Drive time · 20 miles
How long does it take to drive 20 miles?
20 miles takes 20 min at 60 mph
20 ÷ 60 mph = 20 min · at 70 mph it is 17 min
What 20 miles means on the road
20 miles (32 km) is a longer suburban commute, the distance many people drive twice a day. The headline figure of 20 min assumes you hold 60 mph for the whole distance, which is realistic only on open motorway. Real journeys average lower, so treat 60 mph as the best case and the slower rows in the table below as the honest ones.
Driving time for 20 miles by speed
| Average speed | Time for 20 miles |
|---|---|
| 25 mph | 48 min |
| 35 mph | 34 min |
| 45 mph | 27 min |
| 55 mph | 22 min |
| 65 mph | 18 min |
| 70 mph | 17 min |
| 75 mph | 16 min |
| 80 mph | 15 min |
Why the real trip takes longer
The table assumes you are moving the whole time at a constant speed. Two things break that. The first is the route itself: junctions, roundabouts, town sections and traffic all pull the average down, so a journey signed at 70 mph often averages 55 to 60. The second is stops. Fuel, food and comfort breaks do not change your speed but they do change your arrival time, and on a distance like 20 miles they are usually the larger of the two effects.
A practical approach is to take the time from the table using an average 10 to 15 mph below the limit, then add your planned stops on top. If you want to know what you actually averaged after the fact, the online odometer records distance, elapsed time and average speed for a trip as you drive it.
Related
- How long to drive 15 miles
- How long to drive 25 miles
- Speed, distance, time calculator — solve for any of the three.
- Average speed calculator — what you actually averaged over a trip.
- Online odometer — measure the distance and time of a drive with GPS.
- Live GPS speedometer — your real speed in the browser.