Buchanan County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:28 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Buchanan County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:28 PM

Commute Time Burden in Buchanan County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Buchanan County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 172 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.6 minutes.

Buchanan County holds about 0.6% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Buchanan County would save about 69 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,128 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)
Buchanan County	20.6 min	41.2 min	172 hrs/yr	$5,319	383
Iowa	17.0 min	33.9 min	141 hrs/yr	$4,382	606
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: Iowa Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Iowa

Sioux County (10.1 min)
Union County (10.4 min)
Cass County (10.6 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa

Monroe County (30.4 min)
Madison County (30.1 min)
Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Buchanan County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 20.6 minutes to get to work in Buchanan County. That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 81% of counties in Iowa

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 8.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Buchanan County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Buchanan County: 10.5 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Buchanan County: 3.0 times less than the Iowa average (0.2% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Buchanan County, versus 0.2% in Iowa.

Commute Mode Trends in Buchanan County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Buchanan 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	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	89.3%	6.5%	3.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	90.9%	6.3%	2.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	90.6%	5.5%	3.1%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	89.9%	5.3%	3.7%	0.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	88.1%	4.8%	5.5%	0.1%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	87.8%	4.9%	5.2%	0.1%	1.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	86.5%	5.0%	5.7%	0.6%	1.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	85.9%	5.0%	5.9%	0.8%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	85.6%	5.8%	5.7%	0.6%	2.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	87.5%	6.8%	3.5%	0.8%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	87.3%	6.7%	4.1%	0.8%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	87.7%	6.7%	4.1%	0.3%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	87.1%	8.8%	3.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	87.1%	8.9%	3.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	87.1%	8.9%	3.1%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	87.7%	8.4%	2.9%	0.4%	0.3%	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 was highest in 2010 at 90.9% and lowest in 2017 at 85.6%. Overall it fell from 89.3% in 2009 to 87.7% in 2024, down 1.6 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Buchanan County: its share of workers rose from 6.5% in 2009 to 8.4% in 2024, up 1.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 2.9% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Buchanan County

Dawn PatrolThe 3rd-highest share of pre-6 AM departures among Iowa's 99 counties: 26.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Buchanan County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		9.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		7.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		10.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		11.1%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.5%

Buchanan County Iowa Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Buchanan County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 26.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 42.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (18.0%) 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County next to Iowa 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	Buchanan County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:20 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:19 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:17 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:13 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:12 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:12 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:10 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Buchanan County were on the road by 7:10 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:17 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Buchanan County now leave 28 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 Buchanan County has moved 8 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Buchanan County in the whole series.

How does Buchanan County's commute time compare?

Metric	Buchanan County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.6 min	17.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.4%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.9%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Buchanan County is 20.6 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. The share of commuters using walking is about the same as Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Buchanan County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Buchanan County, IA is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 20,694 residents against a local median of 25,722. Where Buchanan County, IA breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 24% above the local median of 16.7 min at 20.6 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 9.7 min on one-way commute, so Buchanan County, IA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Buchanan County, IA has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Buchanan County, IA	20,694	20.6 min #5/6	8.4% #5/6	7:10 AM #2/6
Fayette County, IA	16,443	16.7 min	7.2%	7:20 AM
Benton County, IA	25,722	23.7 min	11.5%	7:07 AM
Linn County, IA	230,016	16.9 min	14.7%	7:36 AM
Delaware County, IA	17,558	15.3 min	9.2%	7:20 AM
Black Hawk County, IA	130,985	13.9 min	8.9%	7:42 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Buchanan County, Iowa.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Buchanan County, Iowa?

Commuters here spend an estimated 172 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,319 at a typical national wage. That's 21% more than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Buchanan County, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Buchanan County, Iowa. 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Buchanan County, Iowa?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.2% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

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

Among counties in Iowa, the shortest average commutes are in Sioux County (10.1 min), Union County (10.4 min), Cass County (10.6 min). The longest are in Monroe County (30.4 min), Madison County (30.1 min), Mills County (26.7 min).