Lewis County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lewis County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lewis County spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 256 hours, about 10.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 48% more time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 9.9 minutes.

Lewis County holds about 0.3% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lewis County would save about 102 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,169 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)
Lewis County	30.7 min	61.3 min	256 hrs/yr	$7,922	467
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.

Commute Time Map: Kentucky Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 30.7 minutes to get to work in Lewis County. That's 37% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 90% of counties in Kentucky

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lewis County

• Car: 87.0%
• Worked at Home: 12.0%
• Walked: 1.0%
• Other: < 0.1%
• 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 Lewis County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

Public transit is essentially absent in Lewis County, versus 0.6% in Kentucky.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Lewis County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

Biking is essentially absent in Lewis County, versus 0.2% in Kentucky.

Commute Mode Trends in Lewis County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Other
2009	94.2%	2.5%	1.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.4%
2010	91.9%	4.1%	2.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.1%
2011	89.9%	2.0%	3.6%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	3.1%
2012	90.8%	2.7%	2.8%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.4%
2013	88.8%	4.0%	2.6%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	3.0%
2014	89.1%	4.6%	2.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.8%
2015	90.8%	3.8%	1.7%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.8%
2016	92.9%	4.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.0%
2017	91.8%	5.1%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	2.1%
2018	92.8%	4.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.9%
2019	94.1%	3.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%
2020	90.0%	8.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.2%
2021	88.7%	10.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2022	87.8%	10.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2023	87.9%	10.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2024	87.0%	12.0%	1.0%	0.0%	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. Overall its share fell from 94.2% in 2009 to 87.0% in 2024, down 7.2 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Lewis County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 12.0% in 2024, up 9.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.9% to 1.0% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 1.6% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Lewis County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lewis County?

The bars show when commuters in Lewis 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 AM Lewis County10.1% Kentucky5.9%	10.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lewis County5.5% Kentucky4.3%	5.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lewis County9.8% Kentucky5.3%	9.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lewis County7.1% Kentucky8.3%	7.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lewis County14.2% Kentucky10.3%	14.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lewis County17.6% Kentucky14.8%	17.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lewis County12.3% Kentucky12.4%	12.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lewis County5.7% Kentucky9.6%	5.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lewis County0.9% Kentucky4.5%	0.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lewis County3.4% Kentucky5.2%	3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lewis County1.6% Kentucky2.5%	1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lewis County0.3% Kentucky1.3%	0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lewis County5.3% Kentucky7.3%	5.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lewis County6.2% Kentucky8.4%	6.2%

Lewis County Kentucky Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Lewis County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are more common than in Kentucky: 25.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kentucky: 49.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.8%) 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 Lewis 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 Lewis 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 Lewis 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.

• Lewis County
• Kentucky
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lewis County	Kentucky	United States
2009	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:31 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:09 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	6:58 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:08 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	6:59 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:06 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lewis County were on the road by 7:06 AM, 16 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:21 AM). The shift is sharper than across Kentucky, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Lewis County now leave 32 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 Lewis County has moved 25 minutes earlier.

How does Lewis County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lewis County	Kentucky	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.7 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.0%	10.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lewis County is 30.7 minutes, longer than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau