Monroe County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Monroe County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Monroe County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 187 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% more time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.5 minutes.

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

Working from home just 2 days a week in Monroe County would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,322 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)
Monroe County	22.5 min	44.9 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,805	227
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 22.5 minutes to get to work in Monroe County. That's about the same as the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 3.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Monroe County

• Car: 88.0%
• Walked: 6.8% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 3.8% unusually low
• Other: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Walking is unusually common in Monroe County: 3.9 times more than the Missouri average (6.8% vs 1.8%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Monroe County: 4.9 times less than the Missouri average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

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

Working from home is unusually rare in Monroe County: 3.4 times less than the Missouri average (3.8% vs 13.0%).

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

Monroe County stands out for active commuting: 6.8% of workers walk or bike to work, 3.5 times the Missouri average of 2.0%.

Commute Mode Trends in Monroe County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	93.0%	2.2%	3.9%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2010	91.1%	2.4%	4.8%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	91.5%	1.2%	5.4%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	92.6%	1.6%	4.1%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	91.2%	1.8%	5.1%	1.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	90.0%	1.7%	6.5%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	91.5%	1.9%	5.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	90.4%	2.3%	5.4%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	92.0%	1.4%	5.1%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	92.1%	1.6%	5.2%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.1%	2.6%	3.2%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	93.1%	3.0%	3.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	93.2%	2.6%	3.3%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.1%	4.2%	3.9%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	90.1%	5.7%	2.9%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.0%	6.8%	3.8%	1.2%	0.2%	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 2021 at 93.2%. Overall it fell from 93.0% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, down 5.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Walking gained the most ground in Monroe County: its share of workers rose from 2.2% in 2009 to 6.8% in 2024, up 4.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

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

Working from home peaked at 6.5% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 3.8%.

Commute Start Times in Monroe County

• 🛌 Hitting SnoozeThe biggest shift to later mornings among Missouri's 115 counties: the typical start is 23 minutes later than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Monroe County?

The bars show when commuters in Monroe 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 Monroe County7.8% Missouri5.2%	7.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Monroe County4.8% Missouri3.9%	4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Monroe County2.6% Missouri5.3%	2.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Monroe County7.6% Missouri9.0%	7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Monroe County12.4% Missouri10.4%	12.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Monroe County15.6% Missouri15.0%	15.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Monroe County26.1% Missouri13.6%	26.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Monroe County3.5% Missouri10.1%	3.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Monroe County2.3% Missouri4.5%	2.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Monroe County2.4% Missouri5.2%	2.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Monroe County0.8% Missouri2.6%	0.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Monroe County0.2% Missouri1.2%	0.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Monroe County9.2% Missouri7.0%	9.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Monroe County4.8% Missouri6.9%	4.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Monroe County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 26.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.6% across Missouri. Early starts are about as common as in Missouri: 15.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Missouri: 57.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.4%) 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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 Monroe 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.

• Monroe County
• Missouri
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Monroe County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:06 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:13 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:11 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:14 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:09 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:13 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:08 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:10 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:07 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:14 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:27 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:32 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Monroe County were on the road by 7:29 AM, 23 minutes later than in 2009 (7:06 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Monroe County now leave 9 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 Monroe County has moved 11 minutes later.

How does Monroe County's commute time compare?

Metric	Monroe County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.5 min	21.0 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	3.8%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	6.8%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Monroe County is 22.5 minutes, longer than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 6.8% commute by walking, higher than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau