Carter County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Carter County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Carter County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 191 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 9% more time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.9 minutes.

Carter County holds about 0.1% of Missouri's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Carter County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,366 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)
Carter County	22.9 min	45.8 min	191 hrs/yr	$5,916	165
Missouri	21.0 min	41.9 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,415	923
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: Missouri Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 22.9 minutes to get to work in Carter County. That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 74% of counties in Missouri

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 05:30 AM – 05:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Carter County

• Car: 83.2%
• Worked at Home: 11.4%
• Walked: 4.3%
• Other: 1.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Carter County, versus 0.1% in Missouri.

Public transit is essentially absent in Carter County, versus 0.8% in Missouri.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Carter County, versus 0.2% in Missouri.

Biking is essentially absent in Carter County, versus 0.2% in Missouri.

Commute Mode Trends in Carter County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	86.5%	6.0%	5.1%	1.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	91.5%	4.8%	3.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	90.9%	6.3%	1.7%	0.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	89.7%	6.8%	1.8%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	89.6%	6.7%	1.7%	1.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	90.3%	5.2%	2.5%	1.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	85.8%	6.3%	4.2%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2016	83.9%	9.0%	4.0%	3.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	83.9%	7.7%	4.9%	3.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	83.2%	10.8%	3.8%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	83.0%	12.3%	2.5%	1.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	84.4%	13.9%	1.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.4%	10.4%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	85.6%	11.7%	1.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.2%	7.9%	2.6%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	83.2%	11.4%	4.3%	1.1%	0.0%	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 2010 at 91.5% and lowest in 2019 at 83.0%. Overall it fell from 86.5% in 2009 to 83.2% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Carter County: its share of workers rose from 6.0% in 2009 to 11.4% in 2024, up 5.4 percentage points.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.0% of workers (down 1.1 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 13.9% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 11.4%.

Commute Start Times in Carter County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Carter County?

The bars show when commuters in Carter 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 Missouri for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Carter County5.1% Missouri5.2%	5.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Carter County1.4% Missouri3.9%	1.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Carter County10.4% Missouri5.3%	10.4%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Carter County9.1% Missouri9.0%	9.1%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Carter County8.6% Missouri10.4%	8.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Carter County23.9% Missouri15.0%	23.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Carter County7.1% Missouri13.6%	7.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Carter County7.0% Missouri10.1%	7.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Carter County0.0% Missouri4.5%	0.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Carter County4.3% Missouri5.2%	4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Carter County4.8% Missouri2.6%	4.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Carter County0.5% Missouri1.2%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Carter County10.2% Missouri7.0%	10.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Carter County7.7% Missouri6.9%	7.7%

Carter County Missouri Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Carter County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 23.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.0% across Missouri. Early starts are more common than in Missouri: 16.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Missouri: 46.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (27.4%) 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 Carter 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 Carter 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 Carter County next to Missouri 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.

• Carter County
• Missouri
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Carter County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:39 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:34 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:24 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:23 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:22 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:26 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:23 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:19 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Carter County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:28 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Carter County now leave 19 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 Carter County has moved 3 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Carter County in the whole series.

How does Carter County's commute time compare?

Metric	Carter County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.9 min	21.0 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	05:30 AM – 05:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.4%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	4.3%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Carter County is 22.9 minutes, longer than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 4.3% commute by walking, higher than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau