Germantown Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Germantown: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Germantown spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 179 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 15% more time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 2.8 minutes.

Germantown holds about 0.4% of Wisconsin's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Germantown would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,224 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)
Germantown	21.5 min	43.1 min	179 hrs/yr	$5,561	1,753
Wisconsin	18.8 min	37.5 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,846	811
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.

Germantown Commute Map

On average, it takes 21.5 minutes to get to work in Germantown. That's 4% 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 18.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Germantown

• Car: 79.6%
• Worked at Home: 18.9%
• Taxi: 0.6% unusually high
• Walked: 0.4% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Other: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Germantown, versus 0.1% in Wisconsin.

Walking is unusually rare in Germantown: 6.4 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.4% vs 2.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Germantown: 120.4 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.0% vs 1.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Germantown: 3.7 times more than the Wisconsin average (0.6% vs 0.2%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Germantown: just 0.7%, 4.3 times below the Wisconsin average of 3.1%.

Commute Mode Trends in Germantown, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Germantown 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
• Taxi
• Walked
• Bicycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Taxi	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle
2009	93.3%	3.6%	0.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%	0.4%
2010	94.1%	3.5%	0.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.7%	0.5%
2011	95.1%	2.9%	0.1%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.3%
2012	94.5%	3.3%	0.2%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%	0.8%	0.3%
2013	94.8%	3.1%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%	0.7%	0.3%
2014	94.9%	3.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%
2015	94.4%	3.2%	0.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%
2016	93.8%	3.3%	0.0%	1.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%
2017	95.0%	2.9%	0.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	94.5%	3.2%	0.0%	1.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	93.9%	3.7%	0.1%	1.3%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	91.5%	6.8%	0.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	88.1%	9.8%	0.3%	0.9%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	85.2%	12.9%	0.3%	0.8%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	82.0%	16.3%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	79.6%	18.9%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	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 95.1%. Overall it fell from 93.3% in 2009 to 79.6% in 2024, down 13.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Germantown: its share of workers rose from 3.6% in 2009 to 18.9% in 2024, up 15.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 15.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.6% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Germantown

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Germantown?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Germantown3.9% Wisconsin6.9%	3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Germantown2.6% Wisconsin4.7%	2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Germantown7.6% Wisconsin6.1%	7.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Germantown7.2% Wisconsin8.5%	7.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Germantown10.3% Wisconsin10.4%	10.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Germantown16.7% Wisconsin14.7%	16.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Germantown20.4% Wisconsin12.7%	20.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Germantown10.7% Wisconsin9.0%	10.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Germantown4.5% Wisconsin4.0%	4.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Germantown2.9% Wisconsin4.7%	2.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Germantown3.7% Wisconsin2.4%	3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Germantown1.0% Wisconsin1.3%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Germantown4.7% Wisconsin8.1%	4.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Germantown3.9% Wisconsin6.4%	3.9%

Germantown Wisconsin Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Germantown is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are less common than in Wisconsin: 14.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Wisconsin: 58.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.2%) 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 Germantown, 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 Germantown 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 Germantown next to Wisconsin 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.

• Germantown
• Wisconsin
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Germantown	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:26 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:27 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:25 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:23 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:24 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:27 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:35 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:33 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Germantown were on the road by 7:33 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:36 AM). Wisconsin followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Germantown now leave 5 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 Germantown has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Germantown's commute time compare?

Metric	Germantown	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.5 min	18.8 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	18.9%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	0.4%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Germantown is 21.5 minutes, longer than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 0.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau