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Monroe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:32 PM
Is the commute in Monroe County longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:32 PM

Commute Time Burden in Monroe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monroe County spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 254 hours, about 10.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 79% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 13.5 minutes.

Monroe County holds about 0.2% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monroe County would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,146 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)
Monroe County 30.4 min 60.9 min 254 hrs/yr $7,865 363
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
  1. Sioux County (10.1 min)
  2. Union County (10.4 min)
  3. Cass County (10.6 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa
  1. Monroe County (30.4 min)
  2. Madison County (30.1 min)
  3. Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Monroe County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 30.4 minutes to get to work in Monroe County. That's 36% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slowest county in Iowa

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 9.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monroe County

  • Car: 88.2%
  • Worked at Home: 9.0%
  • Walked: 2.1%
  • Other: 0.4%
  • Bicycle: 0.3%
  • Motorcycle: 0.1%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Monroe County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Monroe 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 Other Bicycle Motorcycle Public Transportation Taxi
2009 89.9% 5.0% 3.0% 0.8% 0.0% 0.1% 1.3% 0.0%
2010 89.3% 5.9% 3.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.2% 0.9% 0.0%
2011 90.9% 4.6% 3.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 1.3% 0.0%
2012 91.3% 4.9% 2.5% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 0.0%
2013 91.0% 4.8% 2.4% 0.9% 0.0% 0.2% 0.7% 0.0%
2014 93.2% 4.1% 1.7% 0.8% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2015 92.5% 3.9% 2.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0%
2016 91.5% 5.7% 1.9% 0.5% 0.0% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0%
2017 90.8% 5.0% 3.4% 0.5% 0.0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2018 89.4% 7.0% 3.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0%
2019 91.2% 6.2% 2.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0%
2020 89.5% 7.4% 3.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 87.5% 8.7% 3.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 85.4% 11.1% 3.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 89.6% 7.5% 2.3% 0.3% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 88.2% 9.0% 2.1% 0.4% 0.3% 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 was highest in 2014 at 93.2% and lowest in 2022 at 85.4%. Overall it fell from 89.9% in 2009 to 88.2% in 2024, down 1.7 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Monroe County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 9.0% in 2024, up 4.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.3% to 0.0% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 11.1% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 9.0%.

Commute Start Times in Monroe County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monroe County?

The bars show when commuters in Monroe 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
7.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
9.0%
5:30-5:59 AM
8.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
9.7%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
11.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
12.3%
8:00-8:29 AM
8.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM
7.0%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monroe County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 12.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 24.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Iowa: 42.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.1%) 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe County Iowa United States
2009 7:23 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:16 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:15 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:14 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:12 AM 7:34 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:19 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:20 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:16 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:15 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:18 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:12 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:09 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:07 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:14 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:09 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:14 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Monroe County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:23 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Monroe 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 Monroe County has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Monroe County's commute time compare?

Metric Monroe County Iowa US Average
Avg. Commute Time 30.4 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 9.0% 11.3% 15.0%
Walked 2.1% 2.9% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.7% 3.2%

The average commute time in Monroe County is 30.4 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Monroe County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Monroe County, IA is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 7,513 residents against a local median of 22,021. The measure that sets Monroe County, IA apart most is one-way commute: 30.4 min, 95% above the local median of 15.6 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 9.0% against a local median of 7.5%, 20% above it. The counties themselves sit within 2.0 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Monroe County, IA, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Monroe County, IA has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Monroe County, IA 7,513 30.4 min #6/6 9.0% #2/6 7:14 AM #1/6
Appanoose County, IA 12,184 15.8 min 8.5% 7:19 AM
Mahaska County, IA 22,021 15.9 min 7.5% 7:18 AM
Marion County, IA 33,642 15.5 min 10.2% 7:20 AM
Lucas County, IA 8,716 15.6 min 4.3% 7:18 AM
Wapello County, IA 35,362 13.9 min 5.5% 7:33 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Monroe County, Iowa.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 254 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,865 at a typical national wage. That's 79% more than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Monroe 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Monroe 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.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among 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).