Clay County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Clay County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Clay County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 156 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 3.2 minutes.

Clay County holds about 0.1% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Clay County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,932 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)
Clay County	18.7 min	37.4 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,831	1,142
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 18.7 minutes to get to work in Clay County. That's 17% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 86% of counties in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Clay County

• Car: 90.6%
• Worked at Home: 8.1%
• Other: 1.0%
• Walked: 0.2% unusually low
• 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 Clay County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

Walking is unusually rare in Clay County: 8.7 times less than the North Carolina average (0.2% vs 1.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Clay County: 9.6 times less than the North Carolina average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

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

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

Few people walk or bike to work in Clay County: just 0.2%, 9.7 times below the North Carolina average of 1.8%.

Commute Mode Trends in Clay County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Clay 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
• Other
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	93.9%	4.7%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%	0.0%
2010	95.1%	2.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%
2011	96.7%	1.7%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	97.5%	1.3%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	95.2%	2.1%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.6%
2014	94.9%	2.8%	0.7%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2015	96.6%	2.4%	0.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2016	92.1%	4.0%	1.4%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	91.3%	4.4%	2.1%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	92.8%	3.5%	1.5%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.5%	2.9%	2.1%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	88.5%	4.3%	3.5%	3.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	90.9%	4.6%	3.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	88.1%	7.2%	3.2%	1.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.8%	7.5%	3.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	90.6%	8.1%	1.0%	0.2%	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 was highest in 2012 at 97.5% and lowest in 2022 at 88.1%. Overall it fell from 93.9% in 2009 to 90.6% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points. It has risen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Clay County: its share of workers rose from 4.7% in 2009 to 8.1% in 2024, up 3.4 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 0.8% to 0.2% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Clay County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Clay County?

The bars show when commuters in Clay 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 Clay County2.4% North Carolina4.4%	2.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Clay County3.6% North Carolina3.5%	3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Clay County2.7% North Carolina4.6%	2.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Clay County7.6% North Carolina9.0%	7.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Clay County13.6% North Carolina10.2%	13.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Clay County16.6% North Carolina15.3%	16.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Clay County8.7% North Carolina12.8%	8.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Clay County10.0% North Carolina11.7%	10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Clay County6.0% North Carolina5.4%	6.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Clay County8.0% North Carolina6.4%	8.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Clay County6.6% North Carolina2.8%	6.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Clay County2.9% North Carolina1.4%	2.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Clay County6.6% North Carolina6.3%	6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Clay County4.6% North Carolina6.4%	4.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Clay County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 8.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 48.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (28.7%) 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 Clay 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 Clay 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 Clay 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.

• Clay County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Clay County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:36 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:56 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:49 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:56 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:53 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:49 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:42 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Clay County were on the road by 7:42 AM, 14 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 Clay County now leave 4 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Clay County's commute time compare?

Metric	Clay County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.1%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.2%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Clay County is 18.7 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.2% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau