Commuting in Palo Alto 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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What does a typical morning commute look like in Palo Alto County?
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Commute Time Burden in Palo Alto County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Palo Alto County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 103 hours, about 4.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 27% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.6 minutes.
Palo Alto County holds about 0.3% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Palo Alto County would save about 41 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,276 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)
Palo Alto County
12.3 min
24.7 min
103 hrs/yr
$3,189
233
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.
On average, it takes
12.3
minutes to get to work in
Palo Alto County.
That's 45% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 90% of counties in Iowa
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 4.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Palo Alto County
Car:
87.7%
Walked:
5.1%
Worked at Home:
4.9%
Other:
0.7%
Bicycle:
0.7%
Public Transportation:
0.5%
Motorcycle:
0.4%unusually high
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Palo Alto County: 3.7 times more than the Iowa average (0.4% vs 0.1%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Palo Alto County, versus 0.2% in Iowa.
Commute Mode Trends in Palo Alto County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Palo Alto 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
Walked
Worked at Home
Bicycle
Other
Public Transportation
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
84.3%
2.9%
7.9%
0.7%
0.2%
3.5%
0.6%
0.0%
2010
84.2%
3.7%
8.1%
0.5%
0.2%
2.7%
0.6%
0.0%
2011
87.7%
3.9%
6.7%
0.3%
0.4%
0.6%
0.4%
0.0%
2012
88.2%
4.2%
5.7%
0.5%
0.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.0%
2013
88.5%
4.5%
4.8%
0.6%
0.8%
0.4%
0.4%
0.0%
2014
88.7%
5.1%
4.4%
0.4%
0.9%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2015
91.2%
4.2%
3.3%
0.2%
1.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2016
91.6%
4.6%
2.5%
0.2%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2017
91.3%
4.3%
2.7%
0.3%
1.1%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2018
91.0%
4.0%
3.3%
0.3%
1.1%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2019
90.3%
3.0%
5.1%
0.2%
1.2%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
90.4%
3.2%
3.9%
0.7%
1.0%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
2021
89.9%
2.7%
5.0%
0.8%
1.3%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
2022
88.6%
2.8%
6.2%
0.7%
0.9%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
2023
87.1%
4.3%
6.2%
0.7%
0.7%
0.6%
0.3%
0.0%
2024
87.7%
5.1%
4.9%
0.7%
0.7%
0.5%
0.4%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2016 at 91.6% and lowest in 2010 at 84.2%. Overall it rose from 84.3% in 2009 to 87.7% in 2024, up 3.4 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.
Walking gained the most ground in Palo Alto County: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 5.1% in 2024, up 2.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 7.9% to 4.9% of workers (down 3.0 percentage points).
Walking overtook public transit to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2010 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Palo Alto County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Palo Alto County?
The bars show when commuters in Palo Alto 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 AMPalo Alto County5.3%Iowa5.2%
5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMPalo Alto County6.6%Iowa4.1%
6.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMPalo Alto County5.9%Iowa5.7%
5.9%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMPalo Alto County5.3%Iowa8.2%
5.3%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMPalo Alto County12.8%Iowa11.2%
12.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMPalo Alto County14.5%Iowa15.1%
14.5%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMPalo Alto County14.1%Iowa15.6%
14.1%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMPalo Alto County10.6%Iowa9.1%
10.6%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMPalo Alto County2.9%Iowa3.6%
2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMPalo Alto County5.2%Iowa4.4%
5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMPalo Alto County1.8%Iowa2.3%
1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMPalo Alto County0.3%Iowa1.1%
0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMPalo Alto County8.0%Iowa7.5%
8.0%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMPalo Alto County6.8%Iowa6.8%
6.8%
Palo Alto CountyIowaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Palo Alto County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are more common than in Iowa: 17.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 52.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (22.1%) 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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto 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
Palo Alto 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
7:24 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:28 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:31 AM
7:34 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:35 AM
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:37 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:39 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:38 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:37 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:34 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:32 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:27 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:26 AM
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:31 AM
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:29 AM
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Palo Alto County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:25 AM). That goes against the trend across Iowa, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Palo Alto County now leave 9 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 Palo Alto County has moved 4 minutes earlier.
How does Palo Alto County's commute time compare?
Metric
Palo Alto County
Iowa
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
12.3 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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
4.9%
11.3%
15.0%
Walked
5.1%
2.9%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
0.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Palo Alto County is 12.3 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.
0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 5.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.
Palo Alto County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Palo Alto County, IA is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 8,863 residents against a local median of 14,516. The measure that sets Palo Alto County, IA apart most is work from home: 4.9%, 28% below the local median of 6.8%.
The counties themselves spread 5.0% on work from home, so Palo Alto County, IA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Palo Alto County, IA has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Palo Alto County, Iowa.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Palo Alto County, Iowa?
Commuters here spend an estimated 103 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,189 at a typical national wage. That's 27% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Palo Alto County, Iowa?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Palo Alto County, Iowa. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
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).