Recently released Census Bureau data indicates Maryland commuters spend on average 31.5 minutes driving to work.
The state ranked second to New York’s 32.8-minute average commute in 2023, according to data extracted from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
“The number did go up in the last year,” said Chester Harvey, director of National Center for Smart Growth’s Transportation Policy Research Group.
“It’s about one minute that it looks like it increased between 2023-2024,” Harvey said.
He told WTOP there are two reasons for the increase: “One is there is more congestion, and the other is if they’re having to travel farther.”
During the pandemic, Harvey said, it was clear people, in many cases, took advantage of remote work. Some moved farther away from their workplace.
Across Maryland, there were vastly different commute times, according to the survey. Charles County had the longest commute with 43.1 minutes for a one-way drive. Allegany County had the shortest commute with 22.1 minutes.
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