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Rock County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Rock 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, 8:00 PM
How much time do drivers in Rock County spend on the road daily?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:00 PM

Commute Time Burden in Rock County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Rock 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 135 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 20% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.1 minutes.

Rock County holds about 0.2% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Rock County would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,671 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)
Rock County 16.2 min 32.3 min 135 hrs/yr $4,179 394
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
  1. Brown County (10.6 min)
  2. Pennington County (10.8 min)
  3. Cottonwood County (10.9 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Minnesota
  1. Chisago County (30.9 min)
  2. Wright County (28.8 min)
  3. Sherburne County (28.8 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Rock County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.2 minutes to get to work in Rock County. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Rock County

  • Car: 84.7%
  • Worked at Home: 11.9%
  • Walked: 2.1%
  • Other: 1.1%
  • Taxi: 0.2%
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Rock County, versus 0.1% in Minnesota.

Public transit is unusually rare in Rock County: 21.9 times less than the Minnesota average (0.1% vs 1.8%).

Biking is essentially absent in Rock County, versus 0.5% in Minnesota.

Commute Mode Trends in Rock County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Rock 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 Taxi Public Transportation Motorcycle Bicycle
2009 85.4% 8.3% 5.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3% 0.4% 0.2%
2010 85.4% 7.0% 4.9% 1.4% 0.0% 0.9% 0.5% 0.0%
2011 86.2% 6.6% 4.8% 1.5% 0.0% 0.5% 0.3% 0.0%
2012 86.3% 6.7% 4.4% 1.5% 0.0% 0.7% 0.4% 0.0%
2013 85.3% 7.2% 4.7% 1.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.3% 0.2%
2014 84.4% 7.6% 4.6% 1.8% 0.0% 1.1% 0.3% 0.2%
2015 86.4% 7.5% 4.1% 0.8% 0.0% 0.8% 0.1% 0.3%
2016 87.5% 7.5% 3.1% 0.6% 0.0% 0.8% 0.0% 0.5%
2017 89.0% 6.7% 2.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.5%
2018 88.9% 7.2% 2.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0% 0.4%
2019 90.3% 6.4% 2.2% 0.5% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%
2020 89.4% 7.3% 2.0% 0.6% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.3%
2021 87.0% 8.5% 3.0% 1.1% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1%
2022 85.7% 10.1% 3.0% 1.0% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 86.5% 9.8% 2.2% 1.1% 0.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 84.7% 11.9% 2.1% 1.1% 0.2% 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 was highest in 2019 at 90.3% and lowest in 2014 at 84.4%. Overall it fell from 85.4% in 2009 to 84.7% in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Rock County: its share of workers rose from 8.3% in 2009 to 11.9% in 2024, up 3.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.1% to 2.1% of workers (down 3.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Rock County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Rock County?

The bars show when commuters in Rock 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
2.9%
5:00-5:29 AM
3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
5.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
11.5%
7:00-7:29 AM
29.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
16.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
6.2%
8:30-8:59 AM
1.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM
2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.2%
4:00-11:59 PM
4.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Rock County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 29.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 11.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 63.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.7%) 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 Rock 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 Rock 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 Rock 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 Rock County Minnesota United States
2009 7:27 AM 7:36 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:29 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:28 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:24 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:29 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:28 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:25 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:21 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:21 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:21 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:25 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 7:28 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:25 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:22 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Rock County were on the road by 7:22 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:27 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Rock County now leave 16 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 Rock County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Rock County's commute time compare?

Metric Rock County Minnesota US Average
Avg. Commute Time 16.2 min 20.3 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 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 11.9% 17.6% 15.0%
Walked 2.1% 2.5% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 1.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Rock County is 16.2 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Rock County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Rock County, MN is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 9,621 residents against a local median of 12,162. The measure that sets Rock County, MN apart most is one-way commute: 16.2 min, 27% above the local median of 12.7 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 11.9% against a local median of 9.5%, 24% above it. The counties themselves spread 5.5 min on one-way commute, so Rock County, MN sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Rock County, MN has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Rock County, MN 9,621 16.2 min #5/6 11.9% #1/6 7:22 AM #2/6
Lyon County, IA 12,162 15.8 min 9.8% 7:21 AM
Pipestone County, MN 9,284 11.2 min 9.1% 7:22 AM
Nobles County, MN 22,041 12.7 min 6.4% 7:24 AM
Minnehaha County, SD 203,266 16.7 min 11.1% 7:37 AM
Moody County, SD 6,397 11.9 min 9.5% 7:33 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Rock County, Minnesota.

Is commuting expensive in Rock County, Minnesota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 135 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,179 at a typical national wage. That's 20% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

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

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

Do people use public transit in Rock County, Minnesota?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.1% of commuters use it versus 1.8% in Minnesota, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Minnesota have the fastest and slowest commutes?

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).