Lyon County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Q: Is living in Lyon County, Iowa good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 131 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,076 at a typical national wage. That's 7% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

Q: When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Lyon County, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Lyon County, Iowa. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Q: How common is public transit use in Lyon 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.

Q: How do commute times compare across counties in Iowa?

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).

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Commuting in Lyon County, Iowa: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

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How much time do drivers in Lyon County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:31 PM

Commute Time Burden in Lyon County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lyon County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 131 hours, about 5.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.2 minutes.

Lyon County holds about 0.4% of Iowa's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lyon County would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,631 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)
Lyon County	15.8 min	31.6 min	131 hrs/yr	$4,076	644
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

Sioux County (10.1 min)
Union County (10.4 min)
Cass County (10.6 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa

Monroe County (30.4 min)
Madison County (30.1 min)
Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Lyon County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 15.8 minutes to get to work in Lyon 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 9.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lyon County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Lyon County: 3.8 times more than the Iowa average (0.4% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Lyon County, versus 0.7% in Iowa.

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

Commute Mode Trends in Lyon County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lyon 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	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	83.3%	10.3%	5.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	82.9%	9.9%	5.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	84.9%	8.1%	5.7%	0.1%	0.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	86.3%	7.7%	4.9%	0.1%	0.0%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	86.7%	6.7%	5.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	88.0%	6.3%	4.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	87.7%	6.6%	5.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	87.2%	6.5%	5.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	86.9%	7.2%	5.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	87.5%	7.9%	4.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	87.5%	7.7%	4.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	87.3%	8.7%	3.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	87.3%	10.0%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.7%	10.5%	2.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.6%	10.0%	2.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	85.6%	9.8%	3.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.3%	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 2014 at 88.0% and lowest in 2010 at 82.9%. Overall it rose from 83.3% in 2009 to 85.6% in 2024, up 2.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.7% to 3.4% of workers (down 2.3 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Lyon County

Rush-Hour RegularsThe 3rd-highest share of rush-hour departures among Iowa's 99 counties: 62.0% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lyon County?

The bars show when commuters in Lyon 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		2.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		15.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		16.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		20.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM		5.1%
4:00-11:59 PM		3.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lyon County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 12.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 62.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (13.9%) 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 Lyon 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 Lyon 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 Lyon 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	Lyon County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 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	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:16 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:22 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:26 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lyon County were on the road by 7:21 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:25 AM). Iowa followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Lyon County now leave 17 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 Lyon County has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Lyon County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lyon County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.8 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	9.8%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	3.4%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lyon County is 15.8 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 3.4% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Lyon County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Lyon County, IA is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 12,162 residents against a local median of 22,041. The measure that sets Lyon County, IA apart most is work from home: 9.8%, 17% below the local median of 11.9%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 15.8 min against a local median of 13.5 min, 17% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 17% above the local median it puts Lyon County, IA at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 6.9% on work from home, so Lyon County, IA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Lyon County, IA has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Lyon County, IA	12,162	15.8 min #4/6	9.8% #4/6	7:21 AM #1/6
Rock County, MN	9,621	16.2 min	11.9%	7:22 AM
Sioux County, IA	36,212	10.1 min	12.8%	7:29 AM
Lincoln County, SD	70,639	18.1 min	12.3%	7:29 AM
Nobles County, MN	22,041	12.7 min	6.4%	7:24 AM
Osceola County, IA	6,100	13.5 min	5.8%	7:34 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Lyon County, Iowa.

Is living in Lyon County, Iowa good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 131 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,076 at a typical national wage. That's 7% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Lyon County, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Lyon County, Iowa. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Lyon 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.

How do commute times compare across counties in Iowa?

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).