Portsmouth, Virginia.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 181 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,618 at a typical national wage. That's 6% less than the typical Virginia commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Portsmouth, 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.