Knox County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Knox County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Knox County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 138 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Maine average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 4.2 minutes.

Knox County holds about 3.0% of Maine's population but accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Knox County would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,715 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)
Knox County	16.6 min	33.2 min	138 hrs/yr	$4,287	705
Maine	20.8 min	41.6 min	173 hrs/yr	$5,372	1,015
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: Maine Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 16.6 minutes to get to work in Knox County. That's 26% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 3 fastest counties in Maine

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 16.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Knox County

• Car: 78.2%
• Worked at Home: 16.6%
• Walked: 3.5%
• Other: 1.6%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Knox County, versus 0.1% in Maine.

Public transit is unusually rare in Knox County: 7.4 times less than the Maine average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Knox County, versus 0.2% in Maine.

Biking is unusually rare in Knox County: 5.3 times less than the Maine average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Knox County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Knox 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
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	85.5%	8.1%	3.4%	1.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2010	84.8%	8.7%	3.3%	1.4%	0.5%	0.3%	0.5%	0.4%
2011	83.6%	8.7%	4.2%	1.5%	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%
2012	85.4%	7.7%	4.2%	1.2%	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.3%
2013	86.0%	6.6%	4.6%	1.4%	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%	0.4%
2014	85.5%	6.8%	5.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.4%	0.3%	0.5%
2015	86.5%	6.4%	5.2%	1.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	87.3%	6.0%	5.2%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
2017	86.5%	6.6%	4.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.6%	0.2%
2018	87.5%	6.4%	4.3%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2019	87.6%	6.8%	3.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2020	84.1%	9.6%	4.1%	1.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%
2021	82.3%	10.9%	4.6%	1.0%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	81.0%	12.9%	4.9%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	79.0%	14.5%	4.7%	1.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	78.2%	16.6%	3.5%	1.6%	0.1%	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 2019 at 87.6%. Overall it fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 78.2% in 2024, down 7.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Knox County: its share of workers rose from 8.1% in 2009 to 16.6% in 2024, up 8.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 5.3% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.5%.

Commute Start Times in Knox County

• 🦉 Night OwlThe 2nd-latest start among Maine's 16 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:30 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Knox County?

The bars show when commuters in Knox 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 Maine for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Knox County6.3% Maine6.3%	6.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Knox County2.9% Maine4.1%	2.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Knox County5.7% Maine5.7%	5.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Knox County9.4% Maine9.3%	9.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Knox County12.2% Maine11.4%	12.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Knox County13.6% Maine15.8%	13.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Knox County13.5% Maine12.8%	13.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Knox County10.8% Maine9.9%	10.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Knox County5.2% Maine4.7%	5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Knox County9.0% Maine5.3%	9.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Knox County2.9% Maine2.4%	2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Knox County1.9% Maine1.4%	1.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Knox County4.0% Maine6.3%	4.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Knox County2.4% Maine4.6%	2.4%

Knox County Maine Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Knox County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.8% across Maine. Early starts are less common than in Maine: 14.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Maine's: 50.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.9% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.3%) 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 Knox 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 Knox 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 Knox County next to Maine 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.

• Knox County
• Maine
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Knox County	Maine	United States
2009	7:27 AM	7:26 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:27 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:28 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:27 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:26 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:28 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:24 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:25 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Knox County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:27 AM). That goes against the trend across Maine, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Knox County now leave 8 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Knox County's commute time compare?

Metric	Knox County	Maine	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.6 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	16.6%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.5%	3.4%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Knox County is 16.6 minutes, shorter than the 20.8 minutes in Maine.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in Maine. 3.5% commute by walking, higher than the 3.4% in Maine.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau