Alger County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 7:40 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:40 PM

Commute Time Burden in Alger County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Alger County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 146 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 3.9 minutes.

Alger County holds about 0.1% of Michigan's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Alger County would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,805 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)
Alger County	17.5 min	34.9 min	146 hrs/yr	$4,513	153
Michigan	21.3 min	42.6 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,509	1,585
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: Michigan Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Michigan

Luce County (11.4 min)
Dickinson County (12.2 min)
Schoolcraft County (12.5 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Michigan

Lapeer County (31.3 min)
Lake County (31.1 min)
Livingston County (28.6 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Alger County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 17.5 minutes to get to work in Alger County. That's 22% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 71% of counties in Michigan

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 8.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Alger County

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Alger County, versus 0.1% in Michigan.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Alger County, versus 0.1% in Michigan.

Commute Mode Trends in Alger County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Alger 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	85.5%	5.0%	6.4%	1.1%	1.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	83.5%	7.0%	6.0%	1.2%	1.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	82.1%	7.7%	7.0%	1.0%	1.4%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	80.4%	7.5%	9.0%	1.3%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	82.3%	7.6%	7.4%	1.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	83.8%	6.9%	6.5%	0.5%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	83.7%	6.7%	7.2%	0.4%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	82.7%	8.7%	5.3%	0.4%	1.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	84.0%	8.0%	4.3%	0.4%	2.0%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	81.5%	7.9%	6.4%	0.5%	1.9%	1.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	82.7%	8.7%	5.1%	0.4%	1.3%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	78.9%	11.9%	4.4%	2.1%	1.0%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	83.5%	9.5%	4.7%	1.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	82.5%	9.1%	5.5%	2.2%	0.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	84.0%	8.6%	4.4%	2.2%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.9%	8.2%	4.1%	1.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2020 at 78.9%. Overall it fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 84.9% in 2024, down 0.6 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Alger County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 8.2% in 2024, up 3.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.4% to 4.1% of workers (down 2.3 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2016 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 11.9% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 8.2%.

Commute Start Times in Alger County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Alger County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		6.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.6%
6:30-6:59 AM		3.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.4%
7:30-7:59 AM		16.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		6.7%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.0%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.0%
4:00-11:59 PM		4.0%

Alger County Michigan Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Alger County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Michigan. Early starts are more common than in Michigan: 16.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Michigan: 48.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.3%) 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 Alger 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 Alger 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 Alger County next to Michigan 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	Alger County	Michigan	United States
2009	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:55 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:59 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:50 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:42 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:39 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:43 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:41 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:39 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:41 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Alger County were on the road by 7:41 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:51 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Alger County now leave 3 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Alger County's commute time compare?

Metric	Alger County	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.5 min	21.3 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	8.2%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	4.1%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Alger County is 17.5 minutes, shorter than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 4.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Alger County, MI Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Alger County, MI is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 8,761 residents against a local median of 25,954. Alger County, MI's one-way commute, at 17.5 min, runs 40% above the 12.5 min typical of the counties around it. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves sit within 2.5 min of each other on one-way commute, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Alger County, MI, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Alger County, MI has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Alger County, MI	8,761	17.5 min #6/6	8.2% #2/6	7:41 AM #4/6
Schoolcraft County, MI	8,128	12.5 min	4.3%	7:34 AM
Luce County, MI	6,271	11.4 min	7.6%	7:16 AM
Marquette County, MI	66,775	13.9 min	7.5%	7:47 AM
Delta County, MI	36,813	13.3 min	5.8%	7:51 AM
Dickinson County, MI	25,954	12.2 min	9.0%	7:24 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Alger County, Michigan.

Is commuting expensive in Alger County, Michigan?

Commuters here spend an estimated 146 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,513 at a typical national wage. That's 18% less than the typical Michigan commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Alger County, Michigan?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Alger County, Michigan. 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 Michigan have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Michigan, the shortest average commutes are in Luce County (11.4 min), Dickinson County (12.2 min), Schoolcraft County (12.5 min). The longest are in Lapeer County (31.3 min), Lake County (31.1 min), Livingston County (28.6 min).