Douglas County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:35 PM

Is the commute in Douglas County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:35 PM

Commute Time Burden in Douglas County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Douglas County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.2 minutes.

Douglas County holds about 0.7% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Douglas County would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,668 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)
Douglas County	16.1 min	32.3 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,169	512
Minnesota	20.3 min	40.6 min	169 hrs/yr	$5,249	854
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: Minnesota Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Minnesota

Brown County (10.6 min)
Pennington County (10.8 min)
Cottonwood County (10.9 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Minnesota

Chisago County (30.9 min)
Wright County (28.8 min)
Sherburne County (28.8 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Douglas County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.1 minutes to get to work in Douglas County. That's 28% 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 11.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Douglas County

Public transit is unusually rare in Douglas County: 5.8 times less than the Minnesota average (0.3% vs 1.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Douglas County, versus 0.2% in Minnesota.

Commute Mode Trends in Douglas County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Douglas 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	91.0%	5.0%	2.2%	0.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	91.1%	5.2%	2.0%	0.4%	0.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.0%
2011	90.8%	5.2%	2.0%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%
2012	90.5%	5.3%	2.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.5%	0.7%	0.0%
2013	90.7%	4.8%	2.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%
2014	90.8%	4.9%	2.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2015	90.6%	5.4%	2.5%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	89.7%	6.8%	2.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%
2017	90.0%	6.7%	1.9%	0.5%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	89.6%	7.3%	1.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	89.2%	7.5%	1.6%	0.8%	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	88.1%	8.0%	2.0%	0.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	87.4%	9.3%	1.8%	0.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	86.7%	9.9%	2.1%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	85.9%	10.7%	2.0%	0.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	84.9%	11.5%	1.8%	0.8%	0.6%	0.3%	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 2010 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 91.0% in 2009 to 84.9% in 2024, down 6.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Douglas County: its share of workers rose from 5.0% in 2009 to 11.5% in 2024, up 6.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Douglas County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Douglas County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.7%
5:30-5:59 AM		6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		13.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM		19.0%
8:00-8:29 AM		8.3%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		3.5%
10:00-10:59 AM		1.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.2%

Douglas County Minnesota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Douglas County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 19.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are about as common as in Minnesota: 13.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 55.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.6%) 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 Douglas 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 Douglas 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 Douglas County next to Minnesota 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	Douglas County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Douglas County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 14 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Douglas County now leave 9 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 Douglas County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Douglas County's commute time compare?

Metric	Douglas County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.1 min	20.3 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	11.5%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Douglas County is 16.1 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Douglas County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Douglas County, MN is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 39,575 residents against a local median of 11,416. Douglas County, MN sits close to the middle of its own neighbourhood. No measure below is more than 15% off the local median, so the choice between these counties turns on things this data does not capture.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 12% below the local median at 16.1 min against 18.2 min. Douglas County, MN has the 2nd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Douglas County, MN	39,575	16.1 min #2/6	11.5% #4/6	7:29 AM #4/6
Pope County, MN	11,416	18.2 min	11.7%	7:22 AM
Otter Tail County, MN	60,475	16.3 min	10.4%	7:32 AM
Grant County, MN	6,127	21.8 min	14.6%	7:29 AM
Todd County, MN	25,575	21.4 min	13.9%	7:08 AM
Stevens County, MN	9,740	11.3 min	7.6%	7:25 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Douglas County, Minnesota.

Is commuting expensive in Douglas County, Minnesota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 134 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,169 at a typical national wage. That's 21% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Douglas County, Minnesota?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Douglas County, Minnesota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Douglas County, Minnesota?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.3% of commuters use it versus 1.8% in Minnesota, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Minnesota?

Among counties in Minnesota, the shortest average commutes are in Brown County (10.6 min), Pennington County (10.8 min), Cottonwood County (10.9 min). The longest are in Chisago County (30.9 min), Wright County (28.8 min), Sherburne County (28.8 min).