Reston Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Reston, 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, 1:48 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Reston?

Map AI 9/24/26, 1:48 PM

Commute Time Burden in Reston: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Reston spend about 47 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.

Reston holds about 0.7% of Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Reston would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,403 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)
Reston	23.3 min	46.5 min	194 hrs/yr	$6,008	1,786
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.

Reston Commute Map

On average, it takes 23.3 minutes to get to work in Reston. 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 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 33.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Reston

Driving is 24% less common in Reston than the Virginia average (57.6% vs 75.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Reston, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Reston 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	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.2%	5.8%	4.8%	1.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	85.5%	5.4%	5.9%	1.5%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2011	83.8%	6.1%	6.7%	2.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2012	83.3%	6.0%	6.9%	2.0%	1.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	81.9%	6.7%	7.3%	2.0%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.7%
2014	80.5%	7.7%	7.7%	2.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.5%
2015	79.9%	8.6%	7.7%	2.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%
2016	79.8%	8.6%	7.7%	2.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.4%
2017	78.6%	9.0%	8.4%	2.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%
2018	77.7%	8.9%	9.3%	2.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%
2019	77.1%	9.1%	9.6%	2.6%	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%
2020	73.4%	13.8%	8.3%	2.4%	0.7%	0.6%	0.4%	0.4%
2021	67.2%	21.4%	6.9%	2.3%	0.8%	0.6%	0.4%	0.4%
2022	63.8%	25.9%	6.2%	2.0%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2023	59.4%	30.4%	6.2%	1.8%	1.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	57.6%	33.5%	5.5%	1.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 86.2% in 2009 to 57.6% in 2024, down 28.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 15 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Reston: its share of workers rose from 5.8% in 2009 to 33.5% in 2024, up 27.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 24.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 9.6% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 5.5%.

Commute Start Times in Reston

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Reston?

The bars show when commuters in Reston 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		2.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		4.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		5.8%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		11.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		11.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Reston is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.2% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 8.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Virginia's: 47.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.9%) 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 Reston, 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 Reston 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 Reston 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	Reston	Virginia	United States
2009	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:02 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:05 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:03 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:02 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:03 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:04 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:08 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:07 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:07 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Reston were on the road by 8:07 AM, 7 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 Reston now leave 29 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 Reston has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Reston's commute time compare?

Metric	Reston	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.3 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	33.5%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.5%	2.3%	3.2%

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

5.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 2.3% in Virginia. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Reston, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

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

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Reston, VA	62,287	23.3 min #1/2	33.5% #1/2	8:07 AM #2/2
Herndon, VA	24,312	23.5 min	21.2%	7:45 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Reston, Virginia.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Reston, Virginia?

Commuters here spend an estimated 194 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,008 at a typical national wage.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Reston, Virginia?

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

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

About 33.5% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Reston would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,403 at the same national wage assumption used above.