Washington County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Washington County, 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, 8:16 PM

How much time do drivers in Washington County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:16 PM

Commute Time Burden in Washington County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Washington County spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 158 hours, about 6.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% less time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

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

Working from home just 2 days a week in Washington County would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,959 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)
Washington County	19.0 min	37.9 min	158 hrs/yr	$4,899	655
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Kentucky

Calloway County (13.9 min)
Owsley County (15.0 min)
Taylor County (15.3 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Kentucky

Owen County (37.7 min)
Spencer County (33.3 min)
Bracken County (33.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Washington County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 19.0 minutes to get to work in Washington County. That's 15% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 Washington County

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Washington County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Washington 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	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.4%	4.4%	2.5%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	90.4%	5.4%	2.3%	1.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	92.2%	4.6%	2.2%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	91.3%	3.6%	3.8%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	90.3%	3.7%	4.4%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2014	92.1%	2.6%	2.9%	0.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.6%	0.1%
2015	93.2%	1.5%	3.1%	0.4%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.1%
2016	92.7%	2.2%	3.0%	0.8%	1.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2017	91.5%	4.0%	1.3%	0.7%	1.1%	0.0%	1.2%	0.1%
2018	91.6%	4.7%	1.4%	0.6%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2019	91.9%	5.1%	1.2%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%
2020	91.8%	5.6%	0.6%	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2021	88.9%	7.4%	1.1%	1.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.6%	0.1%
2022	89.3%	7.9%	1.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	89.6%	7.4%	2.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	89.5%	6.8%	2.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	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 2015 at 93.2% and lowest in 2021 at 88.9%. Overall it fell from 91.4% in 2009 to 89.5% in 2024, down 1.9 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Washington County: its share of workers rose from 4.4% in 2009 to 6.8% in 2024, up 2.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 4.4% in 2013 and has since fallen back to 2.9%.

Commute Start Times in Washington County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Washington County?

The bars show when commuters in Washington 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		5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		19.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.1%
8:30-8:59 AM		1.4%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.7%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.9%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Washington County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are more common than in Kentucky: 16.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kentucky: 54.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.2%) 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 Washington 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	Washington County	Kentucky	United States
2009	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:13 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:07 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:08 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:21 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:21 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Washington County were on the road by 7:22 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:24 AM). Kentucky followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Washington County now leave 16 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 Washington County has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Washington County's commute time compare?

Metric	Washington County	Kentucky	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	19.0 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	2.9%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Washington County is 19.0 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 2.9% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Washington County, KY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Washington County, KY is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 12,140 residents against a local median of 23,027. The measure that sets Washington County, KY apart most is work from home: 6.8%, 29% below the local median of 9.5%.

The counties themselves spread 10.2% on work from home, so Washington County, KY sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Washington County, KY has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Washington County, KY	12,140	19.0 min #2/6	6.8% #4/6	7:22 AM #3/6
Marion County, KY	19,749	17.2 min	3.1%	7:19 AM
Nelson County, KY	47,606	22.2 min	6.0%	7:29 AM
Mercer County, KY	23,027	21.5 min	10.9%	7:25 AM
Anderson County, KY	24,353	29.0 min	9.5%	7:25 AM
Spencer County, KY	20,193	33.3 min	13.3%	7:21 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Washington County, Kentucky.

Is living in Washington County, Kentucky good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 158 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,899 at a typical national wage. That's 9% less than the typical Kentucky commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Washington County, Kentucky?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Washington County, Kentucky. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Which counties in Kentucky have the fastest and slowest commutes?

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).