Broadwater County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Broadwater County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Broadwater County spend about 61 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 253 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 89% more time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 14.3 minutes.

Broadwater County holds about 0.7% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 1.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Broadwater County would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,133 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)
Broadwater County	30.3 min	60.6 min	253 hrs/yr	$7,833	221
Montana	16.0 min	32.1 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,143	403
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: Montana Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 30.3 minutes to get to work in Broadwater County. That's 35% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slowest county in Montana

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 11:00 AM – 11:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Broadwater County

• Car: 88.0%
• Worked at Home: 10.5%
• Bicycle: 0.8%
• Other: 0.5%
• Walked: 0.2% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Broadwater County, versus 0.1% in Montana.

Walking is unusually rare in Broadwater County: 18.1 times less than the Montana average (0.2% vs 3.9%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Broadwater County, versus 0.6% in Montana.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Broadwater County, versus 0.1% in Montana.

Few people walk or bike to work in Broadwater County: just 1.0%, 4.7 times below the Montana average of 4.9%.

Commute Mode Trends in Broadwater County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	84.0%	5.1%	0.2%	2.0%	8.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	82.6%	7.0%	0.8%	1.4%	8.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	81.8%	5.4%	0.9%	2.5%	9.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	83.2%	6.0%	0.8%	4.1%	5.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	82.9%	6.3%	0.9%	2.8%	7.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	85.4%	6.1%	0.8%	2.7%	4.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	84.2%	7.8%	0.3%	2.7%	4.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	82.4%	9.0%	0.1%	2.6%	5.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2017	85.0%	8.2%	0.1%	0.8%	5.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	87.2%	8.6%	0.2%	0.5%	3.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2019	89.2%	7.4%	0.1%	0.9%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	91.5%	5.6%	0.0%	1.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	88.9%	8.7%	0.6%	1.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.1%	11.7%	0.6%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.1%	10.1%	0.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	88.0%	10.5%	0.8%	0.5%	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 was highest in 2020 at 91.5% and lowest in 2011 at 81.8%. Overall it rose from 84.0% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, up 4.0 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Broadwater County: its share of workers rose from 5.1% in 2009 to 10.5% in 2024, up 5.4 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 8.4% to 0.2% of workers (down 8.2 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2014 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 11.7% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 10.5%.

Commute Start Times in Broadwater County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Broadwater County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Broadwater County2.1% Montana4.0%	2.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Broadwater County9.0% Montana2.7%	9.0%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Broadwater County3.6% Montana4.0%	3.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Broadwater County8.2% Montana6.7%	8.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Broadwater County13.2% Montana10.3%	13.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Broadwater County14.1% Montana13.7%	14.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Broadwater County18.9% Montana19.2%	18.9%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Broadwater County5.6% Montana11.7%	5.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Broadwater County1.4% Montana5.7%	1.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Broadwater County3.8% Montana6.3%	3.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Broadwater County0.8% Montana3.3%	0.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Broadwater County14.6% Montana1.5%	14.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Broadwater County1.4% Montana5.7%	1.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Broadwater County3.4% Montana5.2%	3.4%

Broadwater County Montana Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Broadwater County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are more common than in Montana: 14.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Montana: 51.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.0%) 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 Broadwater 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 Broadwater 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 Broadwater County next to Montana 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.

• Broadwater County
• Montana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Broadwater County	Montana	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:24 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:26 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:24 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:20 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:16 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:10 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:10 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:15 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:15 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:12 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:25 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Broadwater County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). The shift is sharper than across Montana, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Broadwater County now leave 8 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 Broadwater County has moved 20 minutes later.

How does Broadwater County's commute time compare?

Metric	Broadwater County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.3 min	16.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	11:00 AM – 11:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.5%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	0.2%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Broadwater County is 30.3 minutes, longer than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Montana. 0.2% commute by walking, lower than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau