Petroleum County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Petroleum County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Petroleum County spend about 17 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 71 hours, about 3.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 47% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 7.5 minutes.

Petroleum County holds about 0.0% of Montana's population and accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Petroleum County would save about 29 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $886 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)
Petroleum County	8.6 min	17.2 min	71 hrs/yr	$2,215	81
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 8.6 minutes to get to work in Petroleum County. That's 62% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 5 fastest counties in Montana

The most common departure window is 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by walking. About 15.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Petroleum County

• Car: 60.4% unusually low
• Walked: 24.3% unusually high
• Worked at Home: 15.3%
• Other: < 0.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 25% less common in Petroleum County than the Montana average (60.4% vs 80.8%).

Walking is unusually common in Petroleum County: 6.2 times more than the Montana average (24.3% vs 3.9%).

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

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

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

Petroleum County stands out for active commuting: 24.3% of workers walk or bike to work, 5.0 times the Montana average of 4.9%.

Commute Mode Trends in Petroleum County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Petroleum 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Other

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Other
2009	67.0%	25.2%	7.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%
2010	64.7%	23.2%	10.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7%	1.4%
2011	62.2%	22.3%	12.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.2%	1.6%
2012	63.0%	25.1%	8.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	1.5%	1.5%
2013	66.3%	18.6%	13.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	1.2%
2014	59.6%	15.5%	23.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.8%
2015	56.5%	14.1%	29.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2016	55.7%	19.5%	23.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%	0.8%
2017	50.8%	22.2%	26.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.8%
2018	42.0%	21.0%	36.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.9%
2019	47.3%	19.7%	32.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.9%
2020	50.4%	25.2%	24.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2021	50.2%	19.2%	30.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	59.1%	13.6%	27.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	64.5%	22.1%	13.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	60.4%	24.3%	15.3%	0.0%	0.0%	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 2018 at 42.0%. Overall it fell from 67.0% in 2009 to 60.4% in 2024, down 6.6 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Petroleum County: its share of workers rose from 7.1% in 2009 to 15.3% in 2024, up 8.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 25.2% to 24.3% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 36.1% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 15.3%.

Commute Start Times in Petroleum County

• 🐦 Early BirdThe earliest start among Montana's 56 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:07 AM.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Petroleum County?

The bars show when commuters in Petroleum 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 Petroleum County0.5% Montana4.0%	0.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Petroleum County4.5% Montana2.7%	4.5%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Petroleum County9.0% Montana4.0%	9.0%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Petroleum County6.5% Montana6.7%	6.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Petroleum County25.1% Montana10.3%	25.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Petroleum County17.6% Montana13.7%	17.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Petroleum County10.6% Montana19.2%	10.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Petroleum County11.1% Montana11.7%	11.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Petroleum County5.5% Montana5.7%	5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Petroleum County6.0% Montana6.3%	6.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Petroleum County0.5% Montana3.3%	0.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Petroleum County0.0% Montana1.5%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Petroleum County3.0% Montana5.7%	3.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Petroleum County0.0% Montana5.2%	0.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Petroleum County is 6:30-6:59 AM, when 25.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 10.3% across Montana. Early starts are more common than in Montana: 14.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Montana: 64.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 11 commuters (9.5%) 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 Petroleum 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 Petroleum 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 Petroleum 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.

• Petroleum County
• Montana
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Petroleum County	Montana	United States
2009	7:18 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:15 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:17 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:25 AM	7:45 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:45 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:24 AM	7:44 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:34 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:41 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:18 AM	7:45 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:14 AM	7:44 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:06 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:07 AM	7:43 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Petroleum County were on the road by 7:07 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:18 AM). The shift is sharper than across Montana, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Petroleum County now leave 31 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 Petroleum County has moved 33 minutes earlier.

How does Petroleum County's commute time compare?

Metric	Petroleum County	Montana	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	8.6 min	16.0 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 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	15.3%	12.5%	15.0%
Walked	24.3%	3.9%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.6%	3.2%

The average commute time in Petroleum County is 8.6 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.6% in Montana. 24.3% commute by walking, higher than the 3.9% in Montana.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau