Johnston Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Johnston: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Johnston spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.4 minutes.

Johnston 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 Johnston would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,108 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)
Johnston	20.4 min	40.8 min	170 hrs/yr	$5,269	2,868
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.

Johnston Commute Map

On average, it takes 20.4 minutes to get to work in Johnston. That's 9% 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 14.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Johnston

• Car: 84.0%
• Worked at Home: 14.4%
• Walked: 0.9% unusually low
• Other: 0.6%
• Bicycle: 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Walking is unusually rare in Johnston: 3.1 times less than the Iowa average (0.9% vs 2.9%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Johnston: 24.0 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Johnston: 23686703.0 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Johnston: 3.2 times less than the Iowa average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Few people walk or bike to work in Johnston: just 1.0%, 3.1 times below the Iowa average of 3.2%.

Commute Mode Trends in Johnston, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	94.1%	4.4%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	94.3%	4.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	94.1%	4.6%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	93.2%	5.4%	0.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	92.7%	6.0%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	92.2%	6.0%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	91.9%	5.6%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2016	92.7%	5.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	1.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	93.0%	4.6%	0.5%	0.3%	0.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2018	92.2%	5.2%	0.4%	0.2%	0.3%	1.1%	0.2%	0.4%
2019	91.2%	6.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	90.4%	7.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	88.8%	9.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	86.4%	11.9%	1.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	83.8%	14.6%	1.1%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.0%	14.4%	0.9%	0.6%	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 was highest in 2010 at 94.3% and lowest in 2023 at 83.8%. Overall it fell from 94.1% in 2009 to 84.0% in 2024, down 10.1 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Johnston: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 14.4% in 2024, up 10.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 1.1% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Johnston

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Johnston?

The bars show when commuters in Johnston 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 Johnston1.0% Iowa5.2%	1.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Johnston1.5% Iowa4.1%	1.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Johnston2.8% Iowa5.7%	2.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Johnston7.8% Iowa8.2%	7.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Johnston9.4% Iowa11.2%	9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Johnston20.5% Iowa15.1%	20.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Johnston17.8% Iowa15.6%	17.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Johnston13.7% Iowa9.1%	13.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Johnston4.9% Iowa3.6%	4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Johnston4.5% Iowa4.4%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Johnston2.7% Iowa2.3%	2.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Johnston0.8% Iowa1.1%	0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Johnston5.1% Iowa7.5%	5.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Johnston7.5% Iowa6.8%	7.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Johnston is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 5.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 61.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.5%) 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 Johnston, 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 Johnston 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 Johnston 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.

• Johnston
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Johnston	Iowa	United States
2009	7:29 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:38 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:40 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:37 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:42 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Johnston were on the road by 7:42 AM, 13 minutes later than in 2009 (7:29 AM). That goes against the trend across Iowa, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Johnston now leave 4 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Johnston has moved 2 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Johnston in the whole series.

How does Johnston's commute time compare?

Metric	Johnston	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.4 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	14.4%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Johnston is 20.4 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau