Commuting in Rice County, Kansas: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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What does a typical morning commute look like in Rice County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:25 PM
Commute Time Burden in Rice County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Rice County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 110 hours, about 4.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the Kansas average of 17.2 minutes each way, a difference of 4.0 minutes.
Rice County holds about 0.3% of Kansas's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Rice County would save about 44 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,362 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)
Rice County
13.2 min
26.4 min
110 hrs/yr
$3,404
703
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.
On average, it takes
13.2
minutes to get to work in
Rice County.
That's 41% 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 walking. About 6.0% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Rice County
Car:
86.8%
Walked:
6.3%
Worked at Home:
6.0%
Other:
0.5%
Bicycle:
0.3%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Rice County: 8.7 times less than the Kansas average (0.0% vs 0.4%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Rice County, versus 0.2% in Kansas.
Commute Mode Trends in Rice County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Rice 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
Walked
Worked at Home
Other
Bicycle
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
2009
90.1%
3.6%
4.5%
0.4%
1.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2010
90.6%
3.4%
5.0%
0.5%
0.5%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2011
89.6%
5.2%
3.8%
0.5%
0.4%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
2012
89.5%
5.3%
3.9%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
0.3%
2013
89.6%
6.3%
3.3%
0.0%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
0.3%
2014
89.5%
6.3%
3.0%
0.3%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.4%
2015
89.3%
6.7%
2.8%
0.5%
0.2%
0.2%
0.0%
0.4%
2016
89.8%
5.9%
2.9%
0.6%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
0.3%
2017
90.9%
5.9%
2.2%
0.6%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
0.2%
2018
91.1%
5.1%
2.7%
0.6%
0.1%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2019
90.9%
5.3%
2.7%
0.3%
0.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
89.6%
5.0%
4.2%
0.0%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2021
90.0%
5.3%
3.7%
0.3%
0.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2022
88.8%
5.9%
4.2%
0.3%
0.8%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
87.9%
5.9%
5.2%
0.2%
0.8%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
86.8%
6.3%
6.0%
0.5%
0.3%
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 peaked in 2018 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 90.1% in 2009 to 86.8% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.
Walking gained the most ground in Rice County: its share of workers rose from 3.6% in 2009 to 6.3% in 2024, up 2.7 percentage points.
Biking lost the most ground, falling from 1.3% to 0.3% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Rice County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rice County?
The bars show when commuters in Rice 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 AMRice County4.2%Kansas4.7%
4.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMRice County5.4%Kansas3.5%
5.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMRice County7.5%Kansas5.2%
7.5%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMRice County8.8%Kansas7.6%
8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMRice County9.7%Kansas10.3%
9.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMRice County18.6%Kansas14.9%
18.6%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMRice County16.7%Kansas16.8%
16.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMRice County5.8%Kansas10.4%
5.8%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMRice County4.1%Kansas4.5%
4.1%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMRice County4.3%Kansas5.0%
4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMRice County1.0%Kansas2.5%
1.0%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMRice County0.5%Kansas1.1%
0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMRice County7.3%Kansas7.0%
7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMRice County6.1%Kansas6.6%
6.1%
Rice CountyKansasSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Rice County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.9% across Kansas. Early starts are more common than in Kansas: 17.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Kansas's: 50.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 52.3% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.1%) 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 Rice 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 Rice 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 Rice 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Rice County
Kansas
United States
2009
7:25 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:27 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:25 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:26 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:29 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:30 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:27 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:26 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Rice County were on the road by 7:23 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:25 AM). Kansas followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Rice County now leave 15 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 Rice County has moved 12 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Rice County in the whole series.
How does Rice County's commute time compare?
Metric
Rice County
Kansas
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
13.2 min
17.2 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
6.0%
11.8%
15.0%
Walked
6.3%
2.3%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
0.4%
3.2%
The average commute time in Rice County is 13.2 minutes, shorter than the 17.2 minutes in Kansas.
0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in Kansas. 6.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.3% in Kansas.
Rice County, KS Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Rice County, KS is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 9,350 residents against a local median of 25,097. Rice County, KS's work from home, at 6.0%, runs 18% below the 7.3% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves spread 2.5% on work from home, so Rice County, KS sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Rice County, KS has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Rice County, Kansas.
Is living in Rice County, Kansas good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 110 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,404 at a typical national wage. That's 23% less than the typical Kansas commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Rice County, Kansas?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Rice County, Kansas. 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 Rice County, Kansas?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.4% in Kansas, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Kansas?
Among counties in Kansas, the shortest average commutes are in Wichita County (7.0 min), Scott County (7.1 min), Greeley County (7.2 min). The longest are in Linn County (31.3 min), Miami County (30.8 min), Jefferson County (30.3 min).