Baxter County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Baxter County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Baxter County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.5 minutes.

Baxter County holds about 1.4% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 1.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Baxter County would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,661 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)
Baxter County	16.1 min	32.1 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,152	609
Arkansas	18.6 min	37.2 min	155 hrs/yr	$4,807	912
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: Arkansas Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 16.1 minutes to get to work in Baxter County. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 85% of counties in Arkansas

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Baxter County

• Car: 89.3%
• Worked at Home: 7.4%
• Walked: 1.8%
• Other: 1.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Baxter County: 19.3 times less than the Arkansas average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Baxter County, versus 0.1% in Arkansas.

Biking is unusually rare in Baxter County: 4.5 times less than the Arkansas average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Baxter County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Baxter 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	94.7%	3.3%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	94.1%	3.3%	1.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	94.1%	3.8%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	94.4%	3.4%	1.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	93.8%	3.5%	0.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	93.9%	3.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	93.5%	4.0%	1.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	93.1%	2.9%	2.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	93.3%	3.3%	2.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	93.5%	3.3%	2.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.6%	3.4%	2.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	92.3%	3.8%	2.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	92.5%	5.0%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.0%	5.7%	2.0%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.7%	6.1%	1.7%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	89.3%	7.4%	1.8%	1.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 94.7% in 2009 to 89.3% in 2024, down 5.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Baxter County: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 7.4% in 2024, up 4.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 2.9% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 1.8%.

Commute Start Times in Baxter County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Baxter County?

The bars show when commuters in Baxter 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 Arkansas for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Baxter County6.6% Arkansas5.6%	6.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Baxter County3.7% Arkansas4.1%	3.7%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Baxter County3.8% Arkansas5.2%	3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Baxter County6.4% Arkansas9.3%	6.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Baxter County14.1% Arkansas11.2%	14.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Baxter County17.9% Arkansas17.5%	17.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Baxter County14.7% Arkansas13.9%	14.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Baxter County10.1% Arkansas9.2%	10.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Baxter County3.1% Arkansas3.6%	3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Baxter County4.5% Arkansas4.5%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Baxter County3.0% Arkansas2.2%	3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Baxter County1.3% Arkansas1.1%	1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Baxter County6.0% Arkansas6.2%	6.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Baxter County4.7% Arkansas6.4%	4.7%

Baxter County Arkansas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Baxter County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.5% across Arkansas. Early starts are about as common as in Arkansas: 14.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Arkansas: 56.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.5%) 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 Baxter 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 Baxter 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 Baxter County next to Arkansas 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.

• Baxter County
• Arkansas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Baxter County	Arkansas	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:43 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:41 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:40 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:38 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:39 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:37 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:33 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:26 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Baxter County were on the road by 7:26 AM, 16 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). The shift is sharper than across Arkansas, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Baxter County now leave 12 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 Baxter County has moved 12 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Baxter County in the whole series.

How does Baxter County's commute time compare?

Metric	Baxter County	Arkansas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.1 min	18.6 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.4%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	1.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Baxter County is 16.1 minutes, shorter than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 1.8% commute by walking, higher than the 1.4% in Arkansas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau