Commuting in Washington County, Virginia: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:18 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Washington County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:18 PM
Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Washington County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 172 hours, about 7.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% less time on the road than the Virginia average of 23.2 minutes each way, a difference of 2.5 minutes.
Washington County holds about 0.6% of Virginia's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 69 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,137 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)
Washington County
20.7 min
41.4 min
172 hrs/yr
$5,342
778
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.
On average, it takes
20.7
minutes to get to work in
Washington County.
That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 70% of counties in Virginia
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 8.5% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Washington County
Car:
89.4%
Worked at Home:
8.5%
Walked:
1.4%
Other:
0.4%
Motorcycle:
0.1%
Bicycle:
0.1%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Washington County: 34.0 times less than the Virginia average (0.1% vs 2.3%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Washington County, versus 0.2% in Virginia.
Commute Mode Trends in Washington County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Washington 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.
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
93.8%
3.0%
2.3%
0.4%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
93.7%
3.1%
2.5%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
94.4%
3.2%
1.8%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2012
94.3%
3.2%
1.7%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2013
94.3%
3.1%
1.7%
0.6%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014
93.4%
3.7%
2.1%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2015
93.0%
4.2%
1.8%
0.6%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2016
92.3%
4.4%
1.7%
1.0%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2017
92.2%
4.9%
1.5%
1.1%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2018
92.7%
4.1%
1.8%
0.9%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2019
93.7%
3.6%
1.4%
0.9%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2020
93.2%
4.2%
1.5%
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2021
92.3%
5.6%
1.4%
0.5%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2022
91.8%
5.9%
1.8%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2023
90.3%
7.5%
1.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
89.4%
8.5%
1.4%
0.4%
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 2011 at 94.4%. Overall it fell from 93.8% in 2009 to 89.4% in 2024, down 4.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 8.5% in 2024, up 5.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 1.4% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Washington County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Washington County?
The bars show when commuters in Washington 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 AMWashington County5.8%Virginia5.0%
5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMWashington County4.2%Virginia4.0%
4.2%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMWashington County4.2%Virginia5.0%
4.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMWashington County8.1%Virginia8.7%
8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMWashington County9.1%Virginia9.2%
9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMWashington County14.6%Virginia14.2%
14.6%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMWashington County16.0%Virginia12.1%
16.0%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMWashington County10.9%Virginia12.1%
10.9%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMWashington County4.4%Virginia6.4%
4.4%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMWashington County4.9%Virginia7.2%
4.9%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMWashington County2.6%Virginia3.0%
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMWashington County0.6%Virginia1.4%
0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMWashington County7.9%Virginia6.0%
7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMWashington County6.7%Virginia5.7%
6.7%
Washington CountyVirginiaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Washington County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Virginia. Early starts are about as common as in Virginia: 14.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Virginia: 50.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.6%) 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 Washington 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Washington County
Virginia
United States
2009
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:41 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:41 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:42 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:40 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:37 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:37 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:39 AM). That goes against the trend across Virginia, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes later than in 2009. Commuters in Washington County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Washington County has moved 5 minutes earlier.
How does Washington County's commute time compare?
Metric
Washington County
Virginia
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
20.7 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
8.5%
18.3%
15.0%
Walked
1.4%
2.1%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
2.3%
3.2%
The average commute time in Washington County is 20.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.2 minutes in Virginia.
0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 2.3% in Virginia. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.1% in Virginia.
Washington County, VA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Washington County, VA is the 2nd largest of the 5 counties compared here, 53,901 residents against a local median of 27,452. There is no headline here. Every measure below sits within 15% of the median across the nearest counties, which makes Washington County, VA an unremarkable member of its own neighbourhood rather than an outlier in it.
The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 10% above the local median at 20.7 min against 18.8 min. Washington County, VA has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 5 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Washington County, Virginia.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Washington County, Virginia?
Commuters here spend an estimated 172 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,342 at a typical national wage. That's 11% less than the typical Virginia commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Washington County, Virginia?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Washington County, 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.
Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Washington County, 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.
How do commute times compare across counties in Virginia?
Among counties in Virginia, the shortest average commutes are in Lexington city (10.6 min), Covington city (12.2 min), Norton city (13.1 min). The longest are in Amelia County (43.7 min), Craig County (41.3 min), Buckingham County (41.3 min).