Independence County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Q: What is the financial impact of commuting in Independence County, Arkansas?

Commuters here spend an estimated 141 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,384 at a typical national wage. That's 9% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.

Q: What are the busiest morning travel hours in Independence County, Arkansas?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Independence 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.

Q: Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Arkansas?

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).

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

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

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Commute Time Burden in Independence County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Independence County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 141 hours, about 5.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 1.6 minutes.

Independence County holds about 1.3% of Arkansas's population but accounts for roughly 1.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Independence County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,753 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)
Independence County	17.0 min	33.9 min	141 hrs/yr	$4,384	631
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Arkansas

Arkansas County (11.9 min)
Phillips County (13.2 min)
Howard County (13.4 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Arkansas

Perry County (32.2 min)
Newton County (31.6 min)
Madison County (31.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Independence County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 17.0 minutes to get to work in Independence County. That's 24% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% 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 5.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Independence County

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Independence County, versus 0.1% in Arkansas.

Commute Mode Trends in Independence County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Independence 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	94.4%	3.3%	1.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.5%
2010	93.9%	3.5%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2011	94.1%	3.1%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	95.5%	2.2%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	93.8%	1.9%	2.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	94.5%	1.6%	2.3%	1.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	94.6%	1.7%	2.0%	1.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	94.1%	2.8%	1.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	93.9%	3.2%	1.3%	1.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	95.0%	3.4%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	94.3%	3.3%	0.6%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	94.2%	3.6%	0.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	93.5%	3.0%	1.6%	1.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	92.1%	4.2%	1.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2023	90.7%	5.5%	2.0%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	91.0%	5.8%	2.0%	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 was highest in 2012 at 95.5% and lowest in 2023 at 90.7%. Overall it fell from 94.4% in 2009 to 91.0% in 2024, down 3.4 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Independence County: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 5.8% in 2024, up 2.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Riding a motorcycle lost the most ground, falling from 0.5% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Independence County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Independence County?

The bars show when commuters in Independence 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		7.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.2%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		18.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		5.4%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Independence County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.5% across Arkansas. Early starts are more common than in Arkansas: 18.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Arkansas: 49.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.1%) 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 Independence 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 Independence 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 Independence 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	Independence County	Arkansas	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:28 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:32 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:32 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:25 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:21 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:17 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:17 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:17 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:17 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Independence County were on the road by 7:17 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:24 AM). The shift is sharper than across Arkansas, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Independence County now leave 21 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Independence County's commute time compare?

Metric	Independence County	Arkansas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.0 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	5.8%	8.8%	15.0%
Walked	2.0%	1.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Independence County is 17.0 minutes, shorter than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 2.0% commute by walking, higher than the 1.4% in Arkansas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Independence County, AR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Independence County, AR is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 38,178 residents against a local median of 17,772. Where Independence County, AR breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 15% below the local median of 6.9% at 5.8%.

The counties themselves spread 4.9% on work from home, so Independence County, AR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Independence County, AR has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Independence County, AR	38,178	17.0 min #2/6	5.8% #4/6	7:17 AM #2/6
Jackson County, AR	16,709	15.2 min	2.5%	7:30 AM
Sharp County, AR	17,772	22.7 min	7.2%	7:26 AM
Izard County, AR	14,007	26.8 min	7.5%	7:22 AM
Cleburne County, AR	25,225	17.8 min	6.9%	7:11 AM
White County, AR	77,839	17.2 min	4.8%	7:22 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Independence County, Arkansas.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Independence County, Arkansas?

Commuters here spend an estimated 141 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,384 at a typical national wage. That's 9% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Independence County, Arkansas?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Independence 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.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Arkansas?

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).