Woodbury County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Woodbury 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, 8:27 PM

How long is the round-trip commute in Woodbury County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:27 PM

Commute Time Burden in Woodbury County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Woodbury County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 136 hours, about 5.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 4% less time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Woodbury County holds about 3.3% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 3.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Woodbury County would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,691 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)
Woodbury County	16.4 min	32.7 min	136 hrs/yr	$4,227	660
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

Sioux County (10.1 min)
Union County (10.4 min)
Cass County (10.6 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa

Monroe County (30.4 min)
Madison County (30.1 min)
Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Woodbury County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.4 minutes to get to work in Woodbury County. That's 27% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 5.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Woodbury County

Commute Mode Trends in Woodbury County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Woodbury 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	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	90.4%	5.0%	2.2%	0.8%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	90.0%	4.8%	2.5%	0.8%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	90.0%	4.5%	2.2%	0.9%	2.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	90.4%	4.0%	1.8%	1.0%	2.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	90.4%	3.6%	1.8%	1.1%	2.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	90.5%	3.8%	1.6%	1.1%	2.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	91.4%	3.7%	1.4%	0.9%	2.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	91.4%	3.9%	1.7%	1.0%	1.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	91.8%	4.0%	1.7%	1.0%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	92.6%	4.2%	1.6%	0.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	93.0%	3.6%	1.8%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	92.5%	3.9%	2.0%	1.1%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	92.3%	4.3%	1.8%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	92.2%	4.7%	1.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	90.9%	5.3%	2.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	90.7%	5.6%	1.9%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2019 at 93.0% and lowest in 2010 at 90.0%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 90.4% in 2009 and 90.7% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Woodbury County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 5.6% in 2024, up 0.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Woodbury County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Woodbury County?

The bars show when commuters in Woodbury 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		5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.1%
7:30-7:59 AM		17.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		9.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Woodbury County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.6% across Iowa. Early starts are about as common as in Iowa: 15.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush looks much like Iowa's: 49.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.9%) 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 Woodbury 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 Woodbury 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 Woodbury 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	Woodbury County	Iowa	United States
2009	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:43 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:40 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:41 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:40 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:39 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:39 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:39 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:34 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:36 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Woodbury County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:44 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Woodbury County now leave 3 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 Woodbury County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Woodbury County's commute time compare?

Metric	Woodbury County	Iowa	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.4 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	5.6%	11.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.9%	2.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Woodbury County is 16.4 minutes, shorter than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

1.1% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in Iowa. 1.9% commute by walking, lower than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Woodbury County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Woodbury County, IA is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 106,250 residents against a local median of 11,600. Woodbury County, IA's work from home, at 5.6%, runs 35% below the 8.6% typical of the counties around it.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 16.4 min against a local median of 13.1 min, 25% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 25% above the local median it puts Woodbury County, IA at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 4.8% on work from home, so Woodbury County, IA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Woodbury County, IA has the 5th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Woodbury County, IA	106,250	16.4 min #5/6	5.6% #5/6	7:35 AM #6/6
Monona County, IA	8,557	16.8 min	7.7%	7:19 AM
Plymouth County, IA	25,747	16.0 min	9.2%	7:10 AM
Dakota County, NE	21,354	13.1 min	4.9%	7:23 AM
Ida County, IA	6,911	11.8 min	9.7%	7:14 AM
Cherokee County, IA	11,600	12.7 min	8.6%	7:21 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Woodbury County, Iowa.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Woodbury County, Iowa?

Commuters here spend an estimated 136 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,227 at a typical national wage. That's 4% less than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Woodbury County, Iowa?

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

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).