Freeborn County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Freeborn County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Freeborn County spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 130 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.7 minutes.

Freeborn County holds about 0.5% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Freeborn County would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,618 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)
Freeborn County	15.7 min	31.3 min	130 hrs/yr	$4,044	614
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 15.7 minutes to get to work in Freeborn County. That's 30% 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 7.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Freeborn County

• Car: 87.3%
• Worked at Home: 7.6%
• Walked: 2.8%
• Other: 1.2%
• Motorcycle: 0.5% unusually high
• Bicycle: 0.4%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Freeborn County: 5.2 times more than the Minnesota average (0.5% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Freeborn County: 13.1 times less than the Minnesota average (0.1% vs 1.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Freeborn County: 3.3 times less than the Minnesota average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Freeborn County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	89.9%	5.6%	2.7%	0.5%	0.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.1%
2010	89.4%	5.6%	2.9%	0.6%	0.3%	0.5%	0.6%	0.1%
2011	89.1%	5.7%	2.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%
2012	90.1%	5.5%	2.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.1%
2013	90.8%	4.5%	2.1%	1.0%	0.3%	0.3%	0.8%	0.1%
2014	91.2%	3.9%	1.8%	1.3%	0.3%	0.4%	1.0%	0.0%
2015	91.4%	3.3%	1.7%	1.5%	0.3%	0.9%	0.9%	0.1%
2016	91.5%	2.8%	2.3%	1.2%	0.2%	0.9%	1.0%	0.0%
2017	92.0%	2.5%	2.4%	1.2%	0.3%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%
2018	91.7%	3.2%	2.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%
2019	92.0%	3.0%	2.6%	0.8%	0.1%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%
2020	90.9%	4.5%	3.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.5%	0.5%	0.0%
2021	90.4%	5.5%	2.7%	0.5%	0.1%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	88.6%	6.8%	2.9%	0.9%	0.1%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	88.4%	7.5%	2.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	87.3%	7.6%	2.8%	1.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2017 at 92.0%. Overall it fell from 89.9% in 2009 to 87.3% in 2024, down 2.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Freeborn County: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 7.6% in 2024, up 2.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Freeborn County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Freeborn County?

The bars show when commuters in Freeborn 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	12:00-4:59 AM Freeborn County7.0% Minnesota5.0%	7.0%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Freeborn County4.3% Minnesota3.8%	4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Freeborn County5.1% Minnesota5.2%	5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Freeborn County7.5% Minnesota8.4%	7.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Freeborn County10.8% Minnesota10.2%	10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Freeborn County15.4% Minnesota14.8%	15.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Freeborn County16.2% Minnesota13.8%	16.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Freeborn County6.9% Minnesota10.4%	6.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Freeborn County3.3% Minnesota4.7%	3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Freeborn County3.1% Minnesota5.8%	3.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Freeborn County1.8% Minnesota2.7%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Freeborn County0.6% Minnesota1.3%	0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Freeborn County9.4% Minnesota8.2%	9.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Freeborn County8.5% Minnesota5.8%	8.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Freeborn County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 16.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 16.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Minnesota's: 49.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.5%) 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 Freeborn 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 Freeborn 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 Freeborn 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.

• Freeborn County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Freeborn County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:25 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Freeborn County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Freeborn County now leave 8 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 Freeborn County has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Freeborn County's commute time compare?

Metric	Freeborn County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.7 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	7.6%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	2.8%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Freeborn County is 15.7 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 2.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau