Glacier County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 7:09 PM

How much time do drivers in Glacier County spend on the road daily?

Map AI 9/24/26, 7:09 PM

Commute Time Burden in Glacier County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Glacier County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 102 hours, about 4.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.8 minutes.

Glacier County holds about 1.2% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Glacier County would save about 41 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,268 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)
Glacier County	12.3 min	24.5 min	102 hrs/yr	$3,170	137
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Montana

Treasure County (7.2 min)
Rosebud County (8.2 min)
Fallon County (8.4 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Montana

Broadwater County (30.3 min)
Stillwater County (27.8 min)
Granite County (23.3 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Glacier County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 12.3 minutes to get to work in Glacier County. That's 45% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Glacier County

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

Taking a taxi is unusually common in Glacier County: 4.1 times more than the Montana average (0.2% vs 0.1%).

Biking is essentially absent in Glacier County, versus 1.0% in Montana.

Commute Mode Trends in Glacier County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Glacier 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	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	78.4%	13.4%	8.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	78.5%	13.4%	7.8%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	78.2%	12.9%	8.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	78.8%	11.6%	9.0%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	78.5%	10.2%	10.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2014	76.9%	14.3%	8.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	78.8%	10.1%	10.4%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	74.6%	7.8%	17.0%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	75.8%	7.7%	15.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	75.7%	8.9%	14.6%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	77.4%	7.2%	14.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2020	79.1%	8.4%	11.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2021	80.2%	12.8%	6.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2022	76.5%	16.5%	6.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	77.3%	14.7%	6.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	78.3%	12.5%	7.1%	1.2%	0.6%	0.2%	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 2021 at 80.2% and lowest in 2016 at 74.6%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 78.4% in 2009 and 78.3% in 2024. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Public transit gained the most ground in Glacier County: its share of workers rose from 0.0% in 2009 to 0.6% in 2024, up 0.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 0.6 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 8.1% to 7.1% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 16.5% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 12.5%.

Commute Start Times in Glacier County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Glacier County?

The bars show when commuters in Glacier 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		2.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		1.8%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.9%
6:00-6:29 AM		3.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		27.2%
8:00-8:29 AM		14.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.1%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.9%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		8.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Glacier County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 27.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are less common than in Montana: 6.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Montana: 65.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (18.0%) 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 Glacier 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 Glacier 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 Glacier 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Glacier 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	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:46 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:48 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:43 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:43 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:38 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:33 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:33 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:48 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:51 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:49 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Glacier County were on the road by 7:49 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:51 AM). Montana followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Glacier County now leave 11 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 Glacier County has moved 16 minutes later.

How does Glacier County's commute time compare?

Metric	Glacier County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.3 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.5%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	7.1%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.6%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Glacier County is 12.3 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as Montana. 7.1% commute by walking, higher than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Glacier County, MT Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Glacier County, MT is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 13,635 residents against a local median of 6,353. Where Glacier County, MT breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 24% below the local median of 16.2 min at 12.3 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 6.9 min on one-way commute, so Glacier County, MT sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Glacier County, MT has the 3rd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Glacier County, MT	13,635	12.3 min #3/6	12.5% #4/6	7:49 AM #5/6
Pondera County, MT	6,035	12.0 min	9.6%	7:40 AM
Flathead County, MT	110,697	17.7 min	15.8%	7:46 AM
Teton County, MT	6,353	16.2 min	15.1%	7:43 AM
Toole County, MT	5,058	10.8 min	10.6%	7:58 AM
Lake County, MT	32,553	17.1 min	13.2%	7:42 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Glacier County, Montana.

Is commuting expensive in Glacier County, Montana?

Commuters here spend an estimated 102 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,170 at a typical national wage. That's 23% less than the typical Montana commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Glacier County, Montana?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Glacier County, Montana. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How do commute times compare across counties in Montana?

Among counties in Montana, the shortest average commutes are in Treasure County (7.2 min), Rosebud County (8.2 min), Fallon County (8.4 min). The longest are in Broadwater County (30.3 min), Stillwater County (27.8 min), Granite County (23.3 min).