Grundy County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Grundy County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Grundy County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 180 hours, about 7.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 27% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.6 minutes.

Grundy County holds about 0.4% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Grundy County would save about 72 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,229 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)
Grundy County	21.6 min	43.1 min	180 hrs/yr	$5,573	319
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

Compare commute times among different counties

N

On average, it takes 21.6 minutes to get to work in Grundy County. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 89% 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 9.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Grundy County

• Car: 87.8%
• Worked at Home: 9.5%
• Walked: 2.4%
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Other: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Grundy County: 3.1 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Grundy County: 14.3 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Grundy County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Other
2009	88.7%	7.3%	3.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	88.1%	7.2%	3.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	87.8%	6.2%	4.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.3%
2012	87.7%	6.1%	4.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2013	87.7%	5.8%	5.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2014	88.7%	5.4%	5.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2015	88.9%	5.5%	4.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2016	90.6%	4.9%	3.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	90.3%	5.3%	3.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2018	90.3%	5.2%	3.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%
2019	89.7%	6.1%	3.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.6%
2020	87.3%	9.5%	2.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2021	86.0%	10.5%	2.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.7%
2022	86.9%	10.4%	2.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.4%
2023	87.7%	9.9%	1.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	87.8%	9.5%	2.4%	0.2%	0.0%	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 was highest in 2016 at 90.6% and lowest in 2021 at 86.0%. Overall it fell from 88.7% in 2009 to 87.8% in 2024, down 0.9 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Grundy County: its share of workers rose from 7.3% in 2009 to 9.5% in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 2.4% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 10.5% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 9.5%.

Commute Start Times in Grundy County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Grundy County?

The bars show when commuters in Grundy 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	12:00-4:59 AM Grundy County7.1% Iowa5.2%	7.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Grundy County3.4% Iowa4.1%	3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Grundy County8.3% Iowa5.7%	8.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Grundy County8.6% Iowa8.2%	8.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Grundy County13.2% Iowa11.2%	13.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Grundy County14.8% Iowa15.1%	14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Grundy County19.1% Iowa15.6%	19.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Grundy County7.4% Iowa9.1%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Grundy County1.6% Iowa3.6%	1.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Grundy County4.1% Iowa4.4%	4.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Grundy County1.9% Iowa2.3%	1.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Grundy County0.3% Iowa1.1%	0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Grundy County5.7% Iowa7.5%	5.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Grundy County4.5% Iowa6.8%	4.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Grundy County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 18.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 54.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.5%) 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 Grundy 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 Grundy 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 Grundy 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.

• Grundy County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Grundy County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 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	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:19 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:21 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:23 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:19 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Grundy County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:20 AM). Across Iowa the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Grundy County now leave 19 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Grundy County's commute time compare?

Metric	Grundy County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.6 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	9.5%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Grundy County is 21.6 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 2.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau