Winnebago County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Winnebago 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, 8:19 PM

How much time do drivers in Winnebago County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:19 PM

Commute Time Burden in Winnebago County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Winnebago County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 156 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 4.9 minutes.

Winnebago County holds about 2.2% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 1.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Winnebago County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,935 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)
Winnebago County	18.7 min	37.4 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,837	1,218
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

Edgar County (12.0 min)
Brown County (12.7 min)
Morgan County (13.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Illinois

Calhoun County (43.8 min)
Pulaski County (31.2 min)
Pope County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Winnebago County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 18.7 minutes to get to work in Winnebago County. That's 16% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 9.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Winnebago County

Public transit is unusually rare in Winnebago County: 11.7 times less than the Illinois average (0.5% vs 5.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Winnebago County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Winnebago 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	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	93.7%	3.2%	1.3%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	93.4%	3.2%	1.4%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2011	93.4%	3.3%	1.3%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.1%
2012	93.3%	3.4%	1.2%	0.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2013	93.4%	3.4%	1.2%	0.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2014	93.1%	3.3%	1.2%	0.6%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	93.6%	3.3%	0.9%	0.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	93.2%	3.3%	1.0%	0.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	92.9%	3.5%	1.0%	0.7%	1.2%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2018	92.5%	3.7%	1.1%	0.7%	1.3%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2019	93.0%	3.5%	1.3%	0.6%	1.1%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	91.7%	4.8%	1.4%	0.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	90.5%	6.0%	1.4%	0.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	89.6%	7.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	88.6%	8.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	87.0%	9.8%	1.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 93.7% in 2009 to 87.0% in 2024, down 6.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Winnebago County: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 9.8% in 2024, up 6.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Winnebago County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Winnebago County?

The bars show when commuters in Winnebago 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		7.1%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.7%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.4%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		9.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Winnebago County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% 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 looks much like Illinois's: 44.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.5%) 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 Winnebago 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 Winnebago 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 Winnebago 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	Winnebago County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Winnebago County were on the road by 7:34 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Winnebago County now leave 4 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 Winnebago County has moved 2 minutes later.

How does Winnebago County's commute time compare?

Metric	Winnebago County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	9.8%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.5%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Winnebago County is 18.7 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Winnebago County, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Winnebago County, IL is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 283,258 residents against a local median of 51,485. There is no headline here. Every measure below sits within 15% of the median across the nearest counties, which makes Winnebago County, IL an unremarkable member of its own neighbourhood rather than an outlier in it.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 8% below the local median at 18.7 min against 20.3 min. Winnebago County, IL has the 2nd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Winnebago County, IL	283,258	18.7 min #2/6	9.8% #3/6	7:34 AM #6/6
Ogle County, IL	51,485	22.3 min	8.0%	7:12 AM
Boone County, IL	53,226	23.3 min	9.6%	7:12 AM
Rock County, WI	164,349	19.0 min	9.2%	7:25 AM
Stephenson County, IL	43,760	15.9 min	10.3%	7:21 AM
Green County, WI	37,017	20.3 min	11.9%	7:15 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Winnebago County, Illinois.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Winnebago County, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 156 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,837 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Winnebago County, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Winnebago County, Illinois. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Winnebago County, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.5% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Illinois?

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).