Liberty County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Liberty County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Liberty County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 110 hours, about 4.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 18% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.9 minutes.

Liberty County holds about 0.2% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Liberty County would save about 44 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,358 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)
Liberty County	13.1 min	26.3 min	110 hrs/yr	$3,396	70
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 13.1 minutes to get to work in Liberty County. That's 41% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 26.5% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Liberty County

• Car: 58.3% unusually low
• Worked at Home: 26.5%
• Walked: 13.2% unusually high
• Other: 1.9%
• 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 Liberty County, versus 0.1% in Montana.

Driving is 28% less common in Liberty County than the Montana average (58.3% vs 80.8%).

Walking is unusually common in Liberty County: 3.4 times more than the Montana average (13.2% vs 3.9%).

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

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

Biking is unusually rare in Liberty County: 7.6 times less than the Montana average (0.1% vs 1.0%).

Commute Mode Trends in Liberty County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Liberty 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	63.1%	13.9%	22.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.0%	0.0%
2010	61.0%	15.3%	22.1%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	54.5%	20.5%	22.3%	1.3%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	52.7%	20.3%	23.7%	1.6%	0.6%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	52.0%	24.3%	19.5%	1.6%	0.6%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	58.0%	18.4%	19.0%	1.6%	0.6%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	60.0%	15.7%	21.3%	0.6%	0.2%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	54.0%	16.0%	28.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	54.8%	9.4%	34.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	61.5%	7.2%	31.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	61.5%	7.7%	30.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	53.6%	21.8%	24.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	59.2%	23.0%	17.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	53.2%	34.3%	9.4%	3.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	54.7%	31.2%	11.7%	2.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	58.3%	26.5%	13.2%	1.9%	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 bottomed out in 2013 at 52.0%. Overall it fell from 63.1% in 2009 to 58.3% in 2024, down 4.8 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Liberty County: its share of workers rose from 13.9% in 2009 to 26.5% in 2024, up 12.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 18.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 22.0% to 13.2% of workers (down 8.8 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2021 release and has stayed ahead since.

Working from home peaked at 34.3% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 26.5%.

Commute Start Times in Liberty County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Liberty County?

The bars show when commuters in Liberty 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 Liberty County2.1% Montana4.0%	2.1%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Liberty County3.8% Montana2.7%	3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Liberty County1.6% Montana4.0%	1.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Liberty County10.6% Montana6.7%	10.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Liberty County10.4% Montana10.3%	10.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Liberty County20.5% Montana13.7%	20.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Liberty County16.5% Montana19.2%	16.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Liberty County16.5% Montana11.7%	16.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Liberty County6.3% Montana5.7%	6.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Liberty County2.6% Montana6.3%	2.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Liberty County3.3% Montana3.3%	3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Liberty County0.0% Montana1.5%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Liberty County1.7% Montana5.7%	1.7%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Liberty County4.0% Montana5.2%	4.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Liberty County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.7% across Montana. Early starts are less common than in Montana: 7.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Montana: 64.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 9 commuters (11.7%) 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 Liberty 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 Liberty 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 Liberty 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.

• Liberty County
• Montana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Liberty County	Montana	United States
2009	7:38 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:43 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:47 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:39 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:46 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:45 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:43 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:34 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:25 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:32 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Liberty County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across Montana, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Liberty County now leave 6 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 Liberty County has moved 13 minutes earlier.

How does Liberty County's commute time compare?

Metric	Liberty County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	13.1 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	26.5%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	13.2%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Liberty County is 13.1 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Montana. 13.2% commute by walking, higher than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau