Houghton County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Houghton County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Houghton County spend about 27 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 112 hours, about 4.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 37% less time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.9 minutes.

Houghton County holds about 0.3% of Michigan's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Houghton County would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,390 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)
Houghton County	13.5 min	26.9 min	112 hrs/yr	$3,475	571
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 13.5 minutes to get to work in Houghton County. That's 40% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 93% of counties in Michigan

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 10.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Houghton County

• Car: 74.2%
• Walked: 10.8% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 10.0%
• Public Transportation: 2.6%
• Bicycle: 1.1% unusually high
• Other: 1.0%
• Motorcycle: 0.3% unusually high
• Taxi: 0.1%

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Houghton County: 4.8 times more than the Michigan average (0.3% vs 0.1%).

Walking is unusually common in Houghton County: 5.4 times more than the Michigan average (10.8% vs 2.0%).

Biking is unusually common in Houghton County: 3.1 times more than the Michigan average (1.1% vs 0.3%).

Houghton County stands out for active commuting: 11.9% of workers walk or bike to work, 5.1 times the Michigan average of 2.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Houghton County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Houghton 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Other
• Motorcycle
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	82.3%	9.1%	4.2%	2.0%	1.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.4%
2010	81.7%	9.7%	4.6%	1.5%	1.8%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	81.6%	10.8%	5.0%	0.7%	1.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2012	82.6%	10.2%	4.5%	0.7%	1.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2013	83.3%	9.9%	4.2%	0.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	83.0%	11.2%	3.5%	0.6%	1.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	83.2%	10.8%	3.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2016	82.8%	10.3%	4.6%	0.8%	0.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	82.3%	10.4%	5.1%	0.5%	0.8%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	80.9%	11.4%	5.6%	0.3%	0.5%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2019	81.7%	10.6%	5.6%	0.3%	0.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	81.0%	10.9%	5.7%	0.1%	0.7%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	80.5%	10.5%	6.3%	0.1%	0.9%	1.4%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	76.1%	10.7%	7.4%	2.5%	1.4%	1.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	75.8%	10.6%	8.6%	2.3%	1.2%	1.0%	0.4%	0.1%
2024	74.2%	10.8%	10.0%	2.6%	1.1%	1.0%	0.3%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 83.3%. Overall it fell from 82.3% in 2009 to 74.2% in 2024, down 8.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Houghton County: its share of workers rose from 4.2% in 2009 to 10.0% in 2024, up 5.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Houghton County

• 🦉 Night OwlThe 3rd-latest start among Michigan's 83 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 7:58 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Houghton County?

The bars show when commuters in Houghton 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 Houghton County2.7% Michigan5.3%	2.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Houghton County2.5% Michigan3.9%	2.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Houghton County2.9% Michigan5.1%	2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Houghton County4.9% Michigan8.0%	4.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Houghton County8.0% Michigan9.0%	8.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Houghton County11.5% Michigan13.0%	11.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Houghton County18.6% Michigan12.1%	18.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Houghton County12.4% Michigan10.9%	12.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Houghton County6.5% Michigan5.6%	6.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Houghton County8.9% Michigan6.7%	8.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Houghton County3.8% Michigan3.2%	3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Houghton County1.8% Michigan1.6%	1.8%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Houghton County10.1% Michigan8.5%	10.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Houghton County5.5% Michigan7.1%	5.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Houghton 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: 8.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Michigan: 50.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.1%) 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 Houghton 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 Houghton 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 Houghton 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.

• Houghton County
• Michigan
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Houghton County	Michigan	United States
2009	8:04 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:05 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:00 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:58 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:53 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:53 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:53 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:55 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:55 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:56 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:54 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:52 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:52 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:58 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:59 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:58 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Houghton County were on the road by 7:58 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:04 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Houghton County now leave 21 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Houghton County has moved 4 minutes later.

How does Houghton County's commute time compare?

Metric	Houghton County	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.5 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.0%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	10.8%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	2.6%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Houghton County is 13.5 minutes, shorter than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

2.6% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.9% in Michigan. 10.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau