Cherokee County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Cherokee County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Cherokee 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 1.4 minutes.

Cherokee County holds about 0.3% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Cherokee County would save about 68 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,116 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)
Cherokee County	20.5 min	41.0 min	171 hrs/yr	$5,290	627
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.

Commute Time Map: North Carolina Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 20.5 minutes to get to work in Cherokee County. That's 9% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 70% of counties in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Cherokee County

• Car: 86.0%
• Worked at Home: 10.8%
• Walked: 2.1%
• Other: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Cherokee County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

Public transit is unusually rare in Cherokee County: 63016.5 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Cherokee County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

Biking is essentially absent in Cherokee County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

Commute Mode Trends in Cherokee County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Cherokee 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
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	96.9%	1.4%	1.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	96.4%	1.7%	1.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	96.6%	1.8%	1.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	95.2%	1.8%	2.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	94.7%	2.1%	2.2%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2014	92.7%	2.8%	3.4%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	91.3%	4.2%	2.7%	1.3%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	88.8%	6.0%	3.0%	1.6%	0.4%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	87.9%	6.9%	3.1%	1.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	89.6%	6.0%	2.6%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	88.3%	7.4%	2.0%	2.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	86.6%	8.5%	2.4%	2.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	87.7%	8.1%	1.6%	2.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	87.0%	8.5%	1.9%	2.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	85.3%	10.7%	2.1%	1.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.0%	10.8%	2.1%	1.2%	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 2023 at 85.3%. Overall it fell from 96.9% in 2009 to 86.0% in 2024, down 10.9 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Cherokee County: its share of workers rose from 1.4% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2024, up 9.4 percentage points.

Walking peaked at 3.4% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 2.1%.

Commute Start Times in Cherokee County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Cherokee County?

The bars show when commuters in Cherokee 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.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Cherokee County5.2% North Carolina4.4%	5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Cherokee County5.2% North Carolina3.5%	5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Cherokee County3.3% North Carolina4.6%	3.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Cherokee County7.9% North Carolina9.0%	7.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Cherokee County12.3% North Carolina10.2%	12.3%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Cherokee County13.3% North Carolina15.3%	13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Cherokee County17.0% North Carolina12.8%	17.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Cherokee County9.0% North Carolina11.7%	9.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Cherokee County5.3% North Carolina5.4%	5.3%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Cherokee County5.9% North Carolina6.4%	5.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Cherokee County1.8% North Carolina2.8%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Cherokee County1.6% North Carolina1.4%	1.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Cherokee County5.5% North Carolina6.3%	5.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Cherokee County6.8% North Carolina6.4%	6.8%

Cherokee County North Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Cherokee County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 13.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 51.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.6%) 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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee 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 Cherokee 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.

• Cherokee County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Cherokee County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:22 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:28 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Cherokee County were on the road by 7:35 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:28 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Cherokee County now leave 3 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 Cherokee County has moved 11 minutes later.

How does Cherokee County's commute time compare?

Metric	Cherokee County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.5 min	21.9 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	10.8%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Cherokee County is 20.5 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau