Webster County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Webster County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Webster 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.

Webster County holds about 1.2% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Webster 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)
Webster County	14.0 min	27.9 min	116 hrs/yr	$3,609	456
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 Webster County. That's 38% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties 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 4.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Webster County

• Car: 90.2%
• Worked at Home: 4.6%
• Walked: 2.4%
• Taxi: 1.2% unusually high
• Other: 0.8%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Webster County: 8.7 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Webster County: 7.8 times more than the Iowa average (1.2% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Webster County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Taxi	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle
2009	91.7%	3.8%	3.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	91.6%	3.8%	3.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
2011	91.7%	3.6%	3.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
2012	90.7%	4.2%	3.2%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.5%
2013	90.5%	4.9%	2.9%	0.0%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%
2014	91.3%	4.1%	2.5%	0.1%	0.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%
2015	91.4%	4.7%	2.0%	0.2%	0.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%
2016	90.1%	4.7%	3.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%
2017	91.2%	4.0%	3.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%
2018	90.8%	4.1%	3.7%	0.2%	0.5%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%
2019	89.7%	4.5%	4.1%	0.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%
2020	89.3%	3.9%	3.9%	1.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%
2021	90.7%	3.4%	3.4%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.6%	0.1%
2022	90.3%	4.1%	3.5%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	90.6%	4.0%	3.0%	1.1%	0.8%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	90.2%	4.6%	2.4%	1.2%	0.8%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2020 at 89.3%. Overall it fell from 91.7% in 2009 to 90.2% in 2024, down 1.5 percentage points.

Taking a taxi gained the most ground in Webster County: its share of workers rose from 0.0% in 2009 to 1.2% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.4% to 2.4% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Taking a taxi overtook biking to become the 4th most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Webster County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Webster County?

The bars show when commuters in Webster 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 Webster County4.5% Iowa5.2%	4.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Webster County3.9% Iowa4.1%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Webster County6.0% Iowa5.7%	6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Webster County8.6% Iowa8.2%	8.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Webster County10.9% Iowa11.2%	10.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Webster County15.0% Iowa15.1%	15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Webster County16.2% Iowa15.6%	16.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Webster County7.9% Iowa9.1%	7.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Webster County2.9% Iowa3.6%	2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Webster County2.6% Iowa4.4%	2.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Webster County2.2% Iowa2.3%	2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Webster County1.8% Iowa1.1%	1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Webster County7.7% Iowa7.5%	7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Webster County9.8% Iowa6.8%	9.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Webster County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are about as common as in Iowa: 14.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 50.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.1%) 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 Webster 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 Webster 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 Webster 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.

• Webster County
• Iowa
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Webster County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:39 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:39 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:38 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:33 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:33 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:31 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Webster County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:39 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Webster County now leave 6 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Webster County's commute time compare?

Metric	Webster County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	14.0 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	4.6%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.4%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.7%	3.2%

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

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 2.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau