Mitchell County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Mitchell County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mitchell County spend about 28 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 116 hours, about 4.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.0 minutes.

Mitchell 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 Mitchell County would save about 47 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,444 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)
Mitchell County	14.0 min	27.9 min	116 hrs/yr	$3,610	278
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 14.0 minutes to get to work in Mitchell County. That's 38% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 11.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mitchell County

• Car: 78.1%
• Worked at Home: 11.9%
• Other: 4.8%
• Walked: 4.6%
• Motorcycle: 0.6% unusually high
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Mitchell County: 5.5 times more than the Iowa average (0.6% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Mitchell County: 5.3 times less than the Iowa average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Mitchell County: 4.3 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in Mitchell County: 42345.8 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Mitchell County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	83.8%	7.9%	1.1%	5.9%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.8%
2010	84.6%	7.0%	1.3%	5.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.7%
2011	83.5%	8.2%	1.0%	6.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	83.6%	9.1%	0.9%	5.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.6%
2013	82.5%	9.7%	0.6%	5.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	1.3%
2014	83.7%	8.5%	1.0%	5.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	1.1%
2015	83.0%	8.9%	0.9%	5.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	1.3%
2016	83.6%	8.9%	1.0%	5.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	1.1%
2017	82.9%	9.2%	1.1%	5.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	1.3%
2018	84.3%	8.9%	1.7%	4.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.6%
2019	83.4%	9.9%	1.4%	4.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.6%
2020	84.4%	8.9%	2.5%	3.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2021	83.1%	9.9%	2.2%	4.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2022	82.2%	10.5%	3.5%	3.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	81.5%	11.3%	3.3%	3.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	78.1%	11.9%	4.8%	4.6%	0.6%	0.1%	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 2010 at 84.6%. Overall it fell from 83.8% in 2009 to 78.1% in 2024, down 5.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 4 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Mitchell County: its share of workers rose from 7.9% in 2009 to 11.9% in 2024, up 4.0 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.9% to 4.6% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Riding a motorcycle overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2017 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Mitchell County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mitchell County?

The bars show when commuters in Mitchell 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 Mitchell County8.4% Iowa5.2%	8.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Mitchell County4.0% Iowa4.1%	4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Mitchell County7.0% Iowa5.7%	7.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Mitchell County9.0% Iowa8.2%	9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Mitchell County13.8% Iowa11.2%	13.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Mitchell County17.3% Iowa15.1%	17.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Mitchell County11.2% Iowa15.6%	11.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Mitchell County12.3% Iowa9.1%	12.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Mitchell County2.3% Iowa3.6%	2.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Mitchell County2.4% Iowa4.4%	2.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Mitchell County0.9% Iowa2.3%	0.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Mitchell County1.7% Iowa1.1%	1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Mitchell County5.4% Iowa7.5%	5.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Mitchell County4.3% Iowa6.8%	4.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Mitchell County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 19.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 54.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.7%) 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell 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.

• Mitchell County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Mitchell County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:11 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:11 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:16 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:11 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:08 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:10 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mitchell County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:20 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Mitchell 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 Mitchell County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Mitchell County's commute time compare?

Metric	Mitchell County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	14.0 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	11.9%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	4.6%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Mitchell County is 14.0 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 4.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau