Montrose County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Montrose County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Montrose County spend about 30 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 126 hours, about 5.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 31% less time on the road than the Colorado average of 22.0 minutes each way, a difference of 6.9 minutes.

Montrose County holds about 0.7% of Colorado's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Montrose County would save about 50 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,564 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)
Montrose County	15.1 min	30.3 min	126 hrs/yr	$3,910	662
Colorado	22.0 min	44.1 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,694	1,277
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: Colorado Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 15.1 minutes to get to work in Montrose County. That's 32% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 11.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Montrose County

• Car: 84.7%
• Worked at Home: 11.5%
• Walked: 2.4%
• Other: 0.9%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Montrose County, versus 0.1% in Colorado.

Public transit is unusually rare in Montrose County: 11.2 times less than the Colorado average (0.1% vs 1.6%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Montrose County, versus 0.1% in Colorado.

Commute Mode Trends in Montrose County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Montrose 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
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	88.6%	6.2%	2.5%	1.1%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	89.4%	5.7%	2.6%	0.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	89.3%	6.5%	2.3%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	89.8%	6.2%	2.2%	1.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	90.1%	5.8%	2.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	90.9%	5.2%	1.9%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	90.1%	5.2%	2.7%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	91.6%	3.9%	2.2%	1.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	91.3%	4.7%	2.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	90.4%	5.9%	2.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	88.8%	6.8%	2.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	87.7%	8.1%	2.4%	0.8%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	85.7%	9.7%	3.0%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	84.2%	11.0%	2.7%	1.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	84.7%	10.5%	2.9%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.7%	11.5%	2.4%	0.9%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2016 at 91.6% and lowest in 2022 at 84.2%. Overall it fell from 88.6% in 2009 to 84.7% in 2024, down 3.9 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Montrose County: its share of workers rose from 6.2% in 2009 to 11.5% in 2024, up 5.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 1.0% to 0.3% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Montrose County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Montrose County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Montrose County3.1% Colorado4.6%	3.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Montrose County3.2% Colorado3.6%	3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Montrose County4.7% Colorado5.0%	4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Montrose County7.3% Colorado8.5%	7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Montrose County12.5% Colorado10.2%	12.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Montrose County16.6% Colorado15.3%	16.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Montrose County16.4% Colorado12.8%	16.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Montrose County12.1% Colorado11.8%	12.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Montrose County4.7% Colorado5.4%	4.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Montrose County5.3% Colorado6.9%	5.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Montrose County2.9% Colorado3.2%	2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Montrose County1.0% Colorado1.5%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Montrose County6.1% Colorado6.0%	6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Montrose County4.2% Colorado5.2%	4.2%

Montrose County Colorado Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Montrose County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across Colorado. Early starts are less common than in Colorado: 11.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Colorado: 57.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% 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 Montrose 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 Montrose 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 Montrose County next to Colorado 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.

• Montrose County
• Colorado
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Montrose County	Colorado	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:36 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:35 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:37 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Montrose County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:36 AM). Across Colorado, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Montrose County now leave 3 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Montrose County's commute time compare?

Metric	Montrose County	Colorado	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.1 min	22.0 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	11.5%	21.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	1.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Montrose County is 15.1 minutes, shorter than the 22.0 minutes in Colorado.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.6% in Colorado. 2.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Colorado.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau