Butte County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:06 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Butte County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:06 PM

Commute Time Burden in Butte County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Butte 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 4.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the Idaho average of 18.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.1 minutes.

Butte County holds about 0.1% of Idaho's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Butte County would save about 46 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,436 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)
Butte County	13.9 min	27.8 min	116 hrs/yr	$3,591	245
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Idaho

Custer County (8.9 min)
Lemhi County (11.6 min)
Madison County (12.0 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Idaho

Camas County (49.5 min)
Boise County (38.0 min)
Lincoln County (32.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Butte County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 13.9 minutes to get to work in Butte County. That's 38% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 77% of counties in Idaho

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Butte County

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Butte County: 3.1 times more than the Idaho average (0.7% vs 0.2%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Butte County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Butte 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	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Other
2009	78.3%	7.0%	5.7%	0.0%	0.0%	5.7%	0.0%	3.3%
2010	78.0%	9.2%	6.4%	0.0%	0.0%	4.1%	0.0%	2.4%
2011	80.4%	8.7%	6.8%	0.0%	0.0%	2.5%	0.0%	1.6%
2012	81.4%	8.5%	8.1%	0.0%	0.0%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	83.4%	6.9%	8.4%	0.0%	0.0%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	83.8%	8.0%	7.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	87.1%	4.0%	7.3%	0.0%	0.0%	1.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	88.7%	4.0%	4.3%	0.3%	0.7%	1.5%	0.0%	0.5%
2017	88.5%	4.4%	3.2%	0.5%	0.6%	1.7%	0.0%	1.0%
2018	87.7%	4.9%	3.3%	0.4%	1.0%	0.9%	0.0%	1.8%
2019	87.4%	5.0%	3.2%	0.4%	1.1%	1.4%	0.0%	1.7%
2020	81.4%	10.4%	4.3%	0.3%	1.2%	1.4%	0.0%	1.1%
2021	77.2%	14.7%	4.2%	1.2%	0.3%	1.3%	0.0%	1.0%
2022	76.0%	16.1%	5.2%	1.0%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.6%
2023	78.9%	13.5%	5.6%	1.0%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	75.7%	16.0%	6.2%	1.1%	0.7%	0.4%	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 2016 at 88.7%. Overall it fell from 78.3% in 2009 to 75.7% in 2024, down 2.6 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Butte County: its share of workers rose from 7.0% in 2009 to 16.0% in 2024, up 9.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 5.7% to 0.4% of workers (down 5.3 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 4th most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 8.4% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 6.2%.

Commute Start Times in Butte County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Butte County?

The bars show when commuters in Butte 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		4.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		15.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		14.5%
7:00-7:29 AM		4.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		15.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		1.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		1.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Butte County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 15.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.6% across Idaho. Early starts are more common than in Idaho: 16.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Idaho: 46.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.7%) 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 Butte 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 Butte 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 Butte 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Butte County	Idaho	United States
2009	7:30 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:51 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:41 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:22 AM	7:41 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2021	6:55 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:03 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:30 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:28 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Butte County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:30 AM). Idaho followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Butte County now leave 10 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 Butte County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Butte County's commute time compare?

Metric	Butte County	Idaho	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.9 min	18.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	16.0%	13.3%	15.0%
Walked	6.2%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Butte County is 13.9 minutes, shorter than the 18.0 minutes in Idaho.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Idaho. 6.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Idaho.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Butte County, ID Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Butte County, ID is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 2,683 residents against a local median of 24,952. The measure that sets Butte County, ID apart most is work from home: 16.0%, 110% above the local median of 7.6%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 13.9 min against a local median of 18.3 min, 24% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 24% below the local median it puts Butte County, ID at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 9.9% on work from home, so Butte County, ID sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Butte County, ID has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Butte County, ID	2,683	13.9 min #1/6	16.0% #1/6	7:28 AM #3/6
Blaine County, ID	24,952	14.0 min	14.6%	7:53 AM
Jefferson County, ID	33,153	22.1 min	7.6%	7:33 AM
Bingham County, ID	49,662	18.3 min	6.5%	7:33 AM
Minidoka County, ID	22,208	16.4 min	4.7%	7:27 AM
Clark County, ID	848	22.3 min	9.4%	7:20 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Butte County, Idaho.

Is commuting expensive in Butte County, Idaho?

Commuters here spend an estimated 116 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,591 at a typical national wage. That's 23% less than the typical Idaho commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Butte County, Idaho?

Traffic peaks between 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM in Butte County, Idaho. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How do commute times compare across counties in Idaho?

Among counties in Idaho, the shortest average commutes are in Custer County (8.9 min), Lemhi County (11.6 min), Madison County (12.0 min). The longest are in Camas County (49.5 min), Boise County (38.0 min), Lincoln County (32.0 min).