Elmore County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Elmore County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Elmore County spend about 57 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 236 hours, about 9.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 28% more time on the road than the Alabama average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 6.2 minutes.

Elmore County holds about 1.8% of Alabama's population but accounts for roughly 2.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Elmore County would save about 95 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,930 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)
Elmore County	28.4 min	56.7 min	236 hrs/yr	$7,324	1,428
Alabama	22.1 min	44.3 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,717	1,193
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.

Commute Time Map: Alabama Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 28.4 minutes to get to work in Elmore County. That's 26% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 82% of counties in Alabama

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Elmore County

• Car: 90.9%
• Worked at Home: 7.3%
• Walked: 0.9%
• Other: 0.6%
• Motorcycle: 0.2%
• Public Transportation: 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Elmore County, versus 0.1% in Alabama.

Biking is essentially absent in Elmore County, versus 0.1% in Alabama.

Commute Mode Trends in Elmore County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	95.4%	2.4%	1.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	95.8%	2.4%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	95.3%	2.6%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	95.4%	2.8%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	95.3%	2.6%	0.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	96.0%	2.2%	0.6%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	96.0%	2.2%	0.4%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	96.4%	2.1%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	96.5%	2.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	95.8%	2.6%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.4%	2.9%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	93.7%	3.7%	1.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	92.4%	5.4%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.5%	6.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.2%	7.8%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	90.9%	7.3%	0.9%	0.6%	0.2%	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 was highest in 2017 at 96.5% and lowest in 2023 at 90.2%. Overall it fell from 95.4% in 2009 to 90.9% in 2024, down 4.5 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Elmore County: its share of workers rose from 2.4% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 4.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Elmore County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Elmore County?

The bars show when commuters in Elmore County 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 Alabama for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Elmore County6.1% Alabama6.8%	6.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Elmore County4.6% Alabama5.1%	4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Elmore County5.8% Alabama5.9%	5.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Elmore County12.5% Alabama9.9%	12.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Elmore County15.1% Alabama11.3%	15.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Elmore County20.2% Alabama16.8%	20.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Elmore County10.3% Alabama11.8%	10.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Elmore County7.4% Alabama8.6%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Elmore County2.3% Alabama3.5%	2.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Elmore County2.9% Alabama4.6%	2.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Elmore County2.1% Alabama2.2%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Elmore County0.4% Alabama1.0%	0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Elmore County5.7% Alabama6.3%	5.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Elmore County4.7% Alabama6.2%	4.7%

Elmore County Alabama Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Elmore County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.8% across Alabama. Early starts are less common than in Alabama: 16.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Alabama: 53.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 48.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.8%) 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 Elmore County, 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 Elmore County 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 Elmore County next to Alabama 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.

• Elmore County
• Alabama
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Elmore County	Alabama	United States
2009	7:08 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:09 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:09 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:07 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:09 AM	7:21 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:12 AM	7:21 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:09 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:11 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:12 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:09 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:09 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:11 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:10 AM	7:21 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:10 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:11 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:09 AM	7:19 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Elmore County were on the road by 7:09 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Alabama, the typical start barely moved either. Commuters in Elmore County now leave 29 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Elmore County's commute time compare?

Metric	Elmore County	Alabama	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.4 min	22.1 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.3%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Elmore County is 28.4 minutes, longer than the 22.1 minutes in Alabama.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Alabama. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.1% in Alabama.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau