Salem Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Salem, 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, 4:26 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Salem?

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

Commute Time Burden in Salem: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Salem spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 143 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 6.0 minutes.

Salem holds about 0.3% of Virginia's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Salem would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,778 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)
Salem	17.2 min	34.4 min	143 hrs/yr	$4,444	2,771
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.

Salem Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.2 minutes to get to work in Salem. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Salem

Public transit is unusually rare in Salem: 17.8 times less than the Virginia average (0.1% vs 2.3%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Salem, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Salem 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	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	88.7%	5.3%	4.2%	0.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	88.6%	4.8%	4.3%	0.2%	1.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	88.2%	5.2%	4.3%	0.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	88.9%	4.4%	3.9%	0.3%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%
2013	88.5%	3.8%	5.3%	0.1%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%
2014	90.4%	3.1%	4.0%	0.1%	1.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2015	90.6%	3.2%	4.2%	0.2%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2016	90.7%	3.9%	4.3%	0.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	89.6%	4.7%	5.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	90.1%	5.4%	4.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	87.7%	6.6%	4.8%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	86.3%	6.7%	6.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	85.9%	7.2%	6.0%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	83.9%	8.5%	6.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	83.8%	9.5%	5.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	83.6%	10.8%	5.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2016 at 90.7%. Overall it fell from 88.7% in 2009 to 83.6% in 2024, down 5.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Salem: its share of workers rose from 5.3% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2024, up 5.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.7% to 0.1% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 6.6% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 5.1%.

Commute Start Times in Salem

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Salem?

The bars show when commuters in Salem 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		3.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		5.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Salem is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are less common than in Virginia: 9.6% 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 4 commuters (24.6%) 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 Salem, 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 Salem 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 Salem 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	Salem	Virginia	United States
2009	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:50 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:44 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:45 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:48 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:49 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Salem were on the road by 7:49 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:46 AM). Virginia followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes later. Commuters in Salem now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Salem's commute time compare?

Metric	Salem	Virginia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.2 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.8%	18.3%	15.0%
Walked	5.1%	2.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	2.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Salem is 17.2 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 5.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.1% in Virginia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Salem, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Cities

How Salem, VA compares with the 2 cities closest to it.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Salem, VA	25,618	17.2 min #1/3	10.8% #3/3	7:49 AM #2/3
Cave Spring, VA	23,140	17.6 min	16.1%	7:57 AM
Roanoke, VA	98,343	17.4 min	11.8%	7:45 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Salem, Virginia.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Salem, Virginia?

Commuters here spend an estimated 143 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,444 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Virginia commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Salem, Virginia?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Salem, Virginia. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Salem, Virginia?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.1% of commuters use it versus 2.3% in Virginia, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.