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Franklin County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Franklin 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, 8:36 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Franklin County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:36 PM

Commute Time Burden in Franklin County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Franklin County spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 131 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.

Franklin County holds about 0.3% of Iowa's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Franklin County would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,621 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)
Franklin County 15.7 min 31.4 min 131 hrs/yr $4,052 253
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
  1. Sioux County (10.1 min)
  2. Union County (10.4 min)
  3. Cass County (10.6 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa
  1. Monroe County (30.4 min)
  2. Madison County (30.1 min)
  3. Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Franklin County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 15.7 minutes to get to work in Franklin County. That's 30% 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 7.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Franklin County

  • Car: 88.3%
  • Worked at Home: 7.9%
  • Walked: 3.2%
  • Other: 0.5%
  • Bicycle: 0.1%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Franklin County, versus 0.1% in Iowa.

Public transit is unusually rare in Franklin County: 15.6 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Franklin County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Franklin 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 Other Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 86.4% 6.0% 6.4% 0.3% 0.6% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2010 87.2% 5.2% 6.8% 0.1% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2011 88.8% 4.7% 5.1% 0.6% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2012 89.0% 5.0% 5.1% 0.8% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 88.4% 4.2% 6.4% 0.7% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2014 88.4% 5.7% 5.1% 0.7% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2015 87.4% 5.4% 6.3% 0.6% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2016 88.2% 4.8% 5.7% 0.6% 0.1% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0%
2017 87.6% 5.8% 5.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0%
2018 87.6% 7.0% 4.4% 0.5% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0%
2019 88.1% 6.2% 4.8% 0.3% 0.1% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 88.0% 5.8% 5.2% 0.4% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 88.3% 7.0% 4.2% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 89.2% 6.9% 3.5% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 88.6% 6.9% 3.8% 0.3% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 88.3% 7.9% 3.2% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0% 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 2022 at 89.2%. Overall it rose from 86.4% in 2009 to 88.3% in 2024, up 1.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Franklin County: its share of workers rose from 6.0% in 2009 to 7.9% 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 6.4% to 3.2% of workers (down 3.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Franklin County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Franklin County?

The bars show when commuters in Franklin 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
6.8%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
9.0%
6:00-6:29 AM
8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.2%
7:00-7:29 AM
22.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
11.6%
8:00-8:29 AM
7.1%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.6%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.5%
11:00-11:59 AM
3.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
4.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Franklin County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 20.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 51.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.2%) 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin County Iowa United States
2009 7:12 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:08 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:11 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:11 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:10 AM 7:34 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:15 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:16 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:13 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:15 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:18 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:21 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:22 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:18 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:18 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:16 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:15 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Franklin County were on the road by 7:15 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:12 AM). That goes against the trend across Iowa, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Franklin County now leave 23 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 Franklin County has moved 6 minutes earlier.

How does Franklin County's commute time compare?

Metric Franklin County Iowa US Average
Avg. Commute Time 15.7 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 7.9% 11.3% 15.0%
Walked 3.2% 2.9% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.7% 3.2%

The average commute time in Franklin County is 15.7 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 3.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Franklin County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Franklin County, IA is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 9,956 residents against a local median of 14,886. Nothing separates Franklin 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 work from home, 9% above the local median at 7.9% against 7.2%. Franklin County, IA has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Franklin County, IA 9,956 15.7 min #3/6 7.9% #3/6 7:15 AM #1/6
Cerro Gordo County, IA 42,632 13.0 min 7.2% 7:31 AM
Hardin County, IA 16,639 16.3 min 9.0% 7:18 AM
Butler County, IA 14,268 23.5 min 6.5% 7:18 AM
Wright County, IA 12,791 15.3 min 7.9% 7:17 AM
Hamilton County, IA 14,886 17.1 min 6.1% 7:17 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Franklin County, Iowa.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Franklin County, Iowa?

Commuters here spend an estimated 131 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,052 at a typical national wage. That's 8% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Franklin County, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Franklin 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.

Do people use public transit in Franklin County, Iowa?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

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).