Distances from Madison, WI to nearby cities and major US destinations
Drive times and estimated fuel costs from Madison, WI to the towns around it and to the major cities most people head for. Pick any row for the full route.
Madison, WI sits in Wisconsin, on Chicago time, at 43.07° north and 89.40° west. The nearest place of any size is Fitchburg, WI, about 12 miles away — roughly 23 min of driving. 4 other towns of size are within an hour's drive.
Counting only places above twenty thousand people, 158 are within three hours' driving of Madison, WI and 301 within six — which is a better measure of how connected a town is than its position on a map. The nearest city of real size is Milwaukee, WI, about 88 miles out.
The two lists below answer different questions. The first is what is physically close, which is what you want for an errand or a day out. The second is the major cities people actually drive to from here, which is usually a longer trip and a different kind of plan. Every figure is an estimated road distance rather than a routed one, and every drive time assumes free-flowing traffic with no allowance for a stop — how the estimate works. For a pair that is not listed here, the calculator will work out any two US cities.
Which way the driving goes from Madison, WI
Reachable places are rarely spread evenly around a town, and they are not around Madison, WI. Of everything above twenty thousand people within three hours' drive, the largest share — 107 of 158 — lies to the southeast, with 18 to the east. Only 1 sit to the west. That asymmetry is usually geography rather than road building: coastline, a state line, mountains or simply empty country in one direction and settlement in another.
36 of those places are in Wisconsin and 122 are across a state line, which matters more than the mileage does. Speed limits, phone rules and what you may do at a red light are all set state by state, so a drive of the same length can be governed by two sets of rules or by one. The state-by-state differences are set out separately.
The major-city list below spans a wide range: Chicago, IL is about 143 miles out, roughly 2 hr 23 min of driving, while Los Angeles, CA is around 1,935 miles — a different order of trip entirely, and one to plan in stages rather than as a day. 7 of the 10 routes below have a page of their own, with the towns along the way and how flying compares.
One thing none of these figures account for: the distance is the same in both directions but the drive often is not. A route that climbs on the way out descends on the way back, rush hour is in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening, and a mountain pass can be open one way and closed the other in winter. The estimate here is symmetrical because the road is; the day is not. For a long haul out of Madison, WI, the road safety guides cover the part the mileage leaves out.
Closest cities to Madison, WI
- Fitchburg, WI 12 mi · 23 min
- Sun Prairie, WI 17 mi · 26 min
- Janesville, WI 41 mi · 49 min
- Watertown, WI 43 mi · 51 min
- Beloit, WI 50 mi · 1 hr
- Machesney Park, IL 62 mi · 1 hr 14 min
- Freeport, IL 64 mi · 1 hr 16 min
- Loves Park, IL 64 mi · 1 hr 16 min
- Rockford, IL 67 mi · 1 hr 20 min
- Waukesha, WI 69 mi · 1 hr 22 min
Major cities from Madison, WI
- Chicago, IL 143 mi · 2 hr 23 min
- Minneapolis, MN 270 mi · 4 hr 30 min
- Columbus, OH 470 mi · 7 hr 28 min
- Nashville, TN 577 mi · 9 hr 9 min
- Buffalo, NY 691 mi · 10 hr 58 min
- New York City, NY 989 mi · 15 hr 42 min
- Brooklyn, NY 994 mi · 15 hr 46 min
- Houston, TX 1133 mi · 17 hr 59 min
- San Diego, CA 1930 mi · 30 hr 38 min
- Los Angeles, CA 1935 mi · 30 hr 43 min