Wayne County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Wayne County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wayne County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 179 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.2 minutes.

Wayne County holds about 0.1% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wayne County would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,215 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)
Wayne County	21.4 min	42.9 min	179 hrs/yr	$5,538	660
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 21.4 minutes to get to work in Wayne County. That's 4% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wayne County

• Car: 91.0% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 7.0%
• Walked: 1.0%
• Public Transportation: 0.5% unusually low
• Other: 0.4%
• Bicycle: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 24% more common in Wayne County than the Illinois average (91.0% vs 73.7%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Wayne County: 12.9 times less than the Illinois average (0.5% vs 5.8%).

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

Biking is unusually rare in Wayne County: 4.2 times less than the Illinois average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Wayne County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.4%	2.8%	4.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	91.5%	3.2%	3.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	92.5%	3.4%	3.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	92.4%	3.6%	2.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	92.9%	2.8%	2.6%	0.6%	0.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	92.9%	3.8%	1.8%	0.8%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	91.4%	5.0%	1.8%	1.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	90.4%	5.6%	2.1%	1.1%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	90.5%	5.6%	2.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	90.5%	6.1%	1.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	90.9%	6.0%	1.9%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.0%	6.5%	1.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	92.2%	5.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.5%	6.3%	1.1%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.8%	7.0%	1.1%	0.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.0%	7.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.4%	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 2013 at 92.9% and lowest in 2016 at 90.4%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 91.4% in 2009 and 91.0% in 2024.

Working from home gained the most ground in Wayne County: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 7.0% in 2024, up 4.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.2% to 1.0% of workers (down 3.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2011 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Wayne County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wayne County?

The bars show when commuters in Wayne 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 Wayne County5.8% Illinois5.6%	5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Wayne County5.3% Illinois4.3%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Wayne County6.2% Illinois4.9%	6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Wayne County13.9% Illinois9.0%	13.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Wayne County10.7% Illinois9.4%	10.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Wayne County12.1% Illinois14.3%	12.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Wayne County13.2% Illinois11.6%	13.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Wayne County5.7% Illinois11.2%	5.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Wayne County1.8% Illinois5.2%	1.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Wayne County4.5% Illinois6.1%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Wayne County0.6% Illinois2.9%	0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Wayne County0.7% Illinois1.5%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Wayne County10.2% Illinois7.7%	10.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Wayne County9.3% Illinois6.3%	9.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wayne County is 6:00-6:29 AM, when 13.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 9.0% 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 spread out than in Illinois: 41.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.3%) 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 Wayne 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 Wayne 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 Wayne 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.

• Wayne County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Wayne County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:16 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:20 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wayne County were on the road by 7:20 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:17 AM). Illinois followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Wayne County now leave 18 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Wayne County's commute time compare?

Metric	Wayne County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.4 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.0%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Wayne County is 21.4 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau