Nicholas County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Nicholas County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Nicholas County spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 261 hours, about 10.9 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 10.5 minutes.

Nicholas 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 Nicholas County would save about 104 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,231 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)
Nicholas County	31.3 min	62.5 min	261 hrs/yr	$8,077	425
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 31.3 minutes to get to work in Nicholas County. That's 39% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 95% 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 4.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Nicholas County

• Car: 94.3%
• Worked at Home: 4.0%
• Walked: 1.4%
• Other: 0.3%
• 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 Nicholas County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Nicholas County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Nicholas 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	91.9%	4.5%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	2.1%	0.0%
2010	92.2%	5.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	1.3%	0.0%
2011	91.5%	4.6%	2.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	1.3%	0.0%
2012	93.8%	4.1%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	92.3%	6.2%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	94.7%	4.1%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	94.1%	4.1%	1.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	92.8%	4.5%	1.6%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	93.2%	3.8%	1.5%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	93.2%	3.8%	2.2%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.5%	3.5%	3.2%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	93.5%	3.0%	2.9%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	94.9%	3.2%	1.2%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	90.6%	6.7%	1.9%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	92.8%	4.7%	1.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	94.3%	4.0%	1.4%	0.3%	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 was highest in 2021 at 94.9% and lowest in 2022 at 90.6%. Overall it rose from 91.9% in 2009 to 94.3% in 2024, up 2.4 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Riding a motorcycle lost the most ground, falling from 2.1% to 0.0% of workers (down 2.1 percentage points).

Walking overtook riding a motorcycle to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2011 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 6.7% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 4.0%.

Commute Start Times in Nicholas County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Nicholas County?

The bars show when commuters in Nicholas 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 Nicholas County5.8% Kentucky5.9%	5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Nicholas County3.8% Kentucky4.3%	3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Nicholas County1.5% Kentucky5.3%	1.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Nicholas County13.1% Kentucky8.3%	13.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Nicholas County8.8% Kentucky10.3%	8.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Nicholas County21.1% Kentucky14.8%	21.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Nicholas County16.6% Kentucky12.4%	16.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Nicholas County6.8% Kentucky9.6%	6.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Nicholas County0.4% Kentucky4.5%	0.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Nicholas County3.8% Kentucky5.2%	3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Nicholas County1.4% Kentucky2.5%	1.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Nicholas County1.1% Kentucky1.3%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Nicholas County8.9% Kentucky7.3%	8.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Nicholas County6.6% Kentucky8.4%	6.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Nicholas County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 21.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are less common than in Kentucky: 11.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kentucky: 53.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.9%) 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 Nicholas 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 Nicholas 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 Nicholas 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.

• Nicholas County
• Kentucky
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Nicholas County	Kentucky	United States
2009	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:17 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:24 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Nicholas County were on the road by 7:24 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:23 AM). That goes against the trend across Kentucky, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Nicholas County now leave 14 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 Nicholas County has moved 7 minutes later.

How does Nicholas County's commute time compare?

Metric	Nicholas County	Kentucky	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.3 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	4.0%	10.2%	15.0%
Walked	1.4%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Nicholas County is 31.3 minutes, longer than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau