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Richmond Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Richmond, Kentucky: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 11:59 AM
Is the commute in Richmond longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 11:59 AM

Commute Time Burden in Richmond: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Richmond spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 144 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% less time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.

Richmond holds about 0.6% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Richmond would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,785 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)
Richmond 17.3 min 34.6 min 144 hrs/yr $4,463 1,424
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.

Richmond Commute Map

On average, it takes 17.3 minutes to get to work in Richmond. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Richmond

  • Car: 84.4%
  • Worked at Home: 7.8%
  • Walked: 6.3% unusually high
  • Bicycle: 0.6% unusually high
  • Other: 0.6%
  • Taxi: 0.2%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low

Walking is unusually common in Richmond: 3.2 times more than the Kentucky average (6.3% vs 2.0%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Richmond: 16.0 times less than the Kentucky average (0.0% vs 0.6%).

Biking is unusually common in Richmond: 3.2 times more than the Kentucky average (0.6% vs 0.2%).

Richmond stands out for active commuting: 6.9% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.2 times the Kentucky average of 2.2%.

Commute Mode Trends in Richmond, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Richmond 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 Walked Bicycle Other Taxi Motorcycle Public Transportation
2009 84.7% 3.3% 8.8% 1.4% 0.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.2%
2010 87.0% 2.8% 7.6% 1.1% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.2%
2011 86.8% 2.0% 8.8% 1.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2%
2012 88.2% 1.8% 6.9% 1.6% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.6%
2013 89.6% 1.4% 6.8% 0.8% 0.4% 0.5% 0.1% 0.5%
2014 88.0% 2.5% 6.3% 0.9% 1.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.4%
2015 86.5% 2.9% 6.9% 1.1% 1.6% 0.7% 0.0% 0.4%
2016 85.9% 2.7% 7.2% 1.0% 1.9% 0.8% 0.0% 0.4%
2017 85.9% 2.9% 7.7% 0.7% 1.8% 0.8% 0.0% 0.2%
2018 86.5% 3.6% 7.1% 0.2% 1.7% 0.7% 0.0% 0.2%
2019 87.9% 3.0% 7.0% 0.2% 0.8% 0.6% 0.0% 0.3%
2020 88.5% 3.7% 6.1% 0.2% 0.6% 0.5% 0.0% 0.3%
2021 86.8% 4.3% 7.8% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%
2022 86.8% 5.0% 6.6% 0.7% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2%
2023 85.4% 6.2% 6.0% 0.6% 1.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.2%
2024 84.4% 7.8% 6.3% 0.6% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 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 89.6%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 84.7% in 2009 and 84.4% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Richmond: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 7.8% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 8.8% to 6.3% of workers (down 2.5 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2023 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Richmond

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Richmond?

The bars show when commuters in Richmond 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
4.1%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
4.0%
6:30-6:59 AM
8.6%
7:00-7:29 AM
12.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
8.9%
8:00-8:29 AM
12.6%
8:30-8:59 AM
4.0%
9:00-9:59 AM
4.6%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.2%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM
18.1%
4:00-11:59 PM
9.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Richmond is 12:00-3:59 PM, when 18.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 7.3% across Kentucky. Early starts are less common than in Kentucky: 13.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Kentucky: 42.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (36.1%) 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 Richmond, 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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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 Richmond Kentucky United States
2009 7:59 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:59 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2011 8:03 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 8:03 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2013 8:05 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2014 8:07 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2015 8:07 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2016 8:07 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2017 8:04 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2018 8:03 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:58 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:57 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:59 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2022 8:02 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2023 8:01 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2024 8:06 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Richmond were on the road by 8:06 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:59 AM). That goes against the trend across Kentucky, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Richmond now leave 28 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 Richmond has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Richmond's commute time compare?

Metric Richmond Kentucky US Average
Avg. Commute Time 17.3 min 20.8 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM 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 7.8% 10.2% 15.0%
Walked 6.3% 2.0% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.6% 3.2%

The average commute time in Richmond is 17.3 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 6.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Richmond, Kentucky.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Richmond, Kentucky?

Commuters here spend an estimated 144 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,463 at a typical national wage. That's 17% less than the typical Kentucky commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Richmond, Kentucky?

Traffic peaks between 12:00 PM – 03:59 PM in Richmond, 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.

Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Richmond, 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.