Jefferson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Jefferson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jefferson County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 184 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% more time on the road than the Idaho average of 18.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.2 minutes.

Jefferson County holds about 1.7% of Idaho's population but accounts for roughly 2.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jefferson County would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,285 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)
Jefferson County	22.1 min	44.2 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,714	838
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

N

On average, it takes 22.1 minutes to get to work in Jefferson County. That's 1% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 81% of counties in Idaho

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 7.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jefferson County

• Car: 88.1%
• Worked at Home: 7.6%
• Public Transportation: 2.2% unusually high
• Walked: 1.4%
• Other: 0.6%
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually common in Jefferson County: 4.0 times more than the Idaho average (2.2% vs 0.5%).

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

Biking is essentially absent in Jefferson County, versus 0.7% in Idaho.

Commute Mode Trends in Jefferson County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	88.1%	4.8%	3.0%	2.9%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	89.4%	4.8%	3.3%	1.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	90.4%	4.4%	2.8%	1.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	91.2%	4.2%	2.1%	1.1%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.5%
2013	91.2%	3.9%	2.0%	1.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	91.3%	4.3%	1.5%	1.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	90.8%	4.6%	1.4%	1.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	88.1%	5.3%	1.9%	2.6%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%
2017	87.5%	5.2%	2.4%	2.8%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%
2018	87.3%	5.5%	2.3%	2.2%	1.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	86.8%	6.3%	2.7%	2.4%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	85.9%	7.9%	1.9%	2.1%	1.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2021	87.5%	7.2%	2.3%	1.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	87.6%	7.0%	2.3%	1.7%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.1%	7.3%	2.4%	1.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.1%	7.6%	2.2%	1.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2014 at 91.3% and lowest in 2020 at 85.9%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 88.1% in 2009 and 88.1% in 2024.

Working from home gained the most ground in Jefferson County: its share of workers rose from 4.8% in 2009 to 7.6% in 2024, up 2.8 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.9% to 1.4% of workers (down 1.5 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Jefferson County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Jefferson County?

The bars show when commuters in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County3.9% Idaho5.2%	3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Jefferson County3.5% Idaho3.5%	3.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Jefferson County6.9% Idaho5.1%	6.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Jefferson County9.4% Idaho7.9%	9.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Jefferson County8.2% Idaho10.3%	8.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Jefferson County16.5% Idaho14.2%	16.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Jefferson County18.0% Idaho14.5%	18.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Jefferson County13.2% Idaho10.6%	13.2%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Jefferson County5.0% Idaho5.4%	5.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Jefferson County3.8% Idaho6.3%	3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Jefferson County3.8% Idaho3.3%	3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Jefferson County0.2% Idaho1.6%	0.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Jefferson County4.6% Idaho6.3%	4.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Jefferson County2.9% Idaho5.9%	2.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Jefferson County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.5% across Idaho. Early starts are about as common as in Idaho: 14.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Idaho: 56.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.4%) 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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.

• Jefferson County
• Idaho
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Jefferson County	Idaho	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:29 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:32 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:30 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:41 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:32 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	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:37 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:40 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:35 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jefferson County were on the road by 7:33 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:31 AM). That goes against the trend across Idaho, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Jefferson County now leave 5 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 Jefferson County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Jefferson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Jefferson County	Idaho	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.1 min	18.0 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	7.6%	13.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.2%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Jefferson County is 22.1 minutes, longer than the 18.0 minutes in Idaho.

2.2% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.5% in Idaho. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Idaho.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau