Nicollet County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Nicollet County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Nicollet 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 34% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 6.9 minutes.

Nicollet County holds about 0.6% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Nicollet County would save about 45 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,391 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)
Nicollet County	13.5 min	26.9 min	112 hrs/yr	$3,478	688
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 13.5 minutes to get to work in Nicollet County. That's 40% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 78% 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 working from home. About 13.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Nicollet County

• Car: 77.6%
• Worked at Home: 13.4%
• Walked: 6.5%
• Other: 1.8%
• Bicycle: 0.4%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Nicollet County: 6.1 times less than the Minnesota average (0.3% vs 1.8%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Nicollet County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	86.4%	5.7%	6.5%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	85.6%	7.6%	5.4%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	84.4%	8.0%	5.8%	0.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	84.1%	7.9%	5.8%	0.3%	1.0%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	83.9%	8.8%	5.1%	0.3%	0.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%
2014	84.6%	8.9%	4.2%	0.2%	0.8%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	84.3%	9.0%	4.5%	0.2%	0.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	85.2%	9.0%	4.1%	0.2%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%
2017	84.6%	10.0%	4.0%	0.2%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	84.1%	10.4%	3.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%
2019	83.2%	11.4%	3.6%	0.5%	0.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	81.4%	12.2%	3.4%	1.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2021	79.1%	13.9%	4.2%	1.8%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	79.1%	13.0%	5.1%	1.8%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	77.1%	14.0%	6.1%	1.5%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2024	77.6%	13.4%	6.5%	1.8%	0.4%	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 bottomed out in 2023 at 77.1%. Overall it fell from 86.4% in 2009 to 77.6% in 2024, down 8.8 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Nicollet County: its share of workers rose from 5.7% in 2009 to 13.4% in 2024, up 7.7 percentage points.

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2010 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Nicollet County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Nicollet County?

The bars show when commuters in Nicollet 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 Nicollet County4.2% Minnesota5.0%	4.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Nicollet County3.2% Minnesota3.8%	3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Nicollet County7.2% Minnesota5.2%	7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Nicollet County8.5% Minnesota8.4%	8.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Nicollet County9.9% Minnesota10.2%	9.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Nicollet County13.7% Minnesota14.8%	13.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Nicollet County18.0% Minnesota13.8%	18.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Nicollet County11.4% Minnesota10.4%	11.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Nicollet County3.5% Minnesota4.7%	3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Nicollet County4.3% Minnesota5.8%	4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Nicollet County2.6% Minnesota2.7%	2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Nicollet County0.7% Minnesota1.3%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Nicollet County6.9% Minnesota8.2%	6.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Nicollet County5.8% Minnesota5.8%	5.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Nicollet County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are about as common as in Minnesota: 14.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 53.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.4%) 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 Nicollet 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 Nicollet 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 Nicollet 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.

• Nicollet County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Nicollet County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:43 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:31 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:36 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Nicollet County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:43 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Nicollet County now leave 2 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 Nicollet County has moved 5 minutes later.

How does Nicollet County's commute time compare?

Metric	Nicollet County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.5 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	13.4%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	6.5%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Nicollet County is 13.5 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 6.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau