Lapeer County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lapeer County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lapeer County spend about 63 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 261 hours, about 10.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 47% more time on the road than the Michigan average of 21.3 minutes each way, a difference of 10.0 minutes.

Lapeer County holds about 0.9% of Michigan's population but accounts for roughly 1.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lapeer County would save about 104 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,232 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)
Lapeer County	31.3 min	62.6 min	261 hrs/yr	$8,081	1,500
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 31.3 minutes to get to work in Lapeer County. That's 40% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slowest county in Michigan

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lapeer County

• Car: 88.9%
• Worked at Home: 8.7%
• Walked: 1.0%
• Public Transportation: 0.8%
• Other: 0.6%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Biking is unusually rare in Lapeer County: 3.7 times less than the Michigan average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Lapeer County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	93.0%	3.9%	1.6%	0.3%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	92.5%	4.0%	1.6%	0.6%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	92.9%	4.2%	1.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	92.3%	4.5%	1.3%	0.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	92.6%	4.4%	1.2%	0.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	93.3%	4.1%	1.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	94.4%	3.5%	1.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	94.4%	3.3%	1.0%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	94.7%	2.9%	1.3%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.6%	2.8%	1.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.9%	3.5%	1.4%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	92.8%	4.3%	1.4%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	91.5%	5.6%	1.5%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	90.0%	7.3%	1.2%	0.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	89.4%	7.8%	1.0%	0.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.9%	8.7%	1.0%	0.8%	0.6%	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 2017 at 94.7%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 88.9% in 2024, down 4.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Lapeer County: its share of workers rose from 3.9% in 2009 to 8.7% in 2024, up 4.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.6% to 1.0% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Lapeer County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lapeer County?

The bars show when commuters in Lapeer 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 Lapeer County8.4% Michigan5.3%	8.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lapeer County7.4% Michigan3.9%	7.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lapeer County8.3% Michigan5.1%	8.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lapeer County10.5% Michigan8.0%	10.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lapeer County11.2% Michigan9.0%	11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lapeer County12.0% Michigan13.0%	12.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lapeer County8.9% Michigan12.1%	8.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lapeer County6.8% Michigan10.9%	6.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lapeer County4.2% Michigan5.6%	4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lapeer County4.3% Michigan6.7%	4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lapeer County3.5% Michigan3.2%	3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lapeer County1.3% Michigan1.6%	1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lapeer County7.9% Michigan8.5%	7.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lapeer County5.2% Michigan7.1%	5.2%

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

The busiest time to head out in Lapeer County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 12.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.0% across Michigan. Early starts are more common than in Michigan: 24.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Michigan: 39.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 45.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.3%) 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 Lapeer 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 Lapeer 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 Lapeer 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.

• Lapeer County
• Michigan
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lapeer County	Michigan	United States
2009	7:23 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:25 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:23 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:23 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:17 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:16 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:17 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:15 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:14 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:13 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:13 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:11 AM	7:43 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:11 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:11 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lapeer County were on the road by 7:11 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:23 AM). Across Michigan, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Lapeer County now leave 27 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Lapeer County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Lapeer County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lapeer County	Michigan	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	31.3 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.7%	13.5%	15.0%
Walked	1.0%	2.0%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.8%	0.9%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lapeer County is 31.3 minutes, longer than the 21.3 minutes in Michigan.

0.8% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.9% in Michigan. 1.0% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Michigan.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau