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Phelps County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Phelps County, Missouri: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:17 PM
Is the commute in Phelps County longer than the national average?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:17 PM

Commute Time Burden in Phelps County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Phelps County spend about 31 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 130 hours, about 5.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 26% less time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 5.4 minutes.

Phelps County holds about 0.7% of Missouri's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Phelps County would save about 52 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,607 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)
Phelps County 15.5 min 31.1 min 130 hrs/yr $4,016 642
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Missouri
  1. Saline County (11.9 min)
  2. Adair County (12.0 min)
  3. Nodaway County (12.1 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Missouri
  1. Bollinger County (33.1 min)
  2. Ray County (32.2 min)
  3. Maries County (31.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Phelps County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 15.5 minutes to get to work in Phelps County. That's 31% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 89% of counties in Missouri

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 7.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Phelps County

  • Car: 86.6%
  • Worked at Home: 7.4%
  • Walked: 4.0%
  • Other: 1.2%
  • Bicycle: 0.8% unusually high
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1%
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Phelps County: 11.4 times less than the Missouri average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Phelps County: 31.3 times less than the Missouri average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually common in Phelps County: 4.0 times more than the Missouri average (0.8% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Phelps County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Phelps 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 Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 89.3% 2.6% 6.0% 0.9% 0.0% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4%
2010 89.3% 3.5% 5.1% 0.9% 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% 0.4%
2011 89.5% 4.0% 4.2% 1.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% 0.4%
2012 89.9% 3.6% 4.4% 0.8% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% 0.4%
2013 90.3% 3.8% 3.8% 1.0% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.3%
2014 90.5% 4.0% 3.5% 0.9% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% 0.2%
2015 90.5% 3.4% 3.4% 1.1% 0.5% 0.4% 0.7% 0.1%
2016 89.9% 3.1% 4.1% 1.0% 0.5% 0.6% 0.6% 0.1%
2017 90.6% 2.8% 3.6% 1.2% 0.4% 0.7% 0.6% 0.1%
2018 91.2% 2.6% 3.5% 1.0% 0.3% 0.6% 0.7% 0.0%
2019 91.2% 3.0% 3.7% 0.8% 0.2% 0.3% 0.7% 0.1%
2020 90.4% 3.9% 4.8% 0.4% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 0.1%
2021 90.8% 4.9% 3.6% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.1%
2022 89.1% 6.1% 4.0% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2023 87.5% 7.0% 3.8% 0.7% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2%
2024 86.6% 7.4% 4.0% 1.2% 0.8% 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 peaked in 2018 at 91.2%. Overall it fell from 89.3% in 2009 to 86.6% in 2024, down 2.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Phelps County: its share of workers rose from 2.6% in 2009 to 7.4% in 2024, up 4.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.0% to 4.0% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Phelps County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Phelps County?

The bars show when commuters in Phelps 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
5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
2.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
8.1%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
15.3%
7:30-7:59 AM
15.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
10.3%
8:30-8:59 AM
4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM
6.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
6.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
3.8%

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

The busiest time to head out in Phelps County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.6% across Missouri. Early starts are about as common as in Missouri: 13.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Missouri: 52.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.4%) 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 Phelps 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 Phelps 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 Phelps 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show typical departure times by year
Year Phelps County Missouri United States
2009 7:43 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:44 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:46 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:45 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:43 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:43 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:38 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:38 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:37 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:40 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:39 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:40 AM 7:32 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:38 AM 7:32 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:36 AM 7:32 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:35 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:34 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Phelps County were on the road by 7:34 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:43 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Phelps County now leave 4 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 Phelps County has moved 5 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Phelps County in the whole series.

How does Phelps County's commute time compare?

Metric Phelps County Missouri US Average
Avg. Commute Time 15.5 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 7.4% 13.0% 15.0%
Walked 4.0% 1.8% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Phelps County is 15.5 minutes, shorter than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 4.0% commute by walking, higher than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Phelps County, MO Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Phelps County, MO is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 45,194 residents against a local median of 22,797. Where Phelps County, MO breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 23% below the local median of 20.2 min at 15.5 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 15.3 min on one-way commute, so Phelps County, MO sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Phelps County, MO has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Phelps County, MO 45,194 15.5 min #1/6 7.4% #2/6 7:34 AM #6/6
Maries County, MO 8,450 31.9 min 6.8% 7:01 AM
Dent County, MO 14,539 16.6 min 7.2% 7:16 AM
Pulaski County, MO 53,894 17.3 min 15.7% 6:43 AM
Crawford County, MO 22,797 21.3 min 3.9% 6:57 AM
Texas County, MO 25,161 20.2 min 6.5% 7:11 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Phelps County, Missouri.

Is commuting expensive in Phelps County, Missouri?

Commuters here spend an estimated 130 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,016 at a typical national wage. That's 26% less than the typical Missouri commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Phelps County, Missouri?

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

How common is public transit use in Phelps County, Missouri?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.1% of commuters use it versus 0.8% in Missouri, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Missouri have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Missouri, the shortest average commutes are in Saline County (11.9 min), Adair County (12.0 min), Nodaway County (12.1 min). The longest are in Bollinger County (33.1 min), Ray County (32.2 min), Maries County (31.9 min).