Putnam County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Putnam County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Putnam County spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 199 hours, about 8.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.3 minutes.

Putnam 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 Putnam County would save about 80 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,468 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)
Putnam County	23.9 min	47.8 min	199 hrs/yr	$6,171	650
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 23.9 minutes to get to work in Putnam County. That's 7% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 81% of counties in Illinois

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Putnam County

• Car: 91.2% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 7.2%
• Other: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.4% unusually low
• Walked: 0.4% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 24% more common in Putnam County than the Illinois average (91.2% vs 73.7%).

Walking is unusually rare in Putnam County: 7.2 times less than the Illinois average (0.4% vs 2.8%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Putnam County: 15.1 times less than the Illinois average (0.4% vs 5.8%).

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

Few people walk or bike to work in Putnam County: just 0.6%, 5.4 times below the Illinois average of 3.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Putnam County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	93.0%	5.4%	0.2%	0.0%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	92.8%	5.5%	0.3%	0.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	94.0%	5.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.2%	4.2%	0.5%	0.0%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	95.8%	2.7%	0.2%	0.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	96.6%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	96.5%	1.1%	0.7%	0.0%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	94.9%	2.4%	0.7%	0.0%	1.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.8%	2.5%	0.6%	0.0%	1.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.2%	3.1%	0.6%	0.0%	1.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.1%	3.3%	0.7%	0.0%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	91.4%	5.9%	0.6%	0.0%	1.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	92.8%	5.2%	0.6%	0.0%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2022	93.4%	5.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	92.5%	5.8%	0.8%	0.1%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	91.2%	7.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%	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 2014 at 96.6%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 91.2% in 2024, down 1.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Putnam County: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 7.2% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.5% to 0.4% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Putnam County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Putnam County?

The bars show when commuters in Putnam 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 Putnam County7.1% Illinois5.6%	7.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Putnam County5.1% Illinois4.3%	5.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Putnam County6.8% Illinois4.9%	6.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Putnam County15.9% Illinois9.0%	15.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Putnam County11.9% Illinois9.4%	11.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Putnam County12.9% Illinois14.3%	12.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Putnam County12.3% Illinois11.6%	12.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Putnam County9.7% Illinois11.2%	9.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Putnam County2.7% Illinois5.2%	2.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Putnam County2.6% Illinois6.1%	2.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Putnam County0.6% Illinois2.9%	0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Putnam County1.2% Illinois1.5%	1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Putnam County5.7% Illinois7.7%	5.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Putnam County5.3% Illinois6.3%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Putnam County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.0% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 19.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Illinois's: 46.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (15.5%) 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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.

• Putnam County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Putnam County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:22 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:04 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:08 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:07 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Putnam County were on the road by 7:07 AM, 15 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 Putnam County now leave 31 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 Putnam County has moved 18 minutes earlier.

How does Putnam County's commute time compare?

Metric	Putnam County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.9 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:00 AM – 06:29 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	7.2%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	0.4%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Putnam County is about the same as in Illinois.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 0.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau