Datasets / Drive times / Outdoors
Drive time to the nearest salt water beach
Ocean, bay and estuary recreation beaches that coastal states and territories monitor for water quality under the federal BEACH Act. Only current, publicly accessible beaches are kept.
- 4,769
- salt water beaches mapped
- 169 min
- median drive for US residents
- 12%
- of residents within 15 min
- 23%
- within 30 min
- 35%
- within an hour
Counties are shaded by the drive time within which half of their residents reach the nearest one. Dots mark the salt water beaches.
Find places within 30 minutes on the map →
Source
- BEACH Act beach locations (BEACON), February 2024U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · Public domain
Retrieved Oct 2026.
How drive times are measured
Every 2020 census block group (about 240,000 neighborhoods) starts from its population center and drives the OpenStreetMap road network to the nearest of the salt water beaches. Speeds come from posted limits where they are mapped and typical speeds by road type elsewhere, with a small delay at each intersection. They are free-flow times: no traffic. Ferries count at their scheduled duration.
Counties and tracts show the population-weighted median of their block groups, so half of residents are at or under the time shown. Searches stop at 3 hours. Puerto Rico and a few dozen roadless places in Alaska aren't covered.
- Road networkOpenStreetMap contributors (Geofabrik extract) · ODbL
- Centers of Population by block group, 2020U.S. Census Bureau · Public domain