Brown County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Brown County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Brown County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 106 hours, about 4.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 46% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 10.9 minutes.

Brown County holds about 0.0% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Brown County would save about 42 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,315 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)
Brown County	12.7 min	25.5 min	106 hrs/yr	$3,288	472
Illinois	23.6 min	47.3 min	197 hrs/yr	$6,104	1,547
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: Illinois Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 12.7 minutes to get to work in Brown County. That's 43% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 3 fastest counties in Illinois

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 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Brown County

• Car: 88.4% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 7.3%
• Walked: 3.5%
• Other: 0.6%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Brown County: 5569.8 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Driving is 20% more common in Brown County than the Illinois average (88.4% vs 73.7%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Brown County: 61.9 times less than the Illinois average (0.1% vs 5.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Brown County, versus 0.3% in Illinois.

Biking is essentially absent in Brown County, versus 0.5% in Illinois.

Commute Mode Trends in Brown County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	85.3%	11.6%	2.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	87.8%	8.9%	1.9%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	90.2%	4.4%	1.5%	2.3%	1.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	90.4%	3.8%	1.1%	2.2%	2.4%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	90.6%	4.0%	1.5%	2.2%	1.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	90.4%	4.4%	1.8%	1.2%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	90.0%	5.7%	1.8%	0.5%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	92.1%	6.0%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	89.8%	7.7%	1.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	90.8%	6.2%	1.2%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2019	91.9%	6.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2020	91.3%	6.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2021	91.4%	6.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2022	92.3%	5.4%	1.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%
2023	90.7%	6.7%	1.9%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.4%	7.3%	3.5%	0.6%	0.1%	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 2022 at 92.3%. Overall it rose from 85.3% in 2009 to 88.4% in 2024, up 3.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Walking gained the most ground in Brown County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 3.5% in 2024, up 1.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 11.6% to 7.3% of workers (down 4.3 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 2.4% in 2012 and has since fallen back to 0.1%.

Commute Start Times in Brown County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Brown County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Brown County4.8% Illinois5.6%	4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Brown County10.0% Illinois4.3%	10.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Brown County2.8% Illinois4.9%	2.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Brown County7.5% Illinois9.0%	7.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Brown County13.1% Illinois9.4%	13.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Brown County13.9% Illinois14.3%	13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Brown County15.5% Illinois11.6%	15.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Brown County4.8% Illinois11.2%	4.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Brown County1.5% Illinois5.2%	1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Brown County3.1% Illinois6.1%	3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Brown County0.8% Illinois2.9%	0.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Brown County0.1% Illinois1.5%	0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Brown County8.7% Illinois7.7%	8.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Brown County13.5% Illinois6.3%	13.5%

Brown County Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Brown County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.6% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 17.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Illinois's: 47.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.2%) 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 Brown 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 Brown 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 Brown County next to Illinois 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.

• Brown County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Brown County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Brown County were on the road by 7:26 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Brown County now leave 12 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 Brown County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Brown County's commute time compare?

Metric	Brown County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.7 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.3%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.5%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Brown County is 12.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 3.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau