McLean County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in McLean County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in McLean County spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 259 hours, about 10.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 50% more time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 10.3 minutes.

McLean County holds about 0.2% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in McLean County would save about 104 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,212 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)
McLean County	31.1 min	62.2 min	259 hrs/yr	$8,031	494
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 31.1 minutes to get to work in McLean County. That's 39% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 92% 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 6.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in McLean County

• Car: 91.8%
• Worked at Home: 6.8%
• Other: 0.7%
• Walked: 0.6% unusually low
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in McLean County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

Walking is unusually rare in McLean County: 3.4 times less than the Kentucky average (0.6% vs 2.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in McLean County: 5.7 times less than the Kentucky average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

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

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

Few people walk or bike to work in McLean County: just 0.6%, 3.7 times below the Kentucky average of 2.2%.

Commute Mode Trends in McLean County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	91.1%	4.7%	0.4%	3.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	91.3%	4.2%	1.4%	2.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	90.9%	4.0%	1.4%	2.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	89.5%	5.6%	1.1%	2.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	90.9%	5.1%	1.1%	2.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	90.7%	5.7%	1.1%	1.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	93.3%	5.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	93.0%	4.4%	0.0%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	94.2%	2.5%	0.0%	2.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	94.8%	1.3%	0.0%	3.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2019	93.5%	1.1%	1.3%	3.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%
2020	91.6%	1.5%	1.6%	4.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2021	91.7%	3.2%	1.7%	3.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.6%	4.2%	1.7%	2.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	92.6%	4.7%	1.3%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.8%	6.8%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	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 was highest in 2018 at 94.8% and lowest in 2012 at 89.5%. Overall it rose from 91.1% in 2009 to 91.8% in 2024, up 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in McLean County: its share of workers rose from 4.7% in 2009 to 6.8% in 2024, up 2.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.7% to 0.6% of workers (down 3.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in McLean County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in McLean County?

The bars show when commuters in McLean 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 McLean County9.5% Kentucky5.9%	9.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM McLean County7.6% Kentucky4.3%	7.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM McLean County6.8% Kentucky5.3%	6.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM McLean County11.4% Kentucky8.3%	11.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM McLean County13.5% Kentucky10.3%	13.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM McLean County14.8% Kentucky14.8%	14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM McLean County13.7% Kentucky12.4%	13.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM McLean County3.4% Kentucky9.6%	3.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM McLean County0.9% Kentucky4.5%	0.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM McLean County4.1% Kentucky5.2%	4.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM McLean County0.3% Kentucky2.5%	0.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM McLean County0.1% Kentucky1.3%	0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM McLean County6.1% Kentucky7.3%	6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM McLean County7.9% Kentucky8.4%	7.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in McLean County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are more common than in Kentucky: 23.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Kentucky's: 45.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.4%) 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 McLean 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 McLean 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 McLean 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.

• McLean County
• Kentucky
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	McLean County	Kentucky	United States
2009	7:09 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	6:59 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	6:55 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	6:54 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	6:56 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	6:58 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:02 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:08 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:12 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:07 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:04 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:03 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in McLean County were on the road by 7:03 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:09 AM). The shift is sharper than across Kentucky, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in McLean County now leave 35 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 McLean County has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does McLean County's commute time compare?

Metric	McLean County	Kentucky	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.1 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	6.8%	10.2%	15.0%
Walked	0.6%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in McLean County is 31.1 minutes, longer than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 0.6% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau