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Ouachita County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 1:01 PM
Is the commute in Ouachita County longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 1:01 PM

Commute Time Burden in Ouachita County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Ouachita County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 153 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the Arkansas average of 18.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.

Ouachita County holds about 0.7% of Arkansas's population and accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Ouachita County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,897 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)
Ouachita County 18.4 min 36.7 min 153 hrs/yr $4,743 381
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
  1. Arkansas County (11.9 min)
  2. Phillips County (13.2 min)
  3. Howard County (13.4 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Arkansas
  1. Perry County (32.2 min)
  2. Newton County (31.6 min)
  3. Madison County (31.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Ouachita County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 18.4 minutes to get to work in Ouachita County. That's 18% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 05:30 AM – 05:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 4.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Ouachita County

  • Car: 93.0%
  • Worked at Home: 4.6%
  • Other: 1.2%
  • Walked: 1.0%
  • Bicycle: 0.2%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is essentially absent in Ouachita County, versus 0.3% in Arkansas.

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

Commute Mode Trends in Ouachita County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Ouachita 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 Other Walked Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 92.2% 2.5% 1.3% 3.0% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.6%
2010 93.7% 2.2% 0.9% 2.7% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2%
2011 94.2% 2.1% 1.0% 2.0% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.2%
2012 95.5% 1.2% 1.1% 1.7% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.1%
2013 95.4% 1.2% 0.4% 1.9% 0.0% 0.9% 0.0% 0.1%
2014 95.1% 1.0% 0.6% 2.4% 0.0% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0%
2015 94.5% 0.9% 0.7% 2.7% 0.1% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2016 94.6% 1.3% 0.4% 2.8% 0.1% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0%
2017 95.0% 1.5% 0.7% 1.8% 0.2% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0%
2018 94.8% 1.6% 1.1% 2.0% 0.1% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0%
2019 95.8% 2.0% 0.6% 1.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 95.3% 2.5% 0.9% 1.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 96.1% 1.5% 1.2% 1.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 95.4% 2.0% 1.4% 1.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 93.9% 3.7% 0.9% 1.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 93.0% 4.6% 1.2% 1.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2021 at 96.1%. Overall it rose from 92.2% in 2009 to 93.0% in 2024, up 0.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Ouachita County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 4.6% in 2024, up 2.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.0% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Ouachita County

  • Early BirdThe 2nd-earliest start among Arkansas's 75 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 6:56 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Ouachita County?

The bars show when commuters in Ouachita 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
7.9%
5:00-5:29 AM
9.3%
5:30-5:59 AM
12.0%
6:00-6:29 AM
11.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.2%
7:00-7:29 AM
16.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
8.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
5.1%
8:30-8:59 AM
0.6%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM
8.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Ouachita County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.5% across Arkansas. Early starts are more common than in Arkansas: 29.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Arkansas: 40.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.2%) 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 Ouachita 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 Ouachita 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 Ouachita 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 Ouachita County Arkansas United States
2009 7:03 AM 7:28 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:04 AM 7:28 AM 7:38 AM
2011 6:57 AM 7:28 AM 7:38 AM
2012 6:56 AM 7:27 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:02 AM 7:27 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:07 AM 7:27 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:08 AM 7:27 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:11 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:12 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:10 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:05 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:00 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2021 6:50 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2022 6:47 AM 7:26 AM 7:37 AM
2023 6:56 AM 7:26 AM 7:38 AM
2024 6:56 AM 7:25 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Ouachita County were on the road by 6:56 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:03 AM). The shift is sharper than across Arkansas, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Ouachita County now leave 42 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 Ouachita County has moved 9 minutes earlier.

How does Ouachita County's commute time compare?

Metric Ouachita County Arkansas US Average
Avg. Commute Time 18.4 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 05:30 AM – 05:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 4.6% 8.8% 15.0%
Walked 1.0% 1.4% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.3% 3.2%

The average commute time in Ouachita County is 18.4 minutes, shorter than the 18.6 minutes in Arkansas.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Arkansas. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 1.4% in Arkansas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Ouachita County, AR Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Ouachita County, AR is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 22,085 residents against a local median of 8,159. Ouachita County, AR's work from home, at 4.6%, runs 158% above the 1.8% typical of the counties around it.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 18.4 min against a local median of 22.3 min, 18% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 18% below the local median it puts Ouachita County, AR at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 6.0% on work from home, so Ouachita County, AR sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Ouachita County, AR has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Ouachita County, AR 22,085 18.4 min #3/6 4.6% #3/6 6:56 AM #2/6
Calhoun County, AR 4,704 22.3 min 1.5% 6:24 AM
Nevada County, AR 8,159 22.4 min 0.9% 7:30 AM
Dallas County, AR 6,237 22.6 min 1.8% 7:03 AM
Union County, AR 37,897 16.9 min 6.9% 7:12 AM
Columbia County, AR 22,349 16.4 min 5.4% 7:32 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Ouachita County, Arkansas.

Is living in Ouachita County, Arkansas good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 153 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,743 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical Arkansas commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Ouachita County, Arkansas?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Ouachita County, Arkansas. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 05:30 AM – 05:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Do people use public transit in Ouachita County, Arkansas?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in Arkansas, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

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).