Pricing
Map Drive-Time Zone10-min drive time • PDF report

Traverse County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Traverse 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, 8:20 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Traverse County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:20 PM

Commute Time Burden in Traverse County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Traverse County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 103 hours, about 4.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 39% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.9 minutes.

Traverse 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 Traverse County would save about 41 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,279 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)
Traverse County 12.4 min 24.8 min 103 hrs/yr $3,198 193
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

Traverse County
Click a county to open it Explore the map →
Average commute time

On average, it takes 12.4 minutes to get to work in Traverse County. That's 45% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 90% of counties in Minnesota

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Traverse County

  • Car: 76.3%
  • Worked at Home: 16.8%
  • Walked: 6.2%
  • Bicycle: 0.4%
  • Other: 0.3%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Traverse County: 2133279986.3 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Traverse County, versus 1.8% in Minnesota.

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

Commute Mode Trends in Traverse County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Traverse 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 Bicycle Other Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 82.1% 7.2% 8.1% 1.8% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2010 79.6% 8.9% 8.9% 2.1% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2011 81.0% 8.3% 8.4% 1.8% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2012 82.4% 7.8% 7.8% 1.7% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 81.9% 8.2% 7.4% 2.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1%
2014 82.2% 10.0% 5.4% 1.6% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2015 84.2% 10.2% 4.3% 0.2% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 0.4%
2016 85.2% 9.9% 3.5% 0.3% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 0.5%
2017 85.9% 7.9% 4.2% 0.2% 0.7% 0.6% 0.0% 0.4%
2018 85.0% 9.8% 3.6% 0.2% 0.7% 0.5% 0.0% 0.2%
2019 86.6% 8.8% 3.2% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5% 0.0% 0.2%
2020 83.5% 12.6% 2.6% 0.3% 0.6% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 80.0% 14.6% 3.0% 0.2% 1.6% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 79.0% 16.4% 2.9% 0.3% 1.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 79.2% 16.2% 4.0% 0.3% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 76.3% 16.8% 6.2% 0.4% 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 peaked in 2019 at 86.6%. Overall it fell from 82.1% in 2009 to 76.3% in 2024, down 5.8 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Traverse County: its share of workers rose from 7.2% in 2009 to 16.8% in 2024, up 9.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 8.1% to 6.2% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2013 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Traverse County

  • Rush-Hour RegularsThe highest share of rush-hour departures among Minnesota's 87 counties: 66.3% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Traverse County?

The bars show when commuters in Traverse 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
4.9%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM
3.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
4.2%
6:30-6:59 AM
17.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
11.6%
7:30-7:59 AM
21.6%
8:00-8:29 AM
15.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.6%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.9%
10:00-10:59 AM
1.2%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
5.1%
4:00-11:59 PM
4.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Traverse County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 21.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 12.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 66.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.8%) 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 Traverse 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 Traverse 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 Traverse 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 Traverse County Minnesota United States
2009 7:32 AM 7:36 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:35 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:40 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:44 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:44 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:40 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:40 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:36 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:34 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:38 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:42 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:36 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Traverse County were on the road by 7:36 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:32 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Traverse 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 Traverse County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Traverse County's commute time compare?

Metric Traverse County Minnesota US Average
Avg. Commute Time 12.4 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 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 16.8% 17.6% 15.0%
Walked 6.2% 2.5% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 1.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Traverse County is 12.4 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 6.2% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Traverse County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Traverse County, MN is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 3,243 residents against a local median of 6,371. The measure that sets Traverse County, MN apart most is work from home: 16.8%, 86% above the local median of 9.0%.

The counties themselves spread 7.0% on work from home, so Traverse County, MN sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Traverse County, MN has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Traverse County, MN 3,243 12.4 min #2/6 16.8% #1/6 7:36 AM #5/6
Big Stone County, MN 5,126 13.3 min 9.6% 7:36 AM
Grant County, MN 6,127 21.8 min 14.6% 7:29 AM
Roberts County, SD 10,221 13.7 min 9.0% 7:38 AM
Stevens County, MN 9,740 11.3 min 7.6% 7:25 AM
Wilkin County, MN 6,371 16.8 min 8.4% 7:25 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Traverse County, Minnesota.

Is living in Traverse County, Minnesota good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 103 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,198 at a typical national wage. That's 39% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Traverse County, Minnesota?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Traverse County, Minnesota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

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

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% 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).