Humboldt County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Humboldt County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Humboldt County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 137 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

Humboldt 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 Humboldt County would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,699 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)
Humboldt County	16.4 min	32.9 min	137 hrs/yr	$4,248	313
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 16.4 minutes to get to work in Humboldt County. That's 27% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 10.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Humboldt County

• Car: 86.6%
• Worked at Home: 10.2%
• Walked: 1.9%
• Other: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Humboldt County: 3.9 times less than the Iowa average (0.2% vs 0.7%).

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

Biking is essentially absent in Humboldt County, versus 0.3% in Iowa.

Commute Mode Trends in Humboldt County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Humboldt 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
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	90.3%	5.1%	2.6%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2010	89.3%	5.2%	3.7%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.6%
2011	90.2%	5.0%	3.4%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.5%
2012	89.6%	4.1%	4.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.9%
2013	91.0%	4.2%	3.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%
2014	91.3%	4.0%	3.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%
2015	92.2%	4.0%	2.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%	0.4%
2016	91.2%	4.5%	2.2%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%
2017	92.9%	4.0%	1.6%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	92.9%	3.9%	1.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	91.9%	4.8%	2.0%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	89.9%	7.1%	2.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	89.6%	6.8%	2.4%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	86.0%	10.9%	2.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	85.1%	11.0%	2.1%	1.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.6%	10.2%	1.9%	1.2%	0.2%	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 2017 at 92.9% and lowest in 2023 at 85.1%. Overall it fell from 90.3% in 2009 to 86.6% in 2024, down 3.7 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Humboldt County: its share of workers rose from 5.1% in 2009 to 10.2% in 2024, up 5.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.6% to 1.9% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Humboldt County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Humboldt County?

The bars show when commuters in Humboldt 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 Humboldt County7.5% Iowa5.2%	7.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Humboldt County5.4% Iowa4.1%	5.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Humboldt County8.1% Iowa5.7%	8.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Humboldt County13.0% Iowa8.2%	13.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Humboldt County9.3% Iowa11.2%	9.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Humboldt County14.2% Iowa15.1%	14.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Humboldt County18.3% Iowa15.6%	18.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Humboldt County7.4% Iowa9.1%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Humboldt County1.8% Iowa3.6%	1.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Humboldt County2.4% Iowa4.4%	2.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Humboldt County2.4% Iowa2.3%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Humboldt County0.7% Iowa1.1%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Humboldt County5.5% Iowa7.5%	5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Humboldt County3.9% Iowa6.8%	3.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Humboldt County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 21.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 49.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.9%) 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 Humboldt 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 Humboldt 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 Humboldt 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.

• Humboldt County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Humboldt County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:18 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:12 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:16 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:20 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Humboldt County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 17 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:31 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Humboldt County now leave 24 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 Humboldt County has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Humboldt County's commute time compare?

Metric	Humboldt County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.4 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	10.2%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.9%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Humboldt County is 16.4 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau