Jefferson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Jefferson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jefferson County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 156 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 17% more time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Jefferson County holds about 1.1% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 1.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jefferson County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,931 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)
Jefferson County	18.7 min	37.4 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,828	972
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

N

On average, it takes 18.7 minutes to get to work in Jefferson County. That's 17% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Montana

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.7% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jefferson County

• Car: 84.0%
• Worked at Home: 12.7%
• Walked: 2.3%
• Other: 1.0%
• Bicycle: 0.1% 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 Jefferson County, versus 0.1% in Montana.

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

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

Biking is unusually rare in Jefferson County: 8.3 times less than the Montana average (0.1% vs 1.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Jefferson County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Jefferson 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	83.6%	12.8%	2.4%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	82.1%	14.3%	2.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	89.5%	6.4%	2.3%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2012	89.7%	6.0%	2.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2013	88.4%	7.0%	3.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2014	87.7%	7.7%	3.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	88.1%	6.3%	4.1%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	88.2%	5.9%	4.3%	1.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2017	89.1%	5.5%	3.9%	1.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	90.5%	5.1%	2.9%	0.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	89.4%	5.4%	3.2%	1.3%	0.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	86.6%	8.2%	3.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	86.5%	9.5%	2.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	86.3%	9.7%	2.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	83.9%	11.9%	3.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.0%	12.7%	2.3%	1.0%	0.1%	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 2018 at 90.5% and lowest in 2010 at 82.1%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 83.6% in 2009 and 84.0% in 2024.

Walking peaked at 4.3% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 2.3%.

Commute Start Times in Jefferson County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Jefferson County?

The bars show when commuters in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County2.8% Montana4.0%	2.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Jefferson County3.3% Montana2.7%	3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Jefferson County5.6% Montana4.0%	5.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Jefferson County7.4% Montana6.7%	7.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Jefferson County9.0% Montana10.3%	9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Jefferson County16.1% Montana13.7%	16.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Jefferson County15.7% Montana19.2%	15.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Jefferson County12.9% Montana11.7%	12.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Jefferson County5.2% Montana5.7%	5.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Jefferson County5.9% Montana6.3%	5.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Jefferson County7.0% Montana3.3%	7.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Jefferson County0.1% Montana1.5%	0.1%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Jefferson County4.4% Montana5.7%	4.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Jefferson County4.4% Montana5.2%	4.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Jefferson County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.7% across Montana. Early starts are more common than in Montana: 11.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Montana's: 53.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.8%) 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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 Jefferson 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.

• Jefferson County
• Montana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Jefferson County	Montana	United States
2009	7:42 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:43 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:42 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:36 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:36 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:36 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:35 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:37 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:35 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:41 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jefferson County were on the road by 7:41 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:42 AM). Montana followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Jefferson County now leave 3 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 Jefferson County has moved 6 minutes later.

How does Jefferson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Jefferson County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 min	16.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	12.7%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	2.3%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Jefferson County is 18.7 minutes, longer than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Montana. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau