Emmet County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Emmet County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Emmet 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 144 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.0 minutes.

Emmet County holds about 0.3% of Michigan's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Emmet County would save about 58 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,789 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)
Emmet County	17.3 min	34.6 min	144 hrs/yr	$4,472	1,073
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 17.3 minutes to get to work in Emmet County. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 74% of counties in Michigan

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 10.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Emmet County

• Car: 83.7%
• Worked at Home: 10.7%
• Walked: 3.8%
• Other: 0.5%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Taxi: 0.4%
• Motorcycle: 0.3% unusually high
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Emmet County: 4.7 times more than the Michigan average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Emmet County: 3.9 times less than the Michigan average (0.2% vs 0.9%).

Commute Mode Trends in Emmet County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Emmet 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
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Public Transportation

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Bicycle	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Public Transportation
2009	87.7%	6.2%	4.8%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	87.8%	6.0%	4.9%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	88.3%	5.4%	4.9%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	89.3%	4.8%	4.1%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	88.5%	5.3%	4.1%	0.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2014	88.5%	5.5%	3.9%	0.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	87.9%	5.1%	4.7%	0.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	88.3%	5.2%	4.6%	0.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	88.1%	5.9%	4.2%	0.4%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	88.7%	5.9%	3.8%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	88.7%	4.9%	4.4%	0.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%
2020	88.7%	5.7%	4.0%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2021	86.3%	7.6%	4.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%
2022	85.7%	7.6%	4.5%	0.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.3%
2023	83.6%	9.3%	4.5%	0.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%
2024	83.7%	10.7%	3.8%	0.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2012 at 89.3% and lowest in 2023 at 83.6%. Overall it fell from 87.7% in 2009 to 83.7% in 2024, down 4.0 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Emmet County: its share of workers rose from 6.2% in 2009 to 10.7% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.8% to 3.8% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Emmet County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Emmet County?

The bars show when commuters in Emmet 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 Emmet County2.8% Michigan5.3%	2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Emmet County2.4% Michigan3.9%	2.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Emmet County3.7% Michigan5.1%	3.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Emmet County4.8% Michigan8.0%	4.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Emmet County9.2% Michigan9.0%	9.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Emmet County15.5% Michigan13.0%	15.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Emmet County18.6% Michigan12.1%	18.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Emmet County9.6% Michigan10.9%	9.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Emmet County6.3% Michigan5.6%	6.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Emmet County7.3% Michigan6.7%	7.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Emmet County4.3% Michigan3.2%	4.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Emmet County2.5% Michigan1.6%	2.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Emmet County6.6% Michigan8.5%	6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Emmet County6.3% Michigan7.1%	6.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Emmet County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.1% across Michigan. Early starts are less common than in Michigan: 9.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Michigan: 52.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.0%) 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 Emmet 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 Emmet 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 Emmet 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.

• Emmet County
• Michigan
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Emmet County	Michigan	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:50 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:53 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:52 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:52 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:47 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:44 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:43 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:42 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:45 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Emmet County were on the road by 7:49 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved either. Commuters in Emmet County now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Emmet County's commute time compare?

Metric	Emmet County	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.3 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	10.7%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	3.8%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Emmet County is 17.3 minutes, shorter than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 3.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau