Putnam County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Putnam County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Putnam County spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 139 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 4.3 minutes.

Putnam 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 Putnam County would save about 55 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,720 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)
Putnam County	16.6 min	33.3 min	139 hrs/yr	$4,300	160
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 16.6 minutes to get to work in Putnam County. That's 26% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 80% 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 10.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Putnam County

• Car: 87.1%
• Worked at Home: 10.3%
• Other: 1.3%
• Walked: 1.3%
• 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 Putnam County, versus 0.1% in Missouri.

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

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Putnam County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Putnam 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	87.8%	8.5%	1.3%	1.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2010	89.4%	8.3%	0.7%	0.7%	0.7%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2011	88.4%	9.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%
2012	90.0%	8.5%	1.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	91.6%	7.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	91.0%	7.4%	1.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	88.5%	9.4%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	90.5%	6.8%	2.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	89.4%	8.0%	2.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	91.3%	6.2%	1.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	92.7%	5.4%	1.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	95.0%	3.1%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	95.5%	2.9%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.0%	5.6%	0.9%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	89.6%	9.3%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	87.1%	10.3%	1.3%	1.3%	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 peaked in 2021 at 95.5%. Overall it fell from 87.8% in 2009 to 87.1% in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Putnam County: its share of workers rose from 8.5% in 2009 to 10.3% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 0.9% to 0.0% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Putnam County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Putnam County?

The bars show when commuters in Putnam 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 Putnam County2.6% Missouri5.2%	2.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Putnam County3.4% Missouri3.9%	3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Putnam County4.1% Missouri5.3%	4.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Putnam County10.4% Missouri9.0%	10.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Putnam County11.9% Missouri10.4%	11.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Putnam County14.8% Missouri15.0%	14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Putnam County18.9% Missouri13.6%	18.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Putnam County8.8% Missouri10.1%	8.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Putnam County5.2% Missouri4.5%	5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Putnam County3.0% Missouri5.2%	3.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Putnam County3.8% Missouri2.6%	3.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Putnam County0.0% Missouri1.2%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Putnam County1.4% Missouri7.0%	1.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Putnam County11.7% Missouri6.9%	11.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Putnam County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.6% across Missouri. Early starts are less common than in Missouri: 10.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Missouri: 54.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.8%) 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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.

• Putnam County
• Missouri
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Putnam County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:33 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:35 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:32 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:38 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:34 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Putnam County were on the road by 7:34 AM, 4 minutes later than in 2009 (7:31 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Putnam County now leave 3 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 Putnam County has moved 6 minutes later.

How does Putnam County's commute time compare?

Metric	Putnam County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.6 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	10.3%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Putnam County is 16.6 minutes, shorter than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau