Lucas County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lucas County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lucas 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 130 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.

Lucas 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 Lucas County would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,617 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)
Lucas County	15.6 min	31.3 min	130 hrs/yr	$4,042	290
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

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On average, it takes 15.6 minutes to get to work in Lucas County. That's 30% 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 4.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lucas County

• Car: 91.7%
• Worked at Home: 4.3%
• Walked: 2.2%
• Other: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: 0.5%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Lucas County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lucas 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	88.3%	5.6%	2.4%	2.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%	0.4%
2010	89.7%	5.6%	1.9%	1.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.3%
2011	90.4%	5.2%	1.9%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%
2012	89.9%	5.4%	2.3%	1.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	91.2%	5.6%	1.9%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	90.7%	6.1%	2.0%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	89.9%	6.4%	2.0%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	91.4%	5.7%	1.5%	0.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	93.2%	4.9%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	91.5%	6.1%	1.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	90.9%	5.6%	2.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	93.1%	3.7%	2.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	91.6%	3.7%	3.0%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.7%	3.7%	2.8%	1.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.2%	5.4%	2.3%	1.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.7%	4.3%	2.2%	1.2%	0.5%	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 2017 at 93.2%. Overall it rose from 88.3% in 2009 to 91.7% in 2024, up 3.4 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 5.6% to 4.3% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Lucas County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lucas County?

The bars show when commuters in Lucas 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 Lucas County9.6% Iowa5.2%	9.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lucas County3.9% Iowa4.1%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lucas County10.1% Iowa5.7%	10.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lucas County9.0% Iowa8.2%	9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lucas County9.1% Iowa11.2%	9.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lucas County13.9% Iowa15.1%	13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lucas County15.4% Iowa15.6%	15.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lucas County6.7% Iowa9.1%	6.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lucas County0.4% Iowa3.6%	0.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lucas County2.1% Iowa4.4%	2.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lucas County0.7% Iowa2.3%	0.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lucas County1.0% Iowa1.1%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lucas County6.3% Iowa7.5%	6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lucas County11.9% Iowa6.8%	11.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lucas County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 23.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 45.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.9%) 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 Lucas 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 Lucas 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 Lucas 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.

• Lucas County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lucas County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:14 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:18 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:17 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:15 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lucas County were on the road by 7:18 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:24 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Lucas County now leave 20 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 Lucas County has moved 6 minutes earlier.

How does Lucas County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lucas County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.6 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	4.3%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.2%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lucas County is 15.6 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 2.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau