Cleveland County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Cleveland County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Cleveland County spend about 43 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 178 hours, about 7.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

Cleveland County holds about 0.9% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Cleveland County would save about 71 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,204 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)
Cleveland County	21.3 min	42.7 min	178 hrs/yr	$5,509	937
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 21.3 minutes to get to work in Cleveland County. That's 5% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 6.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Cleveland County

• Car: 91.3%
• Worked at Home: 6.8%
• Walked: 1.3%
• Other: 0.6%
• 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 Cleveland County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

Public transit is unusually rare in Cleveland County: 143.5 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Cleveland County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Cleveland 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	94.6%	2.3%	1.4%	1.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	94.9%	2.3%	1.5%	1.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	94.5%	2.4%	1.8%	1.0%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.8%	2.4%	1.8%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	94.7%	2.3%	2.0%	0.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	94.7%	2.3%	2.1%	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	94.6%	2.3%	1.8%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	94.8%	2.4%	2.1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	95.0%	2.2%	1.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2018	95.2%	2.1%	1.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	94.5%	1.8%	2.3%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	93.4%	2.9%	2.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	92.8%	4.0%	2.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2022	91.3%	5.7%	2.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	91.0%	6.2%	2.0%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	91.3%	6.8%	1.3%	0.6%	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 was highest in 2018 at 95.2% and lowest in 2023 at 91.0%. Overall it fell from 94.6% in 2009 to 91.3% in 2024, down 3.3 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Cleveland County: its share of workers rose from 2.3% in 2009 to 6.8% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 2.7% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 1.3%.

Commute Start Times in Cleveland County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Cleveland County?

The bars show when commuters in Cleveland 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 Cleveland County5.3% North Carolina4.4%	5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Cleveland County4.8% North Carolina3.5%	4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Cleveland County6.3% North Carolina4.6%	6.3%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Cleveland County6.4% North Carolina9.0%	6.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Cleveland County7.6% North Carolina10.2%	7.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Cleveland County13.9% North Carolina15.3%	13.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Cleveland County20.0% North Carolina12.8%	20.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Cleveland County9.8% North Carolina11.7%	9.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Cleveland County4.8% North Carolina5.4%	4.8%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Cleveland County5.2% North Carolina6.4%	5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Cleveland County1.5% North Carolina2.8%	1.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Cleveland County0.9% North Carolina1.4%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Cleveland County6.1% North Carolina6.3%	6.1%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Cleveland County7.4% North Carolina6.4%	7.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Cleveland County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 20.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 16.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 51.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.0%) 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 Cleveland 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 Cleveland 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 Cleveland 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.

• Cleveland County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Cleveland County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:36 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:34 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Cleveland County were on the road by 7:39 AM, 6 minutes later than in 2009 (7:33 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Cleveland County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Cleveland County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does Cleveland County's commute time compare?

Metric	Cleveland County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.3 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	6.8%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.3%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Cleveland County is 21.3 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 1.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau