Monroe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Monroe County, Alabama: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 10/22/26, 12:16 AM

Is the commute in Monroe County longer than the national average?

Map AI 10/22/26, 12:16 AM

Commute Time Burden in Monroe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monroe County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 172 hours, about 7.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% less time on the road than the Alabama average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 1.5 minutes.

Monroe County holds about 0.4% of Alabama's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monroe County would save about 69 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,134 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)
Monroe County	20.6 min	41.3 min	172 hrs/yr	$5,335	344
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Alabama

Pike County (16.4 min)
Houston County (18.3 min)
Escambia County (18.5 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Alabama

Blount County (33.2 min)
Pickens County (32.5 min)
Lowndes County (31.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Monroe County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.6 minutes to get to work in Monroe County. That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties in Alabama

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 3.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monroe County

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Monroe County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Monroe 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.

Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Other	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	95.9%	0.8%	2.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	96.0%	1.6%	1.7%	0.0%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	96.5%	1.4%	1.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	96.9%	1.1%	1.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	97.1%	1.0%	1.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	97.5%	1.1%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	96.4%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	96.2%	1.9%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.7%	2.7%	1.2%	0.3%	0.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.6%	3.4%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.4%	3.3%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	94.9%	2.5%	1.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	94.9%	3.0%	0.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	94.3%	3.6%	0.9%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.0%	3.1%	0.8%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	95.2%	3.4%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	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 2014 at 97.5% and lowest in 2022 at 94.3%. Overall it fell from 95.9% in 2009 to 95.2% in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Monroe County: its share of workers rose from 0.8% in 2009 to 3.4% in 2024, up 2.6 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 0.6% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2014 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Monroe County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monroe County?

The bars show when commuters in Monroe 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		12.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		13.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		7.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		4.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monroe County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.8% across Alabama. Early starts are more common than in Alabama: 25.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Alabama: 40.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 48.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.3%) 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Monroe County	Alabama	United States
2009	7:02 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:01 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:02 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:03 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:08 AM	7:21 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:02 AM	7:21 AM	7:39 AM
2015	6:59 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2016	6:57 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2017	6:52 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2018	6:56 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2019	6:55 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:01 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:00 AM	7:21 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:04 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:03 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:04 AM	7:19 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Monroe County were on the road by 7:04 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:02 AM). Across Alabama, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Monroe County now leave 33 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Monroe County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Monroe County's commute time compare?

Metric	Monroe County	Alabama	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.6 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	3.4%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	0.6%	1.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Monroe County is 20.6 minutes, shorter than the 22.1 minutes in Alabama.

0.5% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in Alabama. 0.6% commute by walking, lower than the 1.1% in Alabama.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Monroe County, AL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Monroe County, AL is typical in size for this group, 19,388 residents against a local median of 18,630, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Monroe County, AL's work from home, at 3.4%, runs 33% below the 5.1% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 4.1% on work from home, so Monroe County, AL sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Monroe County, AL has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Monroe County, AL	19,388	20.6 min #3/6	3.4% #4/6	7:04 AM #2/6
Conecuh County, AL	11,275	22.6 min	7.0%	7:13 AM
Wilcox County, AL	10,172	26.0 min	5.1%	7:01 AM
Clarke County, AL	22,543	20.8 min	3.0%	7:11 AM
Escambia County, AL	36,629	18.5 min	2.9%	7:10 AM
Butler County, AL	18,630	18.7 min	5.4%	7:22 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Monroe County, Alabama.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Monroe County, Alabama?

Commuters here spend an estimated 172 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,335 at a typical national wage. That's 7% less than the typical Alabama commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Monroe County, Alabama?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Monroe County, Alabama. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How do commute times compare across counties in Alabama?

Among counties in Alabama, the shortest average commutes are in Pike County (16.4 min), Houston County (18.3 min), Escambia County (18.5 min). The longest are in Blount County (33.2 min), Pickens County (32.5 min), Lowndes County (31.9 min).