Commuting in Buncombe County, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:34 PM
How long is the round-trip commute in Buncombe County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:34 PM
Commute Time Burden in Buncombe County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Buncombe County spend about 41 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 171 hours, about 7.1 full days, spent commuting. That is 6% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 1.3 minutes.
Buncombe County holds about 2.6% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Buncombe County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,121 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)
Buncombe County
20.5 min
41.1 min
171 hrs/yr
$5,303
1,886
North Carolina
21.9 min
43.7 min
182 hrs/yr
$5,645
1,609
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
20.5
minutes to get to work in
Buncombe County.
That's 8% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 17.6% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Buncombe County
Car:
78.1%
Worked at Home:
17.6%
Walked:
1.9%
Other:
0.9%
Public Transportation:
0.7%
Taxi:
0.5%unusually high
Bicycle:
0.3%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Taking a taxi is unusually common in Buncombe County: 3.0 times more than the North Carolina average (0.5% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Buncombe County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Buncombe 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
Bicycle
Motorcycle
2009
90.0%
5.4%
2.3%
0.5%
0.9%
0.1%
0.5%
0.3%
2010
89.7%
5.7%
2.3%
0.4%
0.9%
0.1%
0.6%
0.3%
2011
89.4%
6.3%
2.1%
0.6%
0.8%
0.1%
0.5%
0.2%
2012
89.2%
6.5%
2.3%
0.5%
0.7%
0.1%
0.5%
0.2%
2013
89.5%
6.2%
2.4%
0.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.4%
0.2%
2014
88.7%
7.0%
2.4%
0.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.5%
0.2%
2015
88.5%
7.1%
2.6%
0.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.3%
0.2%
2016
88.4%
7.4%
2.5%
0.4%
0.7%
0.0%
0.4%
0.3%
2017
87.7%
8.5%
2.2%
0.4%
0.6%
0.0%
0.3%
0.3%
2018
86.4%
9.7%
2.2%
0.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.3%
0.2%
2019
85.8%
10.1%
2.3%
0.6%
0.6%
0.1%
0.3%
0.2%
2020
84.7%
11.4%
1.9%
0.6%
0.7%
0.2%
0.3%
0.2%
2021
83.1%
13.1%
1.8%
0.7%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
2022
81.4%
14.4%
2.1%
0.7%
0.8%
0.3%
0.2%
0.1%
2023
79.5%
16.2%
2.1%
0.8%
0.8%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
2024
78.1%
17.6%
1.9%
0.9%
0.7%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.0% in 2009 to 78.1% in 2024, down 11.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 11 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Buncombe County: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 17.6% in 2024, up 12.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Commute Start Times in Buncombe County
🦉Night OwlThe 2nd-latest start among North Carolina's 100 counties: half of commuters are still at home at 8:01 AM.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Buncombe County?
The bars show when commuters in Buncombe 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 North Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
Buncombe CountyNorth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Buncombe County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 6.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 49.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (28.8%) 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 Buncombe 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 Buncombe 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 Buncombe County next to North Carolina 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
Buncombe County
North Carolina
United States
2009
7:49 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:51 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:51 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:52 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:55 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:54 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:54 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:55 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:56 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:56 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:57 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:59 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
8:00 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
8:01 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
8:01 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
8:01 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Buncombe County were on the road by 8:01 AM, 12 minutes later than in 2009 (7:49 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Buncombe County now leave 23 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 Buncombe County has moved 4 minutes later.
How does Buncombe County's commute time compare?
Metric
Buncombe County
North Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
20.5 min
21.9 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
08:00 AM – 08:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
17.6%
16.3%
15.0%
Walked
1.9%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.7%
0.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Buncombe County is 20.5 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.
The share of commuters using public transit is about the same as North Carolina. 1.9% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.
Buncombe County, NC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Buncombe County, NC is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 274,254 residents against a local median of 44,809. Buncombe County, NC's work from home, at 17.6%, runs 69% above the 10.4% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves sit within 5.6% of each other on work from home, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Buncombe County, NC, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Buncombe County, NC has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Buncombe County, North Carolina.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Buncombe County, North Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 171 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,303 at a typical national wage. That's 6% less than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Buncombe County, North Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Buncombe County, North Carolina. 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 North Carolina?
Among counties in North Carolina, the shortest average commutes are in Macon County (17.2 min), Watauga County (17.2 min), Dare County (17.4 min). The longest are in Gates County (35.9 min), Currituck County (33.9 min), Tyrrell County (33.6 min).