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Montgomery County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 7:59 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Montgomery County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 7:59 PM

Commute Time Burden in Montgomery County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Montgomery County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 139 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 29% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 7.0 minutes.

Montgomery County holds about 0.2% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Montgomery County would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,722 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)
Montgomery County 16.7 min 33.3 min 139 hrs/yr $4,305 496
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Illinois
  1. Edgar County (12.0 min)
  2. Brown County (12.7 min)
  3. Morgan County (13.1 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Illinois
  1. Calhoun County (43.8 min)
  2. Pulaski County (31.2 min)
  3. Pope County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Montgomery County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.7 minutes to get to work in Montgomery County. That's 26% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 78% of counties in Illinois

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Montgomery County

  • Car: 86.8%
  • Worked at Home: 9.0%
  • Walked: 2.8%
  • Other: 0.9%
  • Bicycle: 0.5%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Montgomery County, versus 0.1% in Illinois.

Public transit is unusually rare in Montgomery County: 330.2 times less than the Illinois average (0.0% vs 5.8%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Montgomery County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Montgomery 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 Other Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 90.7% 5.9% 2.2% 0.7% 0.1% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2%
2010 89.6% 6.4% 2.1% 1.3% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2%
2011 89.5% 6.2% 2.9% 0.8% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2012 90.6% 5.8% 2.6% 0.5% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2%
2013 91.3% 5.0% 2.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2014 92.6% 4.3% 2.0% 0.7% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1%
2015 94.0% 3.2% 1.9% 0.4% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
2016 94.3% 3.7% 1.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2017 92.9% 4.3% 1.7% 0.3% 0.1% 0.7% 0.0% 0.1%
2018 93.0% 4.2% 1.8% 0.3% 0.1% 0.5% 0.0% 0.1%
2019 92.2% 4.6% 2.3% 0.3% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0% 0.1%
2020 90.2% 6.1% 2.6% 0.7% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1%
2021 88.4% 7.4% 2.8% 0.8% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 87.9% 7.8% 3.1% 0.7% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 86.2% 9.1% 3.5% 0.8% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 86.8% 9.0% 2.8% 0.9% 0.5% 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 was highest in 2016 at 94.3% and lowest in 2023 at 86.2%. Overall it fell from 90.7% in 2009 to 86.8% in 2024, down 3.9 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Montgomery County: its share of workers rose from 5.9% in 2009 to 9.0% in 2024, up 3.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Montgomery County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Montgomery County?

The bars show when commuters in Montgomery 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
7.9%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
4.7%
6:00-6:29 AM
11.6%
6:30-6:59 AM
12.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM
19.5%
8:00-8:29 AM
7.0%
8:30-8:59 AM
3.1%
9:00-9:59 AM
2.3%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.7%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.2%
4:00-11:59 PM
5.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Montgomery County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.6% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 17.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 51.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.3%) 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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery 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 Montgomery 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show typical departure times by year
Year Montgomery County Illinois United States
2009 7:22 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:21 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:23 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:24 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:22 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:23 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:23 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:28 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:31 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:28 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:24 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:28 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:30 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:20 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:18 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:20 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Montgomery County were on the road by 7:20 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:22 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Montgomery County now leave 18 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 Montgomery County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Montgomery County's commute time compare?

Metric Montgomery County Illinois US Average
Avg. Commute Time 16.7 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 9.0% 15.9% 15.0%
Walked 2.8% 2.8% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 5.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Montgomery County is 16.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. The share of commuters using walking is about the same as Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Montgomery County, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Montgomery County, IL is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 27,942 residents against a local median of 33,536. Nothing separates Montgomery County, IL sharply from the counties around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.

The largest of those small differences is work from home, 10% above the local median at 9.0% against 8.2%. Montgomery County, IL has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Montgomery County, IL 27,942 16.7 min #1/6 9.0% #3/6 7:20 AM #3/6
Bond County, IL 16,715 17.3 min 8.2% 7:22 AM
Christian County, IL 33,536 18.3 min 7.1% 7:26 AM
Macoupin County, IL 44,343 23.2 min 9.4% 7:16 AM
Fayette County, IL 21,314 21.8 min 7.1% 7:18 AM
Sangamon County, IL 194,875 17.6 min 13.7% 7:41 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Montgomery County, Illinois.

Is living in Montgomery County, Illinois good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 139 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,305 at a typical national wage. That's 29% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Montgomery County, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Montgomery County, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Montgomery County, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Illinois have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Illinois, the shortest average commutes are in Edgar County (12.0 min), Brown County (12.7 min), Morgan County (13.1 min). The longest are in Calhoun County (43.8 min), Pulaski County (31.2 min), Pope County (31.0 min).