Commuting in Pulaski 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, 5:49 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Pulaski County?
Map AI9/24/26, 5:49 PM
Commute Time Burden in Pulaski County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Pulaski 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 6.3 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.
Pulaski County holds about 1.5% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 1.3% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Pulaski County would save about 61 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,886 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)
Pulaski County
18.3 min
36.5 min
152 hrs/yr
$4,715
964
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
Pulaski County.
That's 19% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 79% of counties in Kentucky
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.7% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Pulaski County
Car:
91.4%
Worked at Home:
6.7%
Other:
1.0%
Walked:
0.8%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Pulaski County: 26.0 times less than the Kentucky average (0.0% vs 0.6%).
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Pulaski County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.
Biking is unusually rare in Pulaski County: 8.1 times less than the Kentucky average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Pulaski County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Pulaski 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
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
93.4%
2.5%
1.2%
2.6%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2010
93.4%
2.5%
1.4%
1.9%
0.5%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2011
93.4%
2.7%
1.4%
1.9%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2012
94.8%
2.3%
0.8%
1.4%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2013
95.9%
2.0%
0.6%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2014
95.3%
1.9%
0.9%
1.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2015
94.8%
1.9%
1.3%
1.7%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2016
95.2%
1.7%
1.2%
1.7%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2017
95.1%
1.6%
1.4%
1.6%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
0.0%
2018
95.5%
1.8%
1.2%
1.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2019
95.2%
2.3%
1.1%
1.2%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2020
94.8%
2.6%
0.6%
1.4%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2021
95.0%
2.9%
0.5%
1.1%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
94.5%
3.6%
0.4%
1.1%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
93.2%
4.9%
0.6%
1.0%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
91.4%
6.7%
1.0%
0.8%
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 peaked in 2013 at 95.9%. Overall it fell from 93.4% in 2009 to 91.4% in 2024, down 2.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Pulaski County: its share of workers rose from 2.5% in 2009 to 6.7% in 2024, up 4.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.6% to 0.8% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Pulaski County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pulaski County?
The bars show when commuters in Pulaski 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 AMPulaski County6.2%Kentucky5.9%
6.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMPulaski County5.2%Kentucky4.3%
5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMPulaski County3.8%Kentucky5.3%
3.8%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMPulaski County5.4%Kentucky8.3%
5.4%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMPulaski County7.8%Kentucky10.3%
7.8%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMPulaski County15.4%Kentucky14.8%
15.4%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMPulaski County17.7%Kentucky12.4%
17.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMPulaski County11.0%Kentucky9.6%
11.0%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMPulaski County3.9%Kentucky4.5%
3.9%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMPulaski County5.9%Kentucky5.2%
5.9%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMPulaski County2.0%Kentucky2.5%
2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMPulaski County1.4%Kentucky1.3%
1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMPulaski County7.7%Kentucky7.3%
7.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMPulaski County6.5%Kentucky8.4%
6.5%
Pulaski CountyKentuckySource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Pulaski County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.4% across Kentucky. Early starts are about as common as in Kentucky: 15.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kentucky: 51.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.6%) 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 Pulaski 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 Pulaski 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 Pulaski 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
Pulaski County
Kentucky
United States
2009
7:47 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:43 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:41 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:44 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:42 AM
7:35 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:44 AM
7:35 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:44 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:44 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:44 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:47 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:45 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:43 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:46 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:41 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:39 AM
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:40 AM
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Pulaski County were on the road by 7:40 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:47 AM). The shift is sharper than across Kentucky, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Pulaski County now leave 3 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Pulaski County has moved 5 minutes earlier.
How does Pulaski County's commute time compare?
Metric
Pulaski County
Kentucky
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
18.3 min
20.8 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
6.7%
10.2%
15.0%
Walked
0.8%
2.0%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
0.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Pulaski 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. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Kentucky.
Pulaski County, KY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Pulaski County, KY is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 65,897 residents against a local median of 16,867. Where Pulaski County, KY breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 30% below the local median of 9.6% at 6.7%.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 18.3 min against a local median of 25.3 min, 28% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 28% below the local median it puts Pulaski County, KY at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves sit within 1.9% of each other on work from home, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Pulaski County, KY, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Pulaski County, KY has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Pulaski County, Kentucky.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Pulaski County, Kentucky?
Commuters here spend an estimated 152 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,715 at a typical national wage. That's 12% less than the typical Kentucky commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Pulaski County, Kentucky?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Pulaski County, Kentucky. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How common is public transit use in Pulaski 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.
How do commute times compare across counties in Kentucky?
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).