Benton County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Benton County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Benton County spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 167 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.5 minutes.

Benton County holds about 10.0% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 10.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Benton County would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,075 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)
Benton County	20.1 min	40.2 min	167 hrs/yr	$5,187	1,845
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 20.1 minutes to get to work in Benton County. That's 10% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 15.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Benton County

• Car: 82.2%
• Worked at Home: 15.7%
• Walked: 0.9%
• Other: 0.7%
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Benton County: 3.9 times less than the Arkansas average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Benton County: 7.8 times less than the Arkansas average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Benton County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Benton 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
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Motorcycle
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	91.4%	4.4%	2.3%	1.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	91.4%	4.4%	2.4%	1.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	91.0%	4.5%	2.6%	1.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2012	91.1%	4.8%	2.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	91.9%	4.7%	1.9%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	92.6%	4.4%	1.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	92.7%	4.5%	1.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	93.4%	4.2%	1.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	93.8%	3.7%	1.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	93.8%	3.8%	1.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	93.8%	4.0%	1.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	91.6%	6.4%	1.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	88.1%	9.9%	1.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	85.3%	12.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	83.5%	14.6%	0.9%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	82.2%	15.7%	0.9%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 93.8%. Overall it fell from 91.4% in 2009 to 82.2% in 2024, down 9.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Benton County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 15.7% in 2024, up 11.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 0.9% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Benton County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Benton County?

The bars show when commuters in Benton 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 Benton County4.7% Arkansas5.6%	4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Benton County2.9% Arkansas4.1%	2.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Benton County3.4% Arkansas5.2%	3.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Benton County8.5% Arkansas9.3%	8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Benton County12.5% Arkansas11.2%	12.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Benton County22.4% Arkansas17.5%	22.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Benton County12.4% Arkansas13.9%	12.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Benton County10.8% Arkansas9.2%	10.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Benton County3.8% Arkansas3.6%	3.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Benton County5.0% Arkansas4.5%	5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Benton County2.3% Arkansas2.2%	2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Benton County1.4% Arkansas1.1%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Benton County5.0% Arkansas6.2%	5.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Benton County5.1% Arkansas6.4%	5.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Benton County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.5% across Arkansas. Early starts are less common than in Arkansas: 10.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Arkansas: 58.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Benton 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 Benton 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 Benton 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.

• Benton County
• Arkansas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Benton County	Arkansas	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:21 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:21 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:21 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:23 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:24 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Benton County were on the road by 7:24 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:22 AM). That goes against the trend across Arkansas, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Benton County now leave 14 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Benton County's commute time compare?

Metric	Benton County	Arkansas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.1 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.7%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Benton County is 20.1 minutes, longer than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.4% in Arkansas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau