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Santa Rosa County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 1:22 PM
How long is the round-trip commute in Santa Rosa County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 1:22 PM

Commute Time Burden in Santa Rosa County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Santa Rosa County spend about 58 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 240 hours, about 10.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the Florida average of 24.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.9 minutes.

Santa Rosa County holds about 0.9% of Florida's population but accounts for roughly 1.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Santa Rosa County would save about 96 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,981 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)
Santa Rosa County 28.8 min 57.7 min 240 hrs/yr $7,453 2,421
Florida 24.0 min 47.9 min 200 hrs/yr $6,189 3,068
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: Florida Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Florida
  1. Taylor County (13.8 min)
  2. Monroe County (16.1 min)
  3. Franklin County (16.6 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Florida
  1. Washington County (32.8 min)
  2. Osceola County (32.3 min)
  3. Liberty County (32.1 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Santa Rosa County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 28.8 minutes to get to work in Santa Rosa County. That's 29% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 77% of counties in Florida

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Santa Rosa County

  • Car: 84.6%
  • Worked at Home: 12.7%
  • Other: 1.6%
  • Walked: 0.6%
  • Motorcycle: 0.2%
  • Bicycle: 0.2%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Santa Rosa County: 25.7 times less than the Florida average (0.0% vs 1.2%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Santa Rosa County, versus 0.4% in Florida.

Commute Mode Trends in Santa Rosa County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Santa Rosa 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 Motorcycle Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi
2009 93.0% 4.1% 0.8% 1.4% 0.3% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0%
2010 93.1% 3.8% 0.9% 1.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0%
2011 92.6% 4.2% 0.9% 1.2% 0.5% 0.1% 0.5% 0.0%
2012 92.9% 4.1% 1.0% 1.0% 0.5% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0%
2013 93.0% 4.5% 0.9% 0.7% 0.5% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0%
2014 93.4% 4.3% 0.8% 0.5% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0%
2015 93.4% 4.7% 0.7% 0.5% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2016 93.1% 4.9% 0.8% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2017 93.1% 5.1% 0.6% 0.6% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2018 92.5% 5.3% 0.8% 0.7% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2019 91.7% 5.7% 0.9% 1.0% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 90.3% 6.8% 1.2% 0.9% 0.5% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 88.4% 8.9% 1.1% 0.9% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 86.1% 10.8% 1.4% 1.0% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 85.5% 11.6% 1.4% 1.0% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 84.6% 12.7% 1.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.2% 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 2014 at 93.4%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 84.6% in 2024, down 8.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Santa Rosa County: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 12.7% in 2024, up 8.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.4% to 0.6% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Santa Rosa County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Santa Rosa County?

The bars show when commuters in Santa Rosa 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 Florida for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM
5.1%
5:00-5:29 AM
5.9%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.9%
6:00-6:29 AM
11.0%
6:30-6:59 AM
11.5%
7:00-7:29 AM
16.2%
7:30-7:59 AM
10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM
4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM
4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.6%

Santa Rosa County Florida Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Santa Rosa County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Florida. Early starts are more common than in Florida: 17.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush looks much like Florida's: 47.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.7% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.8%) 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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County next to Florida 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 Santa Rosa County Florida United States
2009 7:16 AM 7:41 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:16 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:15 AM 7:44 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:17 AM 7:46 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:18 AM 7:47 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:18 AM 7:47 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:17 AM 7:47 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:18 AM 7:46 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:15 AM 7:45 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:13 AM 7:44 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:10 AM 7:43 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:09 AM 7:43 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:09 AM 7:43 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:12 AM 7:44 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:16 AM 7:44 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:18 AM 7:43 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Santa Rosa County were on the road by 7:18 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:16 AM). Florida followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes later. Commuters in Santa Rosa County now leave 20 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 Santa Rosa County has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Santa Rosa County's commute time compare?

Metric Santa Rosa County Florida US Average
Avg. Commute Time 28.8 min 24.0 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 12.7% 15.7% 15.0%
Walked 0.6% 1.4% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 1.2% 3.2%

The average commute time in Santa Rosa County is 28.8 minutes, longer than the 24.0 minutes in Florida.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.2% in Florida. 0.6% commute by walking, lower than the 1.4% in Florida.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Santa Rosa County, FL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Santa Rosa County, FL is typical in size for this group, 198,472 residents against a local median of 216,584, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where Santa Rosa County, FL breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 32% above the local median of 21.8 min at 28.8 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 12.7% against a local median of 9.7%, 30% above it. The counties themselves sit within 4.7 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Santa Rosa County, FL, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Santa Rosa County, FL has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Santa Rosa County, FL 198,472 28.8 min #6/6 12.7% #2/6 7:18 AM #3/6
Escambia County, FL 325,414 20.5 min 13.6% 7:26 AM
Okaloosa County, FL 216,584 21.8 min 9.7% 7:20 AM
Escambia County, AL 36,629 18.5 min 2.9% 7:10 AM
Baldwin County, AL 246,985 23.2 min 11.6% 7:21 AM
Conecuh County, AL 11,275 22.6 min 7.0% 7:13 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Santa Rosa County, Florida.

Is commuting expensive in Santa Rosa County, Florida?

Commuters here spend an estimated 240 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,453 at a typical national wage. That's 20% more than the typical Florida commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Santa Rosa County, Florida?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Santa Rosa County, Florida. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Santa Rosa County, Florida?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 1.2% in Florida, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Florida?

Among counties in Florida, the shortest average commutes are in Taylor County (13.8 min), Monroe County (16.1 min), Franklin County (16.6 min). The longest are in Washington County (32.8 min), Osceola County (32.3 min), Liberty County (32.1 min).