Commuting in Knox County, Kentucky: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:22 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Knox County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:22 PM
Commute Time Burden in Knox County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Knox 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 152 hours, about 6.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 12% less time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 2.5 minutes.
Knox County holds about 0.7% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Knox County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,890 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)
Knox County
18.3 min
36.6 min
152 hrs/yr
$4,725
787
Kentucky
20.8 min
41.6 min
173 hrs/yr
$5,369
832
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
18.3
minutes to get to work in
Knox County.
That's 18% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 78% of counties in Kentucky
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 8.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Knox County
Car:
88.9%
Worked at Home:
8.8%
Other:
1.3%
Walked:
0.7%
Motorcycle:
0.1%
Taxi:
< 0.1%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Knox County: 26.6 times less than the Kentucky average (0.0% vs 0.6%).
Biking is essentially absent in Knox County, versus 0.2% in Kentucky.
Few people walk or bike to work in Knox County: just 0.7%, 3.2 times below the Kentucky average of 2.2%.
Commute Mode Trends in Knox County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Knox 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
Other
Walked
Taxi
Motorcycle
Public Transportation
Bicycle
2009
93.3%
2.8%
0.5%
3.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2010
93.3%
2.5%
0.4%
3.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2011
94.4%
1.7%
0.2%
3.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.3%
0.0%
2012
94.0%
2.3%
0.0%
3.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2013
94.3%
2.3%
0.3%
2.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2014
94.8%
2.0%
0.3%
1.9%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
0.0%
2015
95.3%
2.1%
0.2%
1.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.9%
0.0%
2016
94.9%
2.0%
0.4%
1.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.9%
0.0%
2017
94.6%
2.0%
0.4%
2.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.8%
0.0%
2018
95.2%
1.9%
0.0%
2.0%
0.0%
0.0%
1.0%
0.0%
2019
95.6%
2.1%
0.0%
2.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
94.6%
3.4%
0.2%
1.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2021
93.8%
4.2%
0.3%
1.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
91.3%
7.4%
0.2%
1.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
87.5%
9.9%
1.4%
1.0%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
88.9%
8.8%
1.3%
0.7%
0.1%
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 2019 at 95.6% and lowest in 2023 at 87.5%. Overall it fell from 93.3% in 2009 to 88.9% in 2024, down 4.4 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.
Working from home gained the most ground in Knox County: its share of workers rose from 2.8% in 2009 to 8.8% in 2024, up 6.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.4% to 0.7% of workers (down 2.7 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.
Working from home peaked at 9.9% in 2023 and has since fallen back to 8.8%.
Commute Start Times in Knox County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Knox County?
The bars show when commuters in Knox 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 Kentucky for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMKnox County7.2%Kentucky5.9%
7.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMKnox County3.3%Kentucky4.3%
3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMKnox County3.8%Kentucky5.3%
3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMKnox County5.2%Kentucky8.3%
5.2%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMKnox County10.0%Kentucky10.3%
10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMKnox County16.9%Kentucky14.8%
16.9%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMKnox County12.8%Kentucky12.4%
12.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMKnox County6.5%Kentucky9.6%
6.5%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMKnox County8.6%Kentucky4.5%
8.6%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMKnox County3.3%Kentucky5.2%
3.3%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMKnox County1.1%Kentucky2.5%
1.1%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMKnox County2.6%Kentucky1.3%
2.6%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMKnox County6.8%Kentucky7.3%
6.8%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMKnox County11.8%Kentucky8.4%
11.8%
Knox CountyKentuckySource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Knox County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are less common than in Kentucky: 14.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Kentucky's: 46.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.6%) 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 Knox 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 Knox 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 Knox County next to Kentucky 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
Knox County
Kentucky
United States
2009
7:38 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:45 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:45 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:47 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:46 AM
7:35 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:39 AM
7:35 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:38 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:28 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:22 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:24 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:24 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:24 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:26 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:35 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:41 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:38 AM
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Knox County were on the road by 7:38 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Kentucky, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Knox County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Knox County has moved 14 minutes later.
How does Knox County's commute time compare?
Metric
Knox County
Kentucky
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
18.3 min
20.8 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
8.8%
10.2%
15.0%
Walked
0.7%
2.0%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
0.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Knox County is 18.3 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.
0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 0.7% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Kentucky.
Knox County, KY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Knox County, KY is typical in size for this group, 29,865 residents against a local median of 32,466, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. There is no headline here. Every measure below sits within 15% of the median across the nearest counties, which makes Knox County, KY an unremarkable member of its own neighbourhood rather than an outlier in it.
The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 10% below the local median at 18.3 min against 20.4 min. Knox County, KY has the 2nd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Knox County, Kentucky.
Is living in Knox County, Kentucky good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 152 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,725 at a typical national wage. That's 12% less than the typical Kentucky commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Knox County, Kentucky?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Knox County, Kentucky. 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.
Do people use public transit in Knox County, Kentucky?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.6% in Kentucky, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Which counties in Kentucky have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in Kentucky, the shortest average commutes are in Calloway County (13.9 min), Owsley County (15.0 min), Taylor County (15.3 min). The longest are in Owen County (37.7 min), Spencer County (33.3 min), Bracken County (33.2 min).