Whitley County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Whitley County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Whitley County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 170 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% less time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.4 minutes.

Whitley County holds about 0.8% of Kentucky's population and accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Whitley County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,109 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)
Whitley County	20.4 min	40.8 min	170 hrs/yr	$5,273	553
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 20.4 minutes to get to work in Whitley County. That's 9% 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 9.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Whitley County

• Car: 86.9%
• Worked at Home: 9.9%
• Walked: 2.5%
• Other: 0.3%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Whitley County: 5.5 times less than the Kentucky average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Whitley County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	94.2%	3.2%	1.2%	0.2%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	94.3%	2.9%	1.4%	0.0%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	94.5%	1.5%	2.4%	0.0%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	94.5%	1.2%	2.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	94.4%	1.1%	3.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	91.9%	2.0%	4.1%	0.1%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	92.4%	1.9%	4.0%	0.1%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	93.0%	1.5%	4.2%	0.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	92.7%	2.0%	4.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	91.8%	3.5%	4.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.2%	3.2%	3.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.5%	4.7%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	92.0%	5.1%	2.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	90.0%	7.6%	2.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	89.1%	7.8%	2.4%	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.9%	9.9%	2.5%	0.3%	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 peaked in 2011 at 94.5%. Overall it fell from 94.2% in 2009 to 86.9% in 2024, down 7.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Whitley County: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 9.9% in 2024, up 6.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.7% to 0.1% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 4.2% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 2.5%.

Commute Start Times in Whitley County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Whitley County?

The bars show when commuters in Whitley 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 Whitley County7.9% Kentucky5.9%	7.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Whitley County4.6% Kentucky4.3%	4.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Whitley County3.2% Kentucky5.3%	3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Whitley County4.4% Kentucky8.3%	4.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Whitley County9.9% Kentucky10.3%	9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Whitley County16.4% Kentucky14.8%	16.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Whitley County16.1% Kentucky12.4%	16.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Whitley County9.9% Kentucky9.6%	9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Whitley County2.5% Kentucky4.5%	2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Whitley County5.4% Kentucky5.2%	5.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Whitley County2.6% Kentucky2.5%	2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Whitley County1.1% Kentucky1.3%	1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Whitley County7.3% Kentucky7.3%	7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Whitley County8.7% Kentucky8.4%	8.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Whitley County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Kentucky. Early starts are about as common as in Kentucky: 15.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Kentucky: 52.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.1%) 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 Whitley 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 Whitley 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 Whitley 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.

• Whitley County
• Kentucky
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Whitley County	Kentucky	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:42 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:37 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:39 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:36 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:43 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:36 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:37 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Whitley County were on the road by 7:37 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Kentucky, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Whitley County now leave 1 minute earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Whitley County's commute time compare?

Metric	Whitley County	Kentucky	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.4 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	9.9%	10.2%	15.0%
Walked	2.5%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Whitley County is 20.4 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 2.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau