Flathead County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Flathead County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Flathead County spend about 35 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 147 hours, about 6.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 10% more time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.

Flathead County holds about 9.9% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 10.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Flathead County would save about 59 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,828 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)
Flathead County	17.7 min	35.4 min	147 hrs/yr	$4,570	1,016
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 17.7 minutes to get to work in Flathead County. That's 21% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 85% of counties in Montana

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 15.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Flathead County

• Car: 79.2%
• Worked at Home: 15.8%
• Walked: 2.8%
• Other: 1.5%
• Bicycle: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Flathead County: 3.1 times less than the Montana average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Flathead County: 4.7 times less than the Montana average (0.1% vs 0.6%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Flathead County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.9%	7.6%	3.0%	0.8%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	86.5%	8.0%	3.0%	1.0%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	86.1%	8.2%	3.2%	0.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	86.8%	7.8%	2.8%	1.1%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	87.9%	6.7%	3.3%	0.9%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	88.7%	6.4%	2.9%	0.8%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	88.4%	6.1%	3.2%	0.8%	0.8%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	88.7%	6.0%	3.2%	0.7%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	88.3%	5.8%	3.3%	0.9%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	87.6%	7.0%	2.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	86.7%	8.1%	2.8%	1.0%	0.6%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	85.0%	10.3%	2.3%	1.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2021	83.3%	12.0%	2.5%	1.1%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	81.6%	13.7%	2.7%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2023	80.2%	14.7%	2.9%	1.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	79.2%	15.8%	2.8%	1.5%	0.5%	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 2014 at 88.7%. Overall it fell from 86.9% in 2009 to 79.2% in 2024, down 7.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Flathead County: its share of workers rose from 7.6% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2024, up 8.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Biking lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Flathead County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Flathead County?

The bars show when commuters in Flathead 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 Flathead County3.7% Montana4.0%	3.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Flathead County2.2% Montana2.7%	2.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Flathead County3.2% Montana4.0%	3.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Flathead County7.7% Montana6.7%	7.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Flathead County10.0% Montana10.3%	10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Flathead County13.5% Montana13.7%	13.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Flathead County18.3% Montana19.2%	18.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Flathead County11.7% Montana11.7%	11.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Flathead County6.1% Montana5.7%	6.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Flathead County7.1% Montana6.3%	7.1%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Flathead County3.3% Montana3.3%	3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Flathead County2.3% Montana1.5%	2.3%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Flathead County5.9% Montana5.7%	5.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Flathead County5.3% Montana5.2%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Flathead County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are less common than in Montana: 9.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Montana's: 53.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.8%) 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 Flathead 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 Flathead 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 Flathead 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.

• Flathead County
• Montana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Flathead County	Montana	United States
2009	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:52 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:51 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:52 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:51 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:49 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:49 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:46 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Flathead County were on the road by 7:46 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:51 AM). The shift is sharper than across Montana, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Flathead County now leave 8 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Flathead County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Flathead County's commute time compare?

Metric	Flathead County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.7 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	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.8%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	2.8%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Flathead County is 17.7 minutes, longer than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Montana. 2.8% commute by walking, lower than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau