Branch County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Branch County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Branch County spend about 36 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 148 hours, about 6.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% less time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 3.5 minutes.

Branch County holds about 0.4% of Michigan's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Branch County would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,839 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)
Branch County	17.8 min	35.6 min	148 hrs/yr	$4,597	925
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 17.8 minutes to get to work in Branch County. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Branch County

• Car: 89.6%
• Worked at Home: 6.2%
• Walked: 2.1%
• Other: 1.4%
• Bicycle: 0.4%
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Branch County: 5.0 times less than the Michigan average (0.2% vs 0.9%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Branch County: 4.6 times less than the Michigan average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Branch County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	90.2%	5.4%	2.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2010	91.2%	4.2%	2.8%	0.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	90.2%	5.0%	2.7%	0.6%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	89.9%	5.2%	3.2%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	89.9%	5.5%	2.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	90.2%	5.3%	2.7%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	90.9%	5.1%	2.2%	0.8%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	91.3%	5.1%	2.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	92.6%	4.3%	1.3%	1.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	92.8%	3.9%	1.3%	1.2%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	93.0%	3.4%	1.5%	1.2%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	92.9%	3.8%	1.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	92.6%	4.0%	1.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.4%	5.0%	1.8%	1.2%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	91.1%	5.0%	1.8%	1.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	89.6%	6.2%	2.1%	1.4%	0.4%	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 2019 at 93.0%. Overall it fell from 90.2% in 2009 to 89.6% in 2024, down 0.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Branch County: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 6.2% in 2024, up 0.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.7% to 2.1% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Branch County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Branch County?

The bars show when commuters in Branch 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	12:00-4:59 AM Branch County8.9% Michigan5.3%	8.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Branch County6.4% Michigan3.9%	6.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Branch County9.7% Michigan5.1%	9.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Branch County7.6% Michigan8.0%	7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Branch County8.5% Michigan9.0%	8.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Branch County11.9% Michigan13.0%	11.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Branch County13.3% Michigan12.1%	13.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Branch County7.9% Michigan10.9%	7.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Branch County3.2% Michigan5.6%	3.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Branch County3.9% Michigan6.7%	3.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Branch County1.7% Michigan3.2%	1.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Branch County0.6% Michigan1.6%	0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Branch County9.0% Michigan8.5%	9.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Branch County7.3% Michigan7.1%	7.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Branch County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 13.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Michigan. Early starts are more common than in Michigan: 25.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Michigan: 41.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.5%) 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 Branch 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 Branch 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 Branch 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.

• Branch County
• Michigan
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Branch County	Michigan	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:29 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:27 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:28 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:29 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:22 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:18 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:23 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:22 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Branch County were on the road by 7:22 AM, 15 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Branch County now leave 16 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Branch County's commute time compare?

Metric	Branch County	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.8 min	21.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	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	6.2%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Branch County is 17.8 minutes, shorter than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau