Commuting in Silver Bow County, Montana: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:09 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Silver Bow County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:09 PM
Commute Time Burden in Silver Bow County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Silver Bow 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 108 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Montana average of 16.0 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.
Silver Bow County holds about 3.2% of Montana's population but accounts for roughly 2.6% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Silver Bow County would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,342 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)
Silver Bow County
13.0 min
26.0 min
108 hrs/yr
$3,355
741
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.
On average, it takes
13.0
minutes to get to work in
Silver Bow County.
That's 42% 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 7.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Silver Bow County
Car:
87.4%
Worked at Home:
7.6%
Walked:
2.5%
Other:
1.5%
Public Transportation:
0.7%
Taxi:
0.2%unusually high
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Silver Bow County, versus 0.1% in Montana.
Taking a taxi is unusually common in Silver Bow County: 4.2 times more than the Montana average (0.2% vs 0.1%).
Biking is unusually rare in Silver Bow County: 81.7 times less than the Montana average (0.0% vs 1.0%).
Commute Mode Trends in Silver Bow County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Silver Bow 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
89.4%
3.3%
4.4%
1.6%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
0.4%
2010
89.6%
3.2%
4.5%
1.3%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2011
90.6%
2.9%
4.2%
1.1%
0.7%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
2012
90.5%
3.0%
4.1%
1.4%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
0.3%
2013
91.1%
2.6%
3.6%
2.1%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.2%
2014
90.5%
3.2%
3.4%
2.1%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
0.5%
2015
90.3%
3.5%
2.8%
2.0%
0.4%
0.3%
0.2%
0.6%
2016
90.9%
3.2%
2.6%
1.9%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
0.7%
2017
90.9%
2.9%
2.6%
2.0%
0.6%
0.2%
0.2%
0.5%
2018
90.3%
3.3%
3.5%
1.5%
0.6%
0.2%
0.2%
0.3%
2019
91.4%
2.4%
3.8%
0.9%
0.9%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
2020
90.5%
3.6%
3.3%
1.3%
0.9%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2021
88.4%
5.2%
3.1%
2.0%
1.0%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2022
88.5%
6.4%
2.6%
1.6%
0.8%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
87.9%
7.1%
2.7%
1.1%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
87.4%
7.6%
2.5%
1.5%
0.7%
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 peaked in 2019 at 91.4%. Overall it fell from 89.4% in 2009 to 87.4% in 2024, down 2.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Silver Bow County: its share of workers rose from 3.3% in 2009 to 7.6% in 2024, up 4.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.4% to 2.5% of workers (down 1.9 percentage points).
Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2020 release and has stayed ahead since.
Commute Start Times in Silver Bow County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Silver Bow County?
The bars show when commuters in Silver Bow 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 AMSilver Bow County5.0%Montana4.0%
5.0%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMSilver Bow County2.8%Montana2.7%
2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMSilver Bow County3.3%Montana4.0%
3.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMSilver Bow County3.9%Montana6.7%
3.9%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMSilver Bow County7.9%Montana10.3%
7.9%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMSilver Bow County9.5%Montana13.7%
9.5%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMSilver Bow County25.2%Montana19.2%
25.2%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMSilver Bow County10.2%Montana11.7%
10.2%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMSilver Bow County6.5%Montana5.7%
6.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMSilver Bow County5.8%Montana6.3%
5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMSilver Bow County2.8%Montana3.3%
2.8%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMSilver Bow County2.0%Montana1.5%
2.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMSilver Bow County8.6%Montana5.7%
8.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMSilver Bow County6.7%Montana5.2%
6.7%
Silver Bow CountyMontanaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Silver Bow County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 25.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.2% across Montana. Early starts are about as common as in Montana: 11.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Montana: 52.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 55.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.8%) 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 Silver Bow 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 Silver Bow 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 Silver Bow 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
Silver Bow County
Montana
United States
2009
7:58 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2010
8:01 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
2011
8:06 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:57 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:54 AM
7:45 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:50 AM
7:45 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:48 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:48 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:52 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:55 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:53 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:54 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:52 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:52 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:49 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:51 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Silver Bow County were on the road by 7:51 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:58 AM). The shift is sharper than across Montana, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Silver Bow County now leave 13 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 Silver Bow County has moved 2 minutes earlier.
How does Silver Bow County's commute time compare?
Metric
Silver Bow County
Montana
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
13.0 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
7.6%
12.5%
15.0%
Walked
2.5%
3.9%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.7%
0.6%
3.2%
The average commute time in Silver Bow County is 13.0 minutes, shorter than the 16.0 minutes in Montana.
0.7% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in Montana. 2.5% commute by walking, lower than the 3.9% in Montana.
Silver Bow County, MT Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Silver Bow County, MT is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 35,793 residents against a local median of 9,595. The measure that sets Silver Bow County, MT apart most is one-way commute: 13.0 min, 27% below the local median of 17.8 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.
Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 7.6% against a local median of 9.9%, 23% below it. The counties themselves spread 11.3 min on one-way commute, so Silver Bow County, MT sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Silver Bow County, MT has the 2nd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Silver Bow County, Montana.
Is commuting expensive in Silver Bow County, Montana?
Commuters here spend an estimated 108 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,355 at a typical national wage. That's 19% less than the typical Montana commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Silver Bow County, Montana?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Silver Bow 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.
Which counties in Montana have the fastest and slowest commutes?
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).