Buena Vista County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Buena Vista 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, 5:00 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Buena Vista County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 5:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in Buena Vista County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Buena Vista County spend about 22 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 93 hours, about 3.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 34% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 5.8 minutes.

Buena Vista County holds about 0.6% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Buena Vista County would save about 37 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,150 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)
Buena Vista County	11.1 min	22.3 min	93 hrs/yr	$2,875	302
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

Buena Vista County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 11.1 minutes to get to work in Buena Vista County. That's 50% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 95% of counties in Iowa

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 5.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Buena Vista County

Commute Mode Trends in Buena Vista County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Buena Vista 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	83.9%	8.4%	5.7%	0.3%	0.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	83.8%	8.2%	5.9%	0.3%	0.2%	1.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	83.4%	8.0%	6.7%	0.2%	0.2%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	85.6%	8.0%	4.9%	0.2%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	87.2%	7.3%	4.2%	0.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	87.9%	6.6%	4.2%	0.1%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2015	88.0%	5.5%	5.0%	0.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2016	87.7%	5.2%	5.2%	0.1%	1.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	87.5%	5.5%	5.3%	0.0%	0.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	87.5%	5.1%	5.6%	0.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	85.0%	5.1%	7.5%	0.3%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	85.6%	5.4%	6.6%	0.3%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	85.6%	7.2%	6.0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.6%	6.0%	6.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	87.1%	6.3%	5.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	88.9%	5.6%	4.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2011 at 83.4%. Overall it rose from 83.9% in 2009 to 88.9% in 2024, up 5.0 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 8.4% to 5.6% of workers (down 2.8 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 7.5% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 4.4%.

Commute Start Times in Buena Vista County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Buena Vista County?

The bars show when commuters in Buena Vista 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		5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		7.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.2%
8:30-8:59 AM		1.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		1.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		10.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		9.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Buena Vista County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 18.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 46.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.7%) 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 Buena Vista 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 Buena Vista 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 Buena Vista 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	Buena Vista County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:43 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:45 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:41 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:39 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Buena Vista County were on the road by 7:39 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:36 AM). That goes against the trend across Iowa, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Buena Vista County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Buena Vista County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Buena Vista County's commute time compare?

Metric	Buena Vista County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	11.1 min	17.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	5.6%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	4.4%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.6%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Buena Vista County is 11.1 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 4.4% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Buena Vista County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Buena Vista County, IA is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 20,753 residents against a local median of 9,689. Nothing separates Buena Vista County, IA sharply from the counties around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 12% below the local median at 11.1 min against 12.7 min. Buena Vista County, IA has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Buena Vista County, IA	20,753	11.1 min #1/6	5.6% #4/6	7:39 AM #5/6
Clay County, IA	16,461	11.8 min	6.1%	7:44 AM
Sac County, IA	9,689	18.1 min	4.7%	7:23 AM
Pocahontas County, IA	7,046	15.4 min	5.4%	7:14 AM
Cherokee County, IA	11,600	12.7 min	8.6%	7:21 AM
Ida County, IA	6,911	11.8 min	9.7%	7:14 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Buena Vista County, Iowa.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 93 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $2,875 at a typical national wage. That's 34% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

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

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

Which counties in Iowa have the fastest and slowest commutes?

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).