Boise County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Boise County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Boise County spend about 76 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 317 hours, about 13.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 111% more time on the road than the Idaho average of 18.0 minutes each way, a difference of 20.0 minutes.

Boise County holds about 0.4% of Idaho's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Boise County would save about 127 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,926 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)
Boise County	38.0 min	76.0 min	317 hrs/yr	$9,815	656
Idaho	18.0 min	35.9 min	150 hrs/yr	$4,641	865
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: Idaho Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 38.0 minutes to get to work in Boise County. That's 70% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest counties in Idaho

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 20.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Boise County

• Car: 73.0%
• Worked at Home: 20.3%
• Walked: 6.6%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Other: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Boise County: 8.2 times less than the Idaho average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Boise County, versus 0.5% in Idaho.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Boise County, versus 0.1% in Idaho.

Biking is unusually rare in Boise County: 473.9 times less than the Idaho average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Commute Mode Trends in Boise County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Other
2009	84.7%	7.1%	7.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%
2010	85.8%	7.9%	4.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	1.2%	0.6%
2011	82.3%	9.8%	5.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	1.1%	0.6%
2012	78.9%	11.7%	5.8%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	1.6%	0.6%
2013	78.6%	13.1%	5.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	1.2%	0.6%
2014	81.2%	13.2%	3.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%	0.5%	0.6%
2015	80.4%	12.9%	4.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.7%
2016	78.3%	12.3%	6.1%	0.4%	0.5%	1.7%	0.0%	0.7%
2017	81.6%	9.9%	5.5%	0.4%	0.3%	2.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	82.4%	8.9%	5.3%	0.3%	0.4%	2.0%	0.4%	0.3%
2019	81.8%	9.5%	6.0%	0.0%	0.3%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%
2020	81.1%	10.7%	5.5%	0.0%	0.2%	1.8%	0.7%	0.0%
2021	81.2%	12.6%	5.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%
2022	77.2%	14.7%	7.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2023	73.9%	17.8%	8.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	73.0%	20.3%	6.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	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 85.8%. Overall it fell from 84.7% in 2009 to 73.0% in 2024, down 11.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Boise County: its share of workers rose from 7.1% in 2009 to 20.3% in 2024, up 13.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.1% to 6.6% of workers (down 0.5 percentage points).

Riding a motorcycle peaked at 2.0% in 2017 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Boise County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Boise County?

The bars show when commuters in Boise 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 Idaho for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Boise County4.7% Idaho5.2%	4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Boise County2.1% Idaho3.5%	2.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Boise County8.9% Idaho5.1%	8.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Boise County19.0% Idaho7.9%	19.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Boise County10.8% Idaho10.3%	10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Boise County14.1% Idaho14.2%	14.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Boise County13.0% Idaho14.5%	13.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Boise County9.1% Idaho10.6%	9.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Boise County2.0% Idaho5.4%	2.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Boise County4.8% Idaho6.3%	4.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Boise County3.8% Idaho3.3%	3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Boise County2.5% Idaho1.6%	2.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Boise County3.5% Idaho6.3%	3.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Boise County1.9% Idaho5.9%	1.9%

Boise County Idaho Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Boise County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 19.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.9% across Idaho. Early starts are more common than in Idaho: 15.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Idaho: 46.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.5%) 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 Boise 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 Boise 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 Boise County next to Idaho 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.

• Boise County
• Idaho
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Boise County	Idaho	United States
2009	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:26 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:12 AM	7:41 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:07 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:02 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:04 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:41 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:23 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:18 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:17 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:10 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Boise County were on the road by 7:10 AM, 16 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:25 AM). The shift is sharper than across Idaho, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Boise County now leave 28 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 Boise County has moved 13 minutes earlier.

How does Boise County's commute time compare?

Metric	Boise County	Idaho	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	38.0 min	18.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 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	20.3%	13.3%	15.0%
Walked	6.6%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Boise County is 38.0 minutes, longer than the 18.0 minutes in Idaho.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Idaho. 6.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Idaho.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau