Adams County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Adams County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Adams County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 144 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the Indiana average of 21.1 minutes each way, a difference of 3.8 minutes.

Adams County holds about 0.5% of Indiana's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Adams County would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,792 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)
Adams County	17.3 min	34.7 min	144 hrs/yr	$4,479	736
Indiana	21.1 min	42.2 min	176 hrs/yr	$5,455	1,308
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: Indiana Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 17.3 minutes to get to work in Adams County. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 85% of counties in Indiana

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Adams County

• Car: 88.2%
• Worked at Home: 6.9%
• Walked: 3.6%
• Taxi: 0.6% unusually high
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Other: 0.3%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Adams County: 4.0 times less than the Indiana average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Adams County: 5.4 times less than the Indiana average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Adams County: 4.4 times more than the Indiana average (0.6% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Adams County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Taxi	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Motorcycle
2009	91.9%	4.3%	2.4%	0.1%	0.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	92.9%	3.7%	1.9%	0.1%	0.4%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	93.6%	4.0%	1.2%	0.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	93.0%	4.2%	1.1%	0.3%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	91.6%	4.9%	1.6%	0.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	91.4%	3.9%	2.1%	0.2%	1.0%	1.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	92.5%	3.8%	2.0%	0.2%	0.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	91.3%	4.2%	2.7%	0.1%	0.2%	1.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	91.0%	4.5%	2.6%	0.0%	0.3%	1.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	91.1%	4.6%	2.2%	0.1%	0.2%	1.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	91.1%	4.8%	2.0%	0.1%	0.2%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%
2020	90.8%	5.4%	2.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%
2021	91.2%	4.9%	2.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%
2022	90.8%	5.6%	2.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%
2023	89.9%	5.5%	3.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.9%	0.0%
2024	88.2%	6.9%	3.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2011 at 93.6%. Overall it fell from 91.9% in 2009 to 88.2% in 2024, down 3.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Adams County: its share of workers rose from 4.3% in 2009 to 6.9% in 2024, up 2.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Taking a taxi overtook public transit to become the 4th most common choice in the 2024 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Adams County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Adams County?

The bars show when commuters in Adams 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 Indiana for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Adams County5.9% Indiana6.7%	5.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Adams County5.3% Indiana4.5%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Adams County7.2% Indiana5.6%	7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Adams County10.2% Indiana8.5%	10.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Adams County12.6% Indiana9.9%	12.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Adams County14.9% Indiana13.8%	14.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Adams County16.2% Indiana12.3%	16.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Adams County4.7% Indiana9.6%	4.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Adams County3.8% Indiana4.4%	3.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Adams County4.1% Indiana5.2%	4.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Adams County1.4% Indiana2.5%	1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Adams County0.7% Indiana1.2%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Adams County6.6% Indiana7.5%	6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Adams County6.4% Indiana8.0%	6.4%

Adams County Indiana Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Adams County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.3% across Indiana. Early starts are more common than in Indiana: 18.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Indiana: 48.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.7% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.2%) 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 Adams 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 Adams 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 Adams County next to Indiana 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.

• Adams County
• Indiana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Adams County	Indiana	United States
2009	7:10 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:12 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:15 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:25 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:19 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:18 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:10 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:06 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:12 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:13 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Adams County were on the road by 7:18 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:10 AM). Across Indiana, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Adams County now leave 20 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 Adams County has moved 12 minutes later.

How does Adams County's commute time compare?

Metric	Adams County	Indiana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.3 min	21.1 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	6.9%	10.7%	15.0%
Walked	3.6%	1.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Adams County is 17.3 minutes, shorter than the 21.1 minutes in Indiana.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Indiana. 3.6% commute by walking, higher than the 1.9% in Indiana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau