Ness County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Ness County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Ness County spend about 20 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 85 hours, about 3.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 41% less time on the road than the Kansas average of 17.2 minutes each way, a difference of 7.0 minutes.

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

Working from home just 2 days a week in Ness County would save about 34 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,052 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)
Ness County	10.2 min	20.4 min	85 hrs/yr	$2,631	205
Kansas	17.2 min	34.4 min	143 hrs/yr	$4,448	662
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: Kansas Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 10.2 minutes to get to work in Ness County. That's 55% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 79% of counties in Kansas

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 7.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Ness County

• Car: 87.6%
• Worked at Home: 7.6%
• Walked: 4.1%
• Other: 0.7%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Ness County, versus 0.1% in Kansas.

Public transit is essentially absent in Ness County, versus 0.4% in Kansas.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Ness County, versus 0.2% in Kansas.

Biking is essentially absent in Ness County, versus 0.3% in Kansas.

Commute Mode Trends in Ness County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	82.4%	8.7%	6.3%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.9%
2010	82.3%	9.4%	5.6%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2011	83.7%	9.2%	4.8%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	81.0%	11.1%	5.7%	1.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	82.8%	10.0%	6.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	84.7%	8.9%	5.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	86.3%	7.0%	5.6%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	86.0%	7.1%	6.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	85.6%	9.1%	4.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	87.1%	8.1%	4.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	84.1%	8.5%	6.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2020	84.5%	8.9%	5.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%
2021	83.9%	10.1%	4.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%
2022	86.1%	7.1%	5.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%
2023	85.4%	7.3%	5.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%
2024	87.6%	7.6%	4.1%	0.7%	0.0%	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 bottomed out in 2012 at 81.0%. Overall it rose from 82.4% in 2009 to 87.6% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.3% to 4.1% of workers (down 2.2 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 11.1% in 2012 and has since fallen back to 7.6%.

Commute Start Times in Ness County

• 🚦 Rush-Hour RegularsThe highest share of rush-hour departures among Kansas's 105 counties: 76.0% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Ness County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Ness County2.2% Kansas4.7%	2.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Ness County3.2% Kansas3.5%	3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Ness County2.1% Kansas5.2%	2.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Ness County5.6% Kansas7.6%	5.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Ness County15.5% Kansas10.3%	15.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Ness County20.8% Kansas14.9%	20.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Ness County28.3% Kansas16.8%	28.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Ness County11.5% Kansas10.4%	11.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Ness County2.9% Kansas4.5%	2.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Ness County2.2% Kansas5.0%	2.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Ness County0.1% Kansas2.5%	0.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Ness County0.1% Kansas1.1%	0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Ness County1.7% Kansas7.0%	1.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Ness County3.8% Kansas6.6%	3.8%

Ness County Kansas Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Ness County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 28.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.8% across Kansas. Early starts are less common than in Kansas: 7.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kansas: 76.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 52.3% there. About 1 in 13 commuters (8.0%) 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 Ness 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 Ness 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 Ness County next to Kansas 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.

• Ness County
• Kansas
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Ness County	Kansas	United States
2009	7:47 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:44 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:30 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Ness County were on the road by 7:31 AM, 16 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:47 AM). The shift is sharper than across Kansas, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Ness County now leave 7 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 Ness County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Ness County's commute time compare?

Metric	Ness County	Kansas	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	10.2 min	17.2 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.6%	11.8%	15.0%
Walked	4.1%	2.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.4%	3.2%

The average commute time in Ness County is 10.2 minutes, shorter than the 17.2 minutes in Kansas.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Kansas. 4.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Kansas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau