Commuting in Columbia County, Arkansas: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:08 PM
Is the commute in Columbia County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:08 PM
Commute Time Burden in Columbia County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Columbia County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 137 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.2 minutes.
Columbia County holds about 0.7% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Columbia County would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,697 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)
Columbia County
16.4 min
32.8 min
137 hrs/yr
$4,243
324
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.
On average, it takes
16.4
minutes to get to work in
Columbia County.
That's 27% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 82% 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 5.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Columbia County
Car:
88.7%
Worked at Home:
5.4%
Walked:
3.3%
Other:
1.5%
Bicycle:
0.4%
Public Transportation:
0.4%
Motorcycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Columbia County, versus 0.1% in Arkansas.
Commute Mode Trends in Columbia County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Columbia 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
Other
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
89.4%
3.0%
3.0%
4.1%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
89.4%
3.4%
3.2%
3.2%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
90.6%
2.8%
2.8%
3.1%
0.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
2012
91.1%
2.9%
2.8%
2.2%
0.4%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
2013
91.1%
2.3%
3.7%
2.3%
0.1%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2014
91.1%
3.1%
3.0%
2.2%
0.1%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
2015
92.1%
2.5%
3.8%
1.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2016
92.8%
2.2%
4.2%
0.6%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2017
93.4%
2.0%
4.3%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2018
92.0%
1.7%
5.7%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2019
92.2%
1.1%
6.2%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
92.4%
0.9%
5.7%
0.5%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2021
92.8%
1.6%
4.0%
0.6%
0.5%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
91.6%
2.6%
3.9%
0.7%
0.5%
0.3%
0.4%
0.0%
2023
90.1%
4.0%
3.6%
1.0%
0.6%
0.4%
0.3%
0.0%
2024
88.7%
5.4%
3.3%
1.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.2%
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 93.4%. Overall it fell from 89.4% in 2009 to 88.7% in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Columbia County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 5.4% in 2024, up 2.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking peaked at 6.2% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 3.3%.
Commute Start Times in Columbia County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Columbia County?
The bars show when commuters in Columbia 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 AMColumbia County5.7%Arkansas5.6%
5.7%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMColumbia County5.2%Arkansas4.1%
5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMColumbia County5.3%Arkansas5.2%
5.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMColumbia County8.4%Arkansas9.3%
8.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMColumbia County10.3%Arkansas11.2%
10.3%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMColumbia County14.3%Arkansas17.5%
14.3%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMColumbia County14.0%Arkansas13.9%
14.0%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMColumbia County7.6%Arkansas9.2%
7.6%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMColumbia County3.1%Arkansas3.6%
3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMColumbia County3.0%Arkansas4.5%
3.0%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMColumbia County4.0%Arkansas2.2%
4.0%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMColumbia County0.8%Arkansas1.1%
0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMColumbia County7.7%Arkansas6.2%
7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMColumbia County10.7%Arkansas6.4%
10.7%
Columbia CountyArkansasSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Columbia County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.5% across Arkansas. Early starts are more common than in Arkansas: 16.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Arkansas: 46.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.2%) 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 Columbia 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 Columbia 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 Columbia 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Columbia County
Arkansas
United States
2009
7:29 AM
7:28 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:35 AM
7:28 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:35 AM
7:28 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:38 AM
7:27 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:32 AM
7:27 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:33 AM
7:27 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:34 AM
7:27 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:36 AM
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:30 AM
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:33 AM
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:30 AM
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:25 AM
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:28 AM
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:30 AM
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:31 AM
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:32 AM
7:25 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Columbia County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:29 AM). That goes against the trend across Arkansas, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Columbia County now leave 6 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 Columbia County has moved 2 minutes later.
How does Columbia County's commute time compare?
Metric
Columbia County
Arkansas
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
16.4 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
5.4%
8.8%
15.0%
Walked
3.3%
1.4%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.4%
0.3%
3.2%
The average commute time in Columbia County is 16.4 minutes, shorter than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.
0.4% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 3.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.4% in Arkansas.
Columbia County, AR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Columbia County, AR is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 22,349 residents against a local median of 13,828. Columbia County, AR's work from home, at 5.4%, runs 59% above the 3.4% typical of the counties around it.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 16.4 min against a local median of 22.4 min, 27% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 27% below the local median it puts Columbia County, AR at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 5.3% on work from home, so Columbia County, AR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Columbia County, AR has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Columbia County, Arkansas.
Is living in Columbia County, Arkansas good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 137 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,243 at a typical national wage. That's 12% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Columbia County, Arkansas?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Columbia County, Arkansas. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Which counties in Arkansas have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in Arkansas, the shortest average commutes are in Arkansas County (11.9 min), Phillips County (13.2 min), Howard County (13.4 min). The longest are in Perry County (32.2 min), Newton County (31.6 min), Madison County (31.1 min).