Monroe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Monroe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monroe County spend about 56 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 235 hours, about 9.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 4.6 minutes.

Monroe County holds about 0.3% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monroe County would save about 94 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,914 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)
Monroe County	28.2 min	56.4 min	235 hrs/yr	$7,285	1,682
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 28.2 minutes to get to work in Monroe County. That's 26% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 92% of counties in Illinois

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monroe County

• Car: 85.4%
• Worked at Home: 12.6%
• Walked: 1.5%
• Other: 0.5%
• 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 essentially absent in Monroe County, versus 0.1% in Illinois.

Public transit is unusually rare in Monroe County: 1091.6 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 5.8%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Monroe County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Monroe 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	93.1%	4.4%	1.4%	0.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	93.7%	3.5%	1.8%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	93.9%	3.4%	1.9%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	94.5%	3.1%	1.4%	0.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	94.9%	2.6%	1.7%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	93.9%	3.2%	2.0%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	93.1%	5.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	92.3%	5.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	91.9%	5.9%	1.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	91.8%	6.1%	1.3%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	91.1%	6.2%	1.0%	1.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	89.5%	7.9%	1.2%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	89.2%	7.9%	1.2%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	87.9%	9.5%	1.3%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.0%	11.6%	1.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	85.4%	12.6%	1.5%	0.5%	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 2013 at 94.9%. Overall it fell from 93.1% in 2009 to 85.4% in 2024, down 7.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 11 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Monroe County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 12.6% in 2024, up 8.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.8% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Monroe County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monroe County?

The bars show when commuters in Monroe 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 Monroe County3.6% Illinois5.6%	3.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Monroe County4.6% Illinois4.3%	4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Monroe County6.5% Illinois4.9%	6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Monroe County15.0% Illinois9.0%	15.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Monroe County11.7% Illinois9.4%	11.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Monroe County16.9% Illinois14.3%	16.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Monroe County11.8% Illinois11.6%	11.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Monroe County10.3% Illinois11.2%	10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Monroe County3.9% Illinois5.2%	3.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Monroe County3.8% Illinois6.1%	3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Monroe County1.8% Illinois2.9%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Monroe County0.9% Illinois1.5%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Monroe County4.6% Illinois7.7%	4.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Monroe County4.7% Illinois6.3%	4.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monroe County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are about as common as in Illinois: 14.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 50.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.8%) 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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.

• Monroe County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Monroe County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:18 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:15 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:15 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:14 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:12 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:12 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:15 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:15 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:15 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Monroe County were on the road by 7:15 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Illinois, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Monroe County now leave 22 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 Monroe County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Monroe County's commute time compare?

Metric	Monroe County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	28.2 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.6%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.5%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Monroe County is 28.2 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau