San Miguel County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in San Miguel County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in San Miguel County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 107 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 42% less time on the road than the Colorado average of 22.0 minutes each way, a difference of 9.2 minutes.

San Miguel County holds about 0.1% of Colorado's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in San Miguel County would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,329 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)
San Miguel County	12.9 min	25.7 min	107 hrs/yr	$3,323	329
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

N

On average, it takes 12.9 minutes to get to work in San Miguel County. That's 43% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties in Colorado

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 15.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in San Miguel County

• Car: 46.4% unusually low
• Walked: 25.9% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 15.8%
• Bicycle: 5.4% unusually high
• Other: 4.6%
• Public Transportation: 1.8%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 36% less common in San Miguel County than the Colorado average (46.4% vs 72.7%).

Walking is unusually common in San Miguel County: 10.4 times more than the Colorado average (25.9% vs 2.5%).

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

Biking is unusually common in San Miguel County: 5.9 times more than the Colorado average (5.4% vs 0.9%).

San Miguel County stands out for active commuting: 31.3% of workers walk or bike to work, 9.2 times the Colorado average of 3.4%.

Commute Mode Trends in San Miguel County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in San Miguel 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Bicycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	56.2%	20.2%	8.4%	6.6%	1.8%	7.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	58.9%	15.5%	10.3%	4.8%	2.5%	8.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	55.5%	14.1%	14.6%	3.2%	1.9%	10.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	51.6%	16.1%	13.5%	3.0%	2.4%	13.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	52.9%	13.8%	13.0%	2.4%	1.7%	16.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	51.7%	12.3%	13.2%	2.8%	2.3%	17.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	51.7%	11.8%	13.2%	3.1%	3.0%	17.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	54.6%	13.9%	11.5%	3.1%	3.5%	13.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	54.1%	13.2%	14.1%	3.6%	2.9%	12.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	56.4%	13.8%	13.9%	2.6%	3.3%	10.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	59.1%	13.3%	14.1%	3.5%	3.1%	6.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	58.7%	16.7%	13.7%	2.2%	2.5%	6.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	53.2%	18.8%	18.8%	3.6%	2.5%	3.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	52.6%	23.1%	16.2%	2.8%	3.3%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	50.9%	23.2%	18.1%	3.8%	3.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	46.4%	25.9%	15.8%	5.4%	4.6%	1.8%	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 2019 at 59.1%. Overall it fell from 56.2% in 2009 to 46.4% in 2024, down 9.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in San Miguel County: its share of workers rose from 8.4% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2024, up 7.4 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 7.0% to 1.8% of workers (down 5.2 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 4th most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 18.8% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 15.8%.

Commute Start Times in San Miguel County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in San Miguel County?

The bars show when commuters in San Miguel 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 San Miguel County1.7% Colorado4.6%	1.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM San Miguel County2.6% Colorado3.6%	2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM San Miguel County1.4% Colorado5.0%	1.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM San Miguel County6.0% Colorado8.5%	6.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM San Miguel County9.1% Colorado10.2%	9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM San Miguel County9.5% Colorado15.3%	9.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM San Miguel County16.2% Colorado12.8%	16.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM San Miguel County16.9% Colorado11.8%	16.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM San Miguel County8.6% Colorado5.4%	8.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM San Miguel County7.8% Colorado6.9%	7.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM San Miguel County4.2% Colorado3.2%	4.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM San Miguel County0.7% Colorado1.5%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM San Miguel County6.2% Colorado6.0%	6.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM San Miguel County9.1% Colorado5.2%	9.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in San Miguel County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.8% across Colorado. Early starts are less common than in Colorado: 5.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.1% there. The morning rush looks much like Colorado's: 51.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (28.0%) 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 San Miguel 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 San Miguel 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 San Miguel 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.

• San Miguel County
• Colorado
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	San Miguel County	Colorado	United States
2009	8:03 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:54 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:05 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:06 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:04 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:03 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:00 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:58 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:58 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:58 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:02 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:05 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	8:00 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	8:06 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:06 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in San Miguel County were on the road by 8:06 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (8:03 AM). Across Colorado, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in San Miguel County now leave 28 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in San Miguel County has moved 8 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for San Miguel County in the whole series.

How does San Miguel County's commute time compare?

Metric	San Miguel County	Colorado	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.9 min	22.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 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	15.8%	21.0%	15.0%
Walked	25.9%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.8%	1.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in San Miguel County is 12.9 minutes, shorter than the 22.0 minutes in Colorado.

1.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.6% in Colorado. 25.9% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Colorado.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau