Burlington Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Burlington: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Burlington spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Vermont average of 20.5 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

Burlington holds about 6.9% of Vermont's population but accounts for roughly 5.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Burlington would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,665 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)
Burlington	16.1 min	32.2 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,163	2,518
Vermont	20.5 min	41.0 min	171 hrs/yr	$5,295	718
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.

Burlington Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.1 minutes to get to work in Burlington. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 19.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Burlington

• Car: 53.3% unusually low
• Worked at Home: 19.0%
• Walked: 17.0% unusually high
• Public Transportation: 5.3% unusually high
• Bicycle: 4.9% unusually high
• Other: 0.4%
• Motorcycle: 0.2%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Driving is 30% less common in Burlington than the Vermont average (53.3% vs 76.2%).

Walking is unusually common in Burlington: 3.8 times more than the Vermont average (17.0% vs 4.4%).

Public transit is unusually common in Burlington: 6.4 times more than the Vermont average (5.3% vs 0.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Burlington, versus 0.0% in Vermont.

Biking is unusually common in Burlington: 6.7 times more than the Vermont average (4.9% vs 0.7%).

Burlington stands out for active commuting: 21.9% of workers walk or bike to work, 4.2 times the Vermont average of 5.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Burlington, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Burlington 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	67.3%	3.7%	20.1%	4.3%	3.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	66.0%	4.3%	20.6%	4.6%	3.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	65.4%	4.5%	19.4%	5.1%	4.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2012	64.0%	4.7%	20.4%	5.1%	5.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%
2013	63.0%	5.6%	19.5%	5.2%	5.7%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2014	62.0%	5.5%	20.7%	5.2%	5.9%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2015	61.6%	5.5%	21.0%	5.3%	5.7%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	61.2%	5.3%	21.8%	5.3%	5.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	61.0%	5.7%	21.6%	5.5%	5.1%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	61.1%	5.1%	22.3%	5.5%	5.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	60.6%	5.1%	22.3%	5.3%	5.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.3%
2020	58.5%	9.0%	20.0%	5.7%	6.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	56.4%	12.8%	19.5%	4.9%	5.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	57.6%	14.0%	17.4%	4.7%	5.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	55.8%	16.7%	16.2%	5.3%	5.2%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	53.3%	19.0%	17.0%	5.3%	4.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 67.3% in 2009 to 53.3% in 2024, down 14.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Burlington: its share of workers rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 19.0% in 2024, up 15.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 13.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 20.1% to 17.0% of workers (down 3.1 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Biking peaked at 6.2% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 4.9%.

Commute Start Times in Burlington

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Burlington?

The bars show when commuters in Burlington 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 Vermont for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Burlington1.2% Vermont3.9%	1.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Burlington1.7% Vermont2.7%	1.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Burlington1.8% Vermont4.3%	1.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Burlington3.3% Vermont8.0%	3.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Burlington6.7% Vermont10.9%	6.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Burlington10.3% Vermont16.4%	10.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Burlington14.6% Vermont15.5%	14.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Burlington13.1% Vermont11.8%	13.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Burlington10.3% Vermont5.6%	10.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Burlington10.2% Vermont5.7%	10.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Burlington5.1% Vermont2.7%	5.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Burlington2.0% Vermont1.4%	2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Burlington12.0% Vermont6.3%	12.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Burlington7.8% Vermont4.8%	7.8%

Burlington Vermont Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Burlington is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.5% across Vermont. Early starts are less common than in Vermont: 4.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Vermont: 44.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 54.7% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (37.1%) 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 Burlington, 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 Burlington 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 Burlington next to Vermont 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.

• Burlington
• Vermont
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Burlington	Vermont	United States
2009	8:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:18 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:22 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:23 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Burlington were on the road by 8:24 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (8:18 AM). The shift is sharper than across Vermont, where the typical start moved 2 minutes later. Commuters in Burlington now leave 46 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 Burlington has moved 3 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Burlington in the whole series.

How does Burlington's commute time compare?

Metric	Burlington	Vermont	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.1 min	20.5 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	19.0%	16.9%	15.0%
Walked	17.0%	4.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	5.3%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Burlington is 16.1 minutes, shorter than the 20.5 minutes in Vermont.

5.3% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.8% in Vermont. 17.0% commute by walking, higher than the 4.4% in Vermont.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau