Madison County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Madison County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Madison County spend about 60 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 251 hours, about 10.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 77% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 13.1 minutes.

Madison County holds about 0.5% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Madison County would save about 100 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,108 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)
Madison County	30.1 min	60.2 min	251 hrs/yr	$7,771	735
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 30.1 minutes to get to work in Madison County. That's 34% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest counties in Iowa

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Madison County

• Car: 79.6%
• Worked at Home: 17.4%
• Walked: 2.5%
• Other: 0.4%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Madison County: 305705590.2 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Madison County: 10.0 times less than the Iowa average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Madison County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Madison 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	90.4%	6.1%	2.3%	0.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%
2010	89.3%	6.8%	2.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.6%	0.4%
2011	90.3%	6.5%	2.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%	0.4%
2012	90.2%	6.3%	2.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%
2013	91.3%	5.2%	2.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%	0.3%
2014	91.7%	5.6%	2.4%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	91.5%	5.2%	2.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	90.8%	6.5%	2.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	89.9%	7.0%	2.4%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	88.0%	8.3%	2.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	87.0%	8.7%	3.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	85.4%	10.6%	3.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	82.0%	13.6%	4.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	82.1%	13.5%	3.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	81.3%	14.8%	3.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	79.6%	17.4%	2.5%	0.4%	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 peaked in 2014 at 91.7%. Overall it fell from 90.4% in 2009 to 79.6% in 2024, down 10.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Madison County: its share of workers rose from 6.1% in 2009 to 17.4% in 2024, up 11.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 4.1% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 2.5%.

Commute Start Times in Madison County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Madison County?

The bars show when commuters in Madison 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 Madison County4.8% Iowa5.2%	4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Madison County6.2% Iowa4.1%	6.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Madison County5.3% Iowa5.7%	5.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Madison County14.3% Iowa8.2%	14.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Madison County15.0% Iowa11.2%	15.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Madison County23.0% Iowa15.1%	23.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Madison County13.3% Iowa15.6%	13.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Madison County4.6% Iowa9.1%	4.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Madison County1.5% Iowa3.6%	1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Madison County3.1% Iowa4.4%	3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Madison County1.5% Iowa2.3%	1.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Madison County0.5% Iowa1.1%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Madison County3.7% Iowa7.5%	3.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Madison County3.3% Iowa6.8%	3.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Madison County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 23.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 16.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 55.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 8 commuters (12.1%) 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 Madison 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 Madison 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 Madison 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.

• Madison County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Madison County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:13 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:11 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:09 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:10 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:08 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:10 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:09 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:11 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:09 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:12 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:09 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:06 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:06 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Madison County were on the road by 7:06 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:09 AM). Iowa followed the same path, with the typical start moving 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Madison County now leave 32 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 Madison County has moved 8 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Madison County in the whole series.

How does Madison County's commute time compare?

Metric	Madison County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.1 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	17.4%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.5%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Madison County is 30.1 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 2.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau