Lake of the Woods County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Lake of the Woods County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Lake of the Woods County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 107 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 37% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.5 minutes.

Lake of the Woods County holds about 0.1% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Lake of the Woods County would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,327 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)
Lake of the Woods County	12.8 min	25.7 min	107 hrs/yr	$3,319	237
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 12.8 minutes to get to work in Lake of the Woods County. That's 43% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 86% of counties in Minnesota

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 walking. About 5.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Lake of the Woods County

• Car: 87.4%
• Walked: 6.3%
• Worked at Home: 5.4% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.7%
• Other: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Lake of the Woods County, versus 0.1% in Minnesota.

Public transit is essentially absent in Lake of the Woods County, versus 1.8% in Minnesota.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Lake of the Woods County, versus 0.2% in Minnesota.

Working from home is unusually rare in Lake of the Woods County: 3.3 times less than the Minnesota average (5.4% vs 17.6%).

Commute Mode Trends in Lake of the Woods County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Lake of the Woods 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
• Bicycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	87.3%	2.0%	9.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	86.2%	5.5%	7.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	84.7%	6.3%	8.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	85.0%	6.4%	8.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	90.8%	4.6%	4.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	92.5%	2.8%	4.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	86.3%	6.4%	7.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	85.2%	7.0%	7.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	83.1%	6.0%	10.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	83.4%	6.1%	10.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	79.6%	9.6%	10.4%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	88.3%	5.1%	6.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	85.8%	4.5%	8.6%	0.2%	0.3%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	85.0%	7.0%	6.7%	0.2%	0.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	87.5%	6.9%	4.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	87.4%	6.3%	5.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2014 at 92.5% and lowest in 2019 at 79.6%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 87.3% in 2009 and 87.4% in 2024.

Walking gained the most ground in Lake of the Woods County: its share of workers rose from 2.0% in 2009 to 6.3% in 2024, up 4.3 percentage points.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 9.9% to 5.4% of workers (down 4.5 percentage points).

Walking overtook working from home to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Walking peaked at 9.6% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 6.3%.

Commute Start Times in Lake of the Woods County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Lake of the Woods County?

The bars show when commuters in Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods County5.5% Minnesota5.0%	5.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Lake of the Woods County3.9% Minnesota3.8%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Lake of the Woods County5.3% Minnesota5.2%	5.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Lake of the Woods County8.0% Minnesota8.4%	8.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Lake of the Woods County11.0% Minnesota10.2%	11.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Lake of the Woods County18.0% Minnesota14.8%	18.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Lake of the Woods County21.2% Minnesota13.8%	21.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Lake of the Woods County5.9% Minnesota10.4%	5.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Lake of the Woods County2.5% Minnesota4.7%	2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Lake of the Woods County3.4% Minnesota5.8%	3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Lake of the Woods County1.5% Minnesota2.7%	1.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Lake of the Woods County1.5% Minnesota1.3%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Lake of the Woods County9.4% Minnesota8.2%	9.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Lake of the Woods County2.9% Minnesota5.8%	2.9%

Lake of the Woods County Minnesota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Lake of the Woods County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 21.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are about as common as in Minnesota: 14.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 56.1% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods 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.

• Lake of the Woods County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Lake of the Woods County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:25 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:17 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:16 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:13 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:10 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:26 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Lake of the Woods County were on the road by 7:27 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:25 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Lake of the Woods County now leave 11 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 Lake of the Woods County has moved 9 minutes later.

How does Lake of the Woods County's commute time compare?

Metric	Lake of the Woods County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.8 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	5.4%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	6.3%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Lake of the Woods County is 12.8 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 6.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau